sorry , repost ignore this post
:hyper::hyper::hyper::banana::banana::banana: :beer: :beer: :beer:
My transmission is fixed!!!!! YAY!!!!!
Ok, here\'s the back story to this:
Car: 2001 VW Jetta TDI (diesel) with an automatic tranny with \"lifetime\" fluid.
The definition of \"lifetime\" being the \"lifetime\" of the 100k powertrain warranty. VW corporate doesn\'t want ANY maintenance done on the tranny, or they will void the powertrain warranty. To that end, most dealerships won\'t even admit that the tranny CAN be serviced, or if they do, they will want over $250 for the job.
Pretty nice racket, ehh? Most dealers look at the tranny as a magical one-piece unit that can only be REPLACED if there is a problem... To the tune of $3500.
So my car has 107k on it, the warranties are all expired now. Over the last few weeks, it has been acting VERY pissy, sometimes it\'s fine, other times it will suddenly lose all power and won\'t shift above 2nd gear. Sometimes when its in this \"low power\" state, just like flipping a switch, it will decide \"Oh, I\'m better now\" and you will zoom away, shifting normally. This thing has nearly gotten me killed several times, when I NEEDED the acceleration, it would decide \"I\'m broken\" and just not give me any power. Yipes.
So I just completed a fluid change and a VERY involved procedure to fill the fluid and get a proper level. (The dipstick, such as it is, is IN THE DRAINPLUG) and you have to have the car LEVEL, be UNDER it, with the engine RUNNING to test the fluid level. This MUST have been designed by a corporate weenie, no intelligent mechanic or engineer would EVER come up with something that ass-backwards.
Anyway, now the car seems to be running better than ever. I found an adjustment to the tranny line pressure that could be made while the pan was down, and for my adjustment, the car seems to have lowered the tach at 80mph by almost 250 rpm! YAY! It is shifting WAY more solidly than before, and the power feel is much stonger. I\'m betting on a big increase in MPG too, since now the tranny can go to Town Car lockup in all gears. Woohoo!
--Jim