The slippery slope ....?

Please advise. My Superb with the auto box has about 106k on the clock and just occasionally the reverse gear will engage before popping out, before popping in again .....

I have read about this on these pages previously but I am wondering if there is any action that can be taken to head this off early or is it the ineviatble decline of the gearbox. If this is the case, can I expect it to get worse (and over what time span?) and can I expect the forward gears to catch on to this idea.

I have owned the car for the last 18 months, think it is fantastic and fullly intended to take it with me to oz in the summer given the price of a nice european drive out there! this may make me reconsider.

i am booked i to my local independent volkswagen/audi man later in the week here in germany so he may have seen a few of these things and have some suggestions like the auto box fluid needs to be changed ....

cheers

phil

When I had a problem with a slipping forward gear in my old mondeo it was caused by a slipping brake band in the transmission. It should be a relatively cheap fix for an auto gearbox specialist. If you can find one of those locally rather than your usual independant mechanic then the diagnosis should be more accuate than someone who may not understand fully the auto box. Specialists deal with auto boxes day in and out, and when your indy mechanic might say it needs a new box, the specialist can usually fix the current one for a fraction of the price.

It will get worse over time, as the band slips it causes the transmission fluid to heat up and may cause the fluid to burn and therefore become useless.

When I had a problem with a slipping forward gear in my old mondeo it was caused by a slipping brake band in the transmission. It should be a relatively cheap fix for an auto gearbox specialist. If you can find one of those locally rather than your usual independant mechanic then the diagnosis should be more accuate than someone who may not understand fully the auto box. Specialists deal with auto boxes day in and out, and when your indy mechanic might say it needs a new box, the specialist can usually fix the current one for a fraction of the price.

It will get worse over time, as the band slips it causes the transmission fluid to heat up and may cause the fluid to burn and therefore become useless.

That's a possibility, but if you want the advice of someone whose had loads of automatics over the years, you'll get shot of it while the going's still reasonably good, personally I think it will be the torque converter, which will mean a full rebuild, but before you get 2k out to have it done beware of this, every time I've had one go the only true solution that lasts more than 10k miles is a factory recon, I can back this up experience as well, a friends 1.9 auto developed problems @ 93k, so he had it recon'd, after two attempts to get it sorted he traded the car in, there seems to be a difference between a box that is built at the factory, as opposed to one where a chap does it on a bench in a workshop, at the end of the day it's your choice, but I think you've arrived at a point in time where unless you can afford a box from Skoda, or can source a good S/H one, the car has to go.

Edited 23 March, 201016 yr by Supurbia

The torque converter is providing drive in both forward and reverse modes, so if there is no slippage in drive there is a multiplate clutch problem in the box. (I would be surprised if brake bands were still used).

Torque converter autos don't work well with decent diesel engines, which provide loads of torque at low input shaft revs - just when the torque converter is at its least efficient. 100k miles is about as long as they last - don't consider exporting one of these.

As a measure of the sheer inefficiency of these devices, compare the CO2 ratings for a 130 PS diesel Superb with manual and auto boxes. All of the wasted energy ends up as heat of course, which cooks the lot.

All new VAG diesels overcome this problem by using the DSG system which was developed for the purpose.

rotodiesel.

Do a search for 'carnet' before you consider exporting any car to oz - even one without such a serious problem

I agree with the other posters - it is probably time replace the box or sell.

I would check that the correct ATF is in the box and it may be worth replacing the fluid with VAG ATF, but I wouldn't hold out much hope. I have seen the wrong ATF cause such problems. The wrong ATF can get 'cooked'.

I can add a bit more on auto's for you to help.....

I had a Cavalier Diplomat automatic, I bought it and 2 weeks later she went limp, took it back, dealer sent it to a specialist, specialist replaced the 2 parts that the diagnostic said were playing up, gets the car back, 3 hrs later limps again, ended up having a full VX recon box, and this did exactly the same mileage as the original box before limping again.

Next up, my Omega 2.5 CDX Automatic, this one didn't limp, it started slipping at around 115k, but a mate had the 2.5 TD auto, 3 rebuilds in 150k before the car was written off by some kind individual.

So far touch wood, mines just turned 100k and is still ok, but I expect problems sometime around 120-130k if I still have it, but right now it seems to be a good box, and certainly better than the VX units.

Torque converter autos don't work well with decent diesel engines, which provide loads of torque at low input shaft revs - just when the torque converter is at its least efficient. 100k miles is about as long as they last - don't consider exporting one of these.

Mine is on 202k with the original box, working perfectly. Touch wood.