Automatic gearbox advice?

[dkenington]

Hi there,

I have just joined as I have purchased a green 1981 t25 2.0 air-cooled Westfalia, which is beautiful but has an automatic gearbox problem! It hasn’t totally failed yet, but it struggles to find forward gears (reverse is fine!), particularly when cold. Even when its warm, I find myself dreading any kind of hill as it slips… Looking back at the service history, its clearly been an identified problem for a while, which the previous owners lived with – but I’d like to get it sorted before planning any long trips. There is a lot of great advice on here about auto problems (thank you!), which I’ve done a lot of reading of the last few days.

I’d like to get it checked over by a professional – does anyone have any suggestions as to who in the London area might be good to take it to?

Also, albeit it’s probably unlikely, is there anywhere I might be able to get my hands on a good used replacement box? (I got excited when I read the same box was used in various vws and audis, but then read that a lot of the ancillary bits are specific to the t25…)

Thanks in advance for any advice,
David

[Sir Brixalot]

Hmm, had my fair share of autobox problems in the past. With me, the first sign of major problems was reverse gear. For starters have a look in the engine bay and there will be a dipstick for the automatic transmission fluid. If it's dark and/or smells burnt refresh the ATF. Also, change the ATF filter. Both are DIY jobs and straightforward. It may well be enough.

As you're in the south, do not go near Harry Harpics, who get good write-ups for air-cooled. They totally messed up my gearbox which only needed a seal and the owner's son then called me a begger when I asked for a reduction to the £1500 they charged me for a box which broke on a steep hill a couple of weeks later. It was also much harder for the specialist to repair what Harry Harpics had messed up and I had to pay again. I really should have gone to the small claims court.

To be honest, if I was you I'd get your own box rebuilt rather than look for a used box, they are rare and old. The seals inside are all pretty old now and a replacement box could fail pretty quickly. In the end, I used Wavertree Autos. They are honest and Iv,e seen a few others on the T25 forum on FB have had their boxes rebuilt

[Cobra88]

For David

quite handy and reasonably logical

this is what i used to work out my Auto box problems

Regards
Rick
http://rickpiper.cbfsim.org/files/010_t ... _guide.pdf

[Sir Brixalot]

Didn't you rebuild your own box Rick?

[Cobra88]

Yes i did.

not for the feint hearted for sure.

i don't know of any UK specialists that will touch one of these.
Sadly Aidan only does manuals as he is the only person i would trust to do the job properly.

i sourced all the parts i needed from Cobra transmissions in the USA (https://cobratransmission.com/index.php ... _1475_1476" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)

did mine twice before it was right and i have rebuilt many Autos in the past from Borg Warner & Getrag.

Im a Marine Engineer by trade and i did struggle a little with how VW designed the box.

[dkenington]

Hi both,

Thanks for your replies, particularly the troubleshooting guide and recommendations – really helpful. Now that I have driven it a little bit more, the issue does seem to be less of a problem when everything is up to working temperature, so it is driveable. I checked the ATF, which looks ok-ish but the level was very low – it needed a bit more than half a litre. It feels like it helped the issue, but it is clearly leaking quite a bit as there was a large wet patch underneath the next morning.

By coincidence (or maybe not, sounds like they have a good reputation), my MOT garage recommended Wavertree, so I’ve already spoken to Paul from there and have it booked in on Friday . I’ll remember what you said about rebuilding, as opposed to replacing if it comes to it…

Best wishes
David

[Sir Brixalot]

Are you in Kennington ?

[dkenington]

Ah no - Peckham, not far...

[Sir Brixalot]

Is Peckham inside ULEZ?

[dkenington]

It is yes, but the van will be 40 years old when it comes in so it will be exempt as it will be classified a historic vehicle then (TfL made this distinction in order to ensure we didn’t lose lots of classic cars from London)

So Wavertree say, as I suspected it needs a rebuild which will be about £1100 plus vat . Not too upset though as it’ll hopefully give peace of mind in future and having driven a manual t25 in London I reckon it’ll be good to have an auto.

[dkenington]

Realise you might be talking about the existing ulez, which Peckham isn’t in (I’m talking about when ulez expands to the north and south circular in October 2021)

[dkenington]

Hi all,
Quick follow up as the garage have the gearbox out and are preparing to do the rebuild on Friday. They mentioned that there is no oil cooler for the auto gearbox, and that there might have been one before and had been by-passed (he wasn't sure though). I wondered whether anyone knew whether an air-cooled t25 auto had a gearbox oil cooler?

He said I might want to consider putting in an oil cooler for the gearbox in future, as he didnt want me to have any gearbox over-heating issues in future. Do you think I will get overheating issues if there isnt one?

I found this thread from both Rick and Sir Brixalot, which is helpful. Rick, do you think putting in a cooler like the one you have put in would work? viewtopic.php?f=37&t=166782&p=8237582&h ... r#p8237582" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Cheers!
David

[Cobra88]

Hi David

Im pretty sure none of the Aircooled t3s have a transmission cooler

Only fitted on watercooled t3

I changed mine to avoid coolant getting into my auto box
It was working fine but they fail with age and for me 36 years is too risky

Unless your climbing mountains every day you will be fine with no cooler
I dont think the early box even has the drillings to fit a cooler so dont worry mate

Regards
Rick

[dkenington]

Hi Rick,

Thanks for that - thats good news! The plot thickens though as the garage rang me back - I think I didn't quite understand this before. Apparently while the Aircooled ones dont have an oil cooler, this one does as it is a watercooled gearbox! So clearly this is not the original gearbox. They say that the pipework for the oil cooler has just been bypassed - so there is a pipe coming out in a loop and goes back in.

Either way, he said it is unlikely that I will have an over-heating problem but I could add one if I wanted. I said not to for the moment, but I guess I could add one in future if I felt it might be useful to.

Cheers
David

[Cobra88]

Hi David

I know a couple of people running Watercooled NH coded autos same as mine with no cooler.

neither has any issues with overheating.


the good news is almost every part is available for NH coded box.
only about 50% of parts for the Aircooled

NG 06/79-10/82
NH 10/82-07/85
NK 07/85-

Regards
Rick