Gr8White

I'm trying to help a buddy with a 2000 A8L that he just bought non-running; when you put it in gear it feels like nothing is happening regardless of gear position. I pulled the following two codes:

17114 - Gear Ratio Monitoring: Incorrect Gear Ratio
P0730 - 35-00 - -
18243 - Pressure Control Valve 5 (N233): Short to Plus
P1835 - 35-10 - - - Intermittent

I checked the wiring harness at both the tranny end as well as at the computer end. The computer end had a measurable amount of water inside the "weatherproof" box but the computer was not in the water. I cleaned everything up, used my VCDS software to check the solenoids; everything seemed to be alright and I no longer have those codes but it still feels like nothing is going on regardless of gear position. When I look at the shifter position on VCDS, it is showing the correct gear selection. I also dropped the pan and checked the resistance of each solenoid and valve on the valve body and the screens were clean. Fluid level/condition were good. I'm really at a loss as to what the next step should be. Is there anyone out there that could help point us in the correct direction? Thanks. . .

jakematic

This may be a dumb question, but are all the gear indicator lights light up on the dash ?

Gr8White

After cleaning everything up and clearing the codes, it stays out of limp home mode and no codes return. It's as though the car thinks everything is fine when in reality the transmission will not move.

jakematic

Time to turn on the bat signal and see what tozoM8 has to say....

Gr8White

? ? ? ?

tozoM8

So you have it in D, reving it and it doesn't move? It should trigger the 730 code again. Is reverse still works? Did someone removed the valve body?

Gr8White

No codes are being tripped. And when I look at the live sensor data with VCDS, the input speed in RPM's registers in both forward and reverse and returns back to zero in park and neutral. Even when in gear, it feels as though it is in neutral and the speedometer does not move either.

I don't know much about the history of the car and I don't know if the valve body has ever been removed. I'm at a loss right now and I don't know what to look at next.

tozoM8

Reverse is on a different clutch so it should work. Did you fill it up properly (fill it until overflows, start in P, fill it more, go to R.....N....D....R....P and top it off, put the fill plug back and stop)?

Gr8White

The car was acting-up as described prior to draining the fluid and dropping the pan. I had checked the fluid level/condition prior to draining the transmission and everything appeared normal.

I did not bother putting everything back together and doing the refill since I have not found the source of my problems yet.

Tozo, hypothetically, if someone was messing around, pulled the valve body, and did not get the gear selector lined up properly when reinstalling the valve body, would it behave as described?

In other words, when VCDS show gear position, is it going off the shift lever or is it actually reporting the position from inside the transmission? I don't think that this would be the problem as VCDS shows the input speed at zero in neutral and park but then changes when in drive or reverse.

The other thought that I had was that the pump volume control valve failed. Would a failure of the pump volume control valve render the transmission unresponsive?

tozoM8

You can disconnect the cooler line from the radiator and start the car for a second. If there is fluid everywhere then the pump works. If the manual valve in the valve body is not engaged with the shifter the car will not more D or R.