A8CT

From what I have read, the transmission seems to be the weak point on the A8's. Is this true on
all years ? I'm looking at a 2000 and wondering
if both the total failure and torque converter/hesitation issues have been rectified. Any advise would be appreciated. I'm sure you've beaten this subject to death by now. Also, someone mentioned a "waterloo" checklist in a
previous post. Is this an actual checklist for
evaluating a used A8 or am I totally off base ?

Thanks to all...

Karpedmman

I have a '97 with 160k on the odometer and have not had any problems with the tranny.
The "waterloo" checklist comes from the A8 God - Paul Waterloo - http://www.audipages.com/usedA8.html
Wish I would have had it when I bought my car! Good Luck with the purchase! It is a great car!

skiracer

and the transmission should last as long as can be expected. The majority of the failures I've seen on this forum have either been under warranty or at 80->100,000+ miles and no fluid changes. I'm sure that there are exceptions, but I think that the percentage of A8s with transmission problems have been exagerated by the amount of discussion on this forum. My 1997 A8 (supposedly the worst year for tranny problems) has well over 90K miles on it and no sign of impending failure (knock on wood!!).

hessteh@aol.com

I just noticed in my wife's 1995 A6 that the owners manual calls for changing the ATF @45,000 miles!! What,if any, valid technical reason is there for NOT recommending this for the A8? Probably isn't any. Are the trannys in the A6 and A8 both made by ZF?? Then, why does Audi NOT recommend changing the A8 ATF? Are they looking for future service revenue?

skiracer

Very good question, unknown answer. Both are ZF trannys as far as I know.

JimR

And most of you know what I think of that.

If you drive at all hard, I say 30,000 miles, but I'm pretty conservative. And I saw what my '99 A6's fluid looked like at 60k, and it had one drain (partial) and refill (no filter) at about 30k.

skiwi

most likely both are zf tranny's, although, unless you have the 4.2l v8, they will be different models, 5hp24a for the v8 models and 5hp19a for the other 5-speed v6's. do you have the transmission codes?

dave
'01 s8

Tekwon-V

i've been reading up on the whole A8 tranny horror stories and the rule of thumb seems to be......"AOA saids it's lifetime but you should do it every now and then"

is this something a non-dealership mechanic would be able to do? and how much would be for? for my honda prelude.... it's about 40bucks for drain-and-fill.

JimR

The filter and gasket are around $30-$35, and the ATF is around $12-$14/liter, and you need seven. Add some labor and you're there.

That Pentosin ATF is liquid gold.

my97A8

My 97 has 66k and I've changed the fluid twice. The first out of necessity, (the old screeching sound) the second as a precautionary measure. Mine seems fine, however, I am not total pleased with the way the car upshifts and downshift. I have the 00012 code and would like to recode to the 00011 code as discussed on this board.