Peter J.

As the previous owner of a BMW 740iL I heard all the horror stories about changing transmission fluid.."It's lifetime...don't touch it!!" and if you dared touch it only use the "BMW" fluid that is priced like liquid gold. I sourced a Petro Canada fluid that met the BMW/Esso spec at 25% of the cost...and was Full synthetic as opposed to the OEM semi synthetic. I changed the transmission fluid several time as I don't believe any fluid is lifetime. (As an aside, BMW now refers to their fluid as "long life" not lifetime). When I sold my BMW it had 340,000 km on it and the transmission was shifting smoother than ever.

I used an independent transmission shop that has been in business over 25 years. The owner has been to ZF, and is "factory trained" and gets regular updates. When I asked him about "lifetime" fluid he said "100,000 miles is lifetime" and also said "lifetime" fluid was great for his business as he gets numerous rebuilds on higher mileage transmissions.

dvs_dave

Ok, more involved with the 10 and 12 cyl, but it's still not something that should be a "very expensive" procedure.

And you're mistaken on the fluid. See here.
https://www.audiworld.com/forums/a8-...truth-2882676/

Redline D6 (and others) are LF6, LF6+/8 equivalents. Nothing magic about these trannies, despite what the Internet says. Use the proper spec fluid, whatever label/price it has and you're good to go.

MP4.2+6.0

Yeah, I know you wrote the long piece, but I don't think Audi would still have the 6+ around along side the 8 if they thought they were the same. Given its probably a $6000 type tranny for ZF rebuilt and R&R, I'll choose not to take chances on the "just as good as"/"same as" that ultimately is at my risk in practical terms of any later fluid disputes. Further confusion comes in here on 6/6+/8 too when they used ZF8 in some six speeds, though that was 4.2 Q7 w/ Aisin trans. IIRC. Similarly, I don't take chances on the endless "cheap" control arms for that matter, but others do and think its fine or they look the same or its the right value choice. You are a big fan of the Redline stuff; so be it.

Let's not get lost on the Redline diversion though. In context, I think you are mistaken about what I was even referencing. Please read my reply again, and read the take off point at post 18 that several of us have commented on. Where it says "valvoline maxlife (rated to the LT71141 spec)." Unless we have our spec numbers mixed up, that is ZF5/older 5 speed fluid he put in. I have never read like anywhere a claim that 5, 6 and 8 are all somehow magically the same and one size fits all fluid wise. And having owned one of the 5 speed pieces of junk and had the same experience many if not most did of it blowing up around 100K miles give or take, the farther away I can get from anything having to do with that era the better.

Meanwhile, we're quibbling on "expensive"? In plain English, the one hour estimate was well off the mark for W12s or S8s. Labor cost is meaningful in the equation on the bigger motor ones w/ a pan drop. Beyond the other reply's detail, but it could be it was either a 1x fluid change or as many as 3x if it went down the hoot type path or thorough change. Then the fluid $ get bigger depending on choices made, and even retail vs. discounted on the official stuff, and the labor adds up w/ the multiple cycles, in between run time, etc.

dvs_dave

Yes I wrote that piece to shed some truth and facts on the matter. Your choice to ignore it and carry on buying into the protectionism being peddled by ZF and Audi though. Gold, Green, Blue, TCU flashes, nothing but smoke and mirrors.

Correct spec fluid is correct spec fluid, regardless of the label.

MP4.2+6.0

See my revised thread. Again, put aside the Redline stuff. Read it in context...LT71141. So, either you skipped right over that on the way to the Redline sale, or you are suggesting LG 5 is now all the same too? Before the diversion, that's what the guy said he put into his tranny, and on which several of us commented in context.

What I care about is accurate information. I think you have Redline scope lock and are missing things like which spec it is, which tranny, etc.

FWIW, I think the reference to the blue fluid and the TCU flash (meaning the hoot TSB logically) all being smoke and mirrors and part of the grand protectionism scam is also "interesting." Let's see, Audi, and BMW, and Jag and... all put out TSB's about the "hoot" issue, plus the book Hyundai wrote about it. In the case of Audi, BMW and Jag (then owned by Ford), they all came out basically the same and suggested fluid swap and reflash. So were they all doing ZF's bidding? And they all thought they would write TSBs--none of which are worded very similarly if you look at them--and they would all then cover a bunch of fluid changes and refreshes under warranty. Pretty weird conspiracy to me to spend a whole bunch of money by the manufacturers... Yes, I think in fact the hoot issue is overdone at times and not the magic elixir either, but that's a whole lot different than painting things as protectionist scams and other dark thoughts. Devalues the recommendations to me.

dvs_dave

Not sure what you're talking about? Redline D6 is not compatible with LG5 applications, or any ZF 5HP application for that matter. They have their D4 product for that.

D6 is for LG6-LG8 applications. Those ATF's all have overlapping specs. One doesn't simply pick up where the other leaves off. D6 (and others, just Redline products are readily available in the US) are formulated to perform in that common spec overlap. If you don't believe that to be the case then that's your prerogative, but understand that such a blinkered opinion is not helpful either.

Anyway, I think we're done here.

seattlematt

Just to beat a dead horse, I am in the process of doing this job as well, will post some pics shortly.

I had some holdups with my process due to ECS https://www.ecstuning.com/ES2739243/ which was shipped with a rusty filter and the wrong gasket for my D3. The gasket should be paper 24 hole, not rubber 13 as shown in the pic.

So I have it all torn down, draining, waiting for the correct gasket to be shipped.

MP4.2+6.0

Too bad on your gasket. I similarly ran into that issue even w/ a ZF supplier. They don't seem to get that the Audi application is the paper one and has more holes. I ended up with a metal one, with likewise fewer holes from the ZF place. They suggested I just make more holes. That was pretty out to lunch I thought. Meantime, while the kit price is certainly reasonable, but seems awfully generic when you have the wrong gasket, the rusty filter and then the 8L of fluid you won't possibly get in there on one fill. Unless you spill a bunch, even with a pan pull and thus more fluid drained from very bottom of it, its going to be 6-7L. The rest of it will be in the torque converter.

FWIW, if you have followed some of these threads and really want to get it better cleaned out, consider a second fill right behind the first one. The second time just drain and re fill with no pan pull or filter replace. If you do that, you basically just start it up, pump in the extra (but don't set level yet by letting extra run out at the target temp), let it circulate and then drain it again. With no pan pull you will need about a liter less for that drain--call it 12 L expected, 13L to be safe for a 2x cycle. That gets you to about 80% cumulative drain. A 3x cycle gets to about 90%.

carl viking

So this may be true for the V8s, def not for the W12s. The fluid alone is $30+ /liter. You need 9-10 for a complete refill. Yes, we went with AUDI OEM. Could you use other fluid? Yes, absolutely.

Since I do not have a lift I had my independent do that work. Labor is more than an hour because you have to remove the exhaust. Also turned out my entire pan was slightly warped, yielding the annoying slow leak I have had for a year.

haggisuk

Can you quantify your statement with experience of ****ty shifting after putting another oil than what was specified by the Manufacturer.

The reason I ask is many of us have a belief in what were are told by dealers or manufacturers to be the truth, often is they are only looking after there profit margins.

MP4 has done extensive research into this in the past and like he has found out, the recipe is no longer in a vail of secrecy and therefore other oil manufacturers can make and sell the same spec oil for a fraction of the price.

I am needing to do this oil change and want to cut through the gossip, hearsay and bull.

If you have experience of the wrong oil not performing as expected then please do say.

I have further evidence to suspect we are being fed corporate bull as far as the oil is concerned.

Here in the UK we have a Genuine VAG distributor of spares to mainly the trade.

If I do a search for fluids on their site its does not list genuine ZF fluid for the trans, why you might ask?

I think its because of what MP said about patent or copyright has expired and they are free to do whatever.

The oil they recommend is Transmax Dex III Multivehicle

link to site