I finally changed my transmission fluid on my a6 and everything worked out great. The car currently has 146,000 miles. The car is running better than it ever has. Shifting feels so much easier. I am so glad I listened to those of you who said to change it.

 

way to go bud.. my transmission is shifting rough under hard acceleration... vag com said that my fluid is low... thinking about either adding some or flushing the whole thing... what do you think... i have a 2000 a6 4.2 with 145,000 miles.

 

Did you just just do it? Give it a couple weeks and report back.

 

Are you actually praying that in a couple of weeks his car will start shifting roughly again just to prove that the fluid change doesn't matter?

The instant improvement in his car actually shows that the "lifetime fluid" is an urban legend, or a "come to our stealerships later and spend big bucks to replace a faulty tranny" ploy.
Even if after two weeks the shifting reverts to a rougher endeavor, he can change it one more time and rid of the gunk left behind in the converter this time around.

 

So....a car's lifetime of tranny fluid changes and maintenance about equals the price of a new transmission after 200K, so what are we arguing about anyhoo? I think that we can conclude that you either do the transmission fluid regularly or never touch it, agreed?

I thought it was funny when you brought up the stealership because the best way to get money is to nickle and dime people and doing transmission fluid changes is exactly one of those services that many other companies do. I see it that Audi tried to limit the amount of maintenance we have to do on our vehicles, they're bad enough as it is. Many people who have owned cars (mainly American cars) who regularly change the fluid see it as a natural part of car maintenance (because that's what the American stealerships wanted us to think, eh?), but couldn't you see this as just another way to be nickle and dimed? Obviously many of us here have Audi's with original transmissions with 150K, 200K+ so there is some legitimacy to their claim of "lifetime" blah blah blah.

So basically: there is always another side to any argument and to not completely assess the situation is showing that you're a biased bigot (i'm seriously not bashing anyone, i just can't think of a better word). Again, it makes complete sense that you should change your transmission fluid and I think that yes, if it starts to get bad once again that he should do another flush and clean it out again. I'm just looking at the overall in the longterm (especially buying the specialty tools and crap) and I don't know if it's worth it. Mostly for this guy, he was having no problems and thought that he should change it, he might end up spending a lot more money having to flush the system a few times and perhaps things will go more wrong after that. You don't take cold medicine unless you're feeling the symptoms.

I will give major credit in the fact that he says it's shifting much better. If I had the money and time, I probably would do the same.

 

I'm not trying to bash anyone either, but isn't pretty much what you alluded to with your "give it two weeks and then talk"?
So you can freely and completely assess that the "lifetime fluid" is lifetime without being a bigot, yet someone else with an opposite view is bigot...
That's really the exact definition of bigotry, isn't it?

Blah, blah, blah, indeed

 

Definitely agreed. It's interesting to think about why they labeled their system lifetime. Could other systems be labeled the same if they were never touched as well? I mean perhaps it was more a way of them cutting corners than anything. Whether or not this correctly assumes "lifetime" is up to anybody's judgment. Obviously keeping your tranny fluid clean, and thus keeping your transmission running nicely, will keep the car in a better state of performance than not ever changing it. (bolded for the googlers who only read stuff in bold)

I think for a lot of people the trade off of never having to deal with it (again, for the most part) is a reasonable one at best. It's certainly one of those "out of sight, out of mind" things where if you can't tell, then why fix it, eh? For most of us on here, we like our performance and keeping EVERYTHING on our cars in the tip top shape is important, so obviously getting a little bit more performance out of our tranny is akin to buying premium gasoline; you don't need to, but you know you should and you'll generally do it for the long-term.

 

audirocks,

I'm wondering what exactly your VAG-COM said about the transmission fluid level?
(Mine is silent about the level so far).

nm3210,
Other system labeled "for life" is the cooling system.
As the procedure for transmission maintenance is well described in ALL manuals, the Audi dealerships do not have price list for it!
As many times stated here- ZF recommends service at 80k km.
I did twice ATF change in the last 20k km - it is my firm believe the fluid gets vaporized- about 200 cc for that mileage. How important is the fluid level - one could guess only.

 

I hope to prove to everyone that my car will last longer than two weeks. The whole point of changing my fluid was to make it last longer. Just so everyone knows the parts I replaced were the trans filter with o-ring gasket, pan gasket, drain plug with gasket, Fill plug O ring, and about 5.75 quarts of fluid. All parts cost about $126. Partsquick.com had the fluid for $9.50 a quart wich $57 for 6 quarts. Audi dealorship sold me fill plug o-ring and drain plug with gasket for about $16. I got the transmission filter and gasket set for $44 from advance auto parts. The actual Pump to put the fluid in was $9 from Pep Boys. The whole process took me about three hours. I think if your car is running rough it is worth a shot to replace the transmission fluid and filter. Do not ever flush a transmission because there would be no way to get the metal residue off the bottom of the pan and filter

 

And here in lies the truth: Most OEMs consider 80-100K as 'lifetime'... Personally, changing tranny fluid every 60k is the safest bet and prolly the best thing you could do.

jason: What was the condition of the old fluid? Was there much crud in the pan? If the fluid was still clear (not brown/burt) and the pan had only a slight coating, then the single change will most likely be fine. Otherwise a second one in ~3k would be in order.