mpf

hey everyone,

i just purchased a used 2003 a4 with cvt. i was looking for a nice, fuel efficient car for use as a daily driver. the car has 99000kms (62000miles) and drives normally. no flashing PDRN on the info display and the transmission shifts smoothly and the engine pulls nicely.

i have now read about and talked to an audi service dept about the transmission valve body/tcm problems associated with the 2002-2006 cvt cars.

i plan to immediately do a drain & fill with audi cvt transmission fluid.

is anyone aware of any other preventitve maintenance i can do? i was initially thinking about getting the car chipped but it might not be a good idea...anyone have experience with tuning these cars?

is there anyone who has a positive experience...that has owned one of these cars and had no problems with the cvt? is it certain that all cvts will fail? thanks in advance...i was so excited about this car and i don't want to lose sleep over the cvt!

mike

jschick

you should be fine, I beleive the key is the fluid changes, their are guys who are pushing for 40k mile fluid changes on the cvt. I have always stayed away from them but I also just picked up a 03 with the cvt, mine has 84k miles and I also plan on doing the fluid change and hopefully the unitronics stage 1+ tune.

but if mine fails I will swap it with a manual tranny!!

Prospeeder

Its amazing how quick CVT makes the 1.8T, I hope you guys have good luck with them, im not sure I would push chipping it, there pretty weak as it is.

mpf

yeah...i don't think i will add the chip. i was really excited about this car but have to say with the cvt issue in the back of my head all the time i wish i got a quattro instead. good news is so far the fuel efficiency is excellent, i got 7.8l/100km on hte first tank (mostly highway driving). there is a local tuner here that does custom tuning so i could try to get a slightly less boosted tune...maybe keep the torque in the 200-210lbs/foot range but why bother i guess. i picked up some sweet b8 17s so it will look pretty good...now i need to do something about the stereo.