Help! Broken down in Southampton, auto gearbox problems!

[winthorpe]

Hey everyone, I'm new to the club, had my 1.9 watercooled auto vw for 2 months now

I was wondering of anyone can help? I'm stuck in totton, nr Southampton and she won't change gear. Just 1st and reverse are working, need to get back to Brighton! We set off this morning, and after around 20 miles, when in drive, it was jumping erratically between gears. Now its just in 1st... Does anyone have any ideas? Any help would be much appreciated, still got a lot to learn with this baby, she's a beauty when she works! ;
Cheers! Louis

[R0B]

Those sound like the exact symptoms my old auto box had.After removing the plate on the base i found the atf filter had part disintegrated and must of blocked the oilways.I replaced the box.

[winthorpe]

Thanks for getting back mate.. Ah, so pretty serious then? :-0 Eek. How much did your new box cost?

[kit]

Priority must be getting home, are you in the AA/RAC ?

[winthorpe]

Yeah I was supposed to be at work at 5.. That didnt happen! Got a gig tomorrow though so need it working by then if possible... Luckily a friend lived nearby so I drove in 1st to hers.. Would rac be able to temporarily fix it? I have it but it'll cost me £85 for a call out... Ah that wonders of buying second hand cars :-S

[winthorpe]

*and having little to no experience in such matters!

[mm289]

First (and only) thing you can do is check fluid levels, dipstick is on l/h side as you look from back, check with engine warm, running and transmission in park or neutral.

If fluid looks clean (reddish) and is at or about the right level the you are probably looking at an internal failure in the transmission.

It is possible to drop the sump and change the aforementioned filter and fluid if it looks dirty or smells burnt but TBH that will rarely clear a fault.

Replacement auto box's do come up, expect to pay £200 - £400, the transmission you are looking for is an "NH" code (the auto's for a 2.0 Aircooled and 2.1 watercooled are different). Transmission code is under the n/s drive shaft on the lower side of the transmission.

Sorry

MM

[82JEW75]

I can't confirm this, having never had an auto box to try it with, but a piece of advice given for Land/Range Rovers is as follows:

Put it into first/drive.

Get up to a decent speed (30mph if poss).

Throw it into reverse.


Apparently this has a pretty good chance of clearing the crap that's blocked the valves in the auto box, though as I said, I've never tried and accept no responsibility (also, might only work on LR boxes), but it might be worth a try if the box is considered to be "dead"?

Or, strip, clean and rebuild.

[R0B]

Really. I would of thought that would cause more damage than solve anything.

Put it into first/drive.

Get up to a decent speed (30mph if poss).

Throw it into reverse.

[jamesc76]

I can't confirm this, having never had an auto box to try it with, but a piece of advice given for Land/Range Rovers is as follows:

Put it into first/drive.

Get up to a decent speed (30mph if poss).

Throw it into reverse.


Apparently this has a pretty good chance of clearing the crap that's blocked the valves in the auto box, though as I said, I've never tried and accept no responsibility (also, might only work on LR boxes), but it might be worth a try if the box is considered to be "dead"?

Or, strip, clean and rebuild.

DO NOT DO THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It will trash the gearbox massively!! when you go into park there is a mechanical pawl that engages to stop the vehicle moving this will get smashed to bits and wreck what might be a salvageable box!

[82JEW75]

Note I said reverse, not park, don't let go of shifter or it will indeed go bang.

As I said, I've never seen the T25 shift layout, nor have I tried this in anger. Have tried using reverse on an auto box to slow down when driving offroad though and it does work.

Personally, I'd strip the box and clean, but I thought I'd pass on the above as it was passed to me in good faith and is apparently proven to work. I've never been brave enough to try it myself.

From a mechanical point of view, I can understand why it might work, but I suspect a lot will depend on how the box functions.

Perhaps I should be more clear, only consider trying this if you're about to buy a new box.

[winthorpe]

Thanks so much for the advise guys, I think I'm gonna strip, clean and rebuild it, my friends a mechanic so he can give me a hand tomorrow I like the ballsy reverse idea but think the safe option is best as I'm not 100% on what condition the box is in. Good to know if I ever get really stuck though!

Just to clarify, I should never put it into neutral or park when going at high speeds right?

[mm289]

Hi,

for clarification, you can change into Neutral whilst moving (although not sure why you would want to) you must NEVER go into Park whilst moving. As James said, park engages a physical lock which is why you can use it instead of a handbrake (as most auto drivers do ) so if you go into park whilst moving the box will go BANG.

To be fair 82JEW75 said go from drive to reverse not park, but i still wouldn't do this on this or most auto boxes ever, unless you know your box specifically allows it. Some of the later electronic boxes, for example do, it used to be a cool trick when selling Chrysler Voyagers that you could be driving along and flick the transmission into reverse at any speed - I never had the nerve mind you, but was shown it by one of the factory engineers in Austria - the box was effectively "fly by wire" and the electronics stopped the box from actually changing.

Back to your problems, I don't want to rain on your parade (which I feel like I am doing) but be VERY careful if you plan on doing a "strip, clean and rebuild". Most mechanics won't touch auto box's as they can be a bit complex.

You can drop the sump, change the filter and replace the fluid no probs. When you drop the sump you will see the valve body, if your really brave you can take this out and clean it but be VERY CAREFUL as it has little springs and ball bearings which will make an determined bid for freedom and once you loose them or don't put them back in the same place your box will never work again

You can check the pressure in the box and adjust the brake bands as described in Bentley but again that tends to be pretty specialist and not something your average mechanic does.

A full strip is a specialist job in an auto tranny repair shop, there are a few around but most of them have long since stopped doing these sort of boxes and got rid of all the special tooling. I keep an eye out for this tooling myself but have not yet come across any

Sorry if that sounds not very encouraging, just want you to make sure you know what you are getting into

Cheers,

MM

[winthorpe]

Thanks for all the info mm289, helped clarify lots of stuff! I had a feeling it was a pretty big job! Luckily (and I mean luckily!) my mechanic friend knows an auto tranny specialist and he just so happened to grow up with my exact model! It's in there at the moment, he said upon early inspection that the governor (?) is full of crap, he's tracking down a replacement One as we speak. What worried me was that he said the diff Gears may also be worn down, so even if the governor was replaced it wouldnt take long for the problem to come back. Have to wait and see I guess..

Just to say I don't know what I'd do without this forum, it's so good to have people in the know, makes me feel less alone in my predicament, and nice to have some straight up answers as It's hard to get all the info out of a mechanic sometimes! Thankyou all for your help, here's hoping I get lucky.. If not I might have a project van for one of you!

[R0B]

I have my old gearbox here.If you want any bits off it.