Hi all... I am having a problem, and I heard this was the place to go. I purchased a 98 A4 1.8T Quattro last August, and when I was having an "ex" friend inspect it, he attempted to run the **** out of it, and he stripped the third gear completely. This car has an upgraded T2/T3 turbo along with a stage five clutch and exhaust, and she will move... or at least she did. Anyway, I had a replacement trans put in. This trans came from a respected audi forum member that a friend of mine knows quite well. I had a local auto shop that this car had been taken to for years, and had the new trans put in. About a month or two later, I was pulling into my college campus and while i was travelling at about 15mph in 2nd gear, it felt like i hit a bump, but there was no bump. The car was still running, but it would not go into any gears. I think it may be the short shifter, because my friend and I both felt the installer had trouble putting it in. However, when I went to take the car back to them, they had shut down and sold the shop while i was at college. The car will start up, the shifter will at least go into the gear slots correctly, but nothing will catch. I don't think its the trans, because u can usually still somewhat use at least one gear. Not to mention, there was no leakage after the breakdown. Before I start pulling out the console to look at the short shifter... Any ideas?
And to add to that... the battery went dead almost immediately after that incident... may have been coincidence, because it was an old battery. But I have let the motor run some since then

Thanks

 

Got new battery and it fired up first try. But i was shifting into gears without clutch and there was no grind... maybe because i wasn't moving at all. But none of the gears catch. Could that be a clutch problem?

 

the cheapest thing to look at first is your shifter. quit whining and rip that console apart. its alot easier then dropping the transmission out, and you would have to take it apart in order to do that anyways. so this is where you need to start.

yes its going to take an hour to get it all apart and look at it, go get your hands dirty.

this could be a zero-$100 repair, if its inside the trans, your looking at $1000 minimum so keep your fingers crossed its just a sh*tty linkage

 

I posted with a guy awhile ago and I think he had pretty similar symptoms (it was pretty confusing). This may sound odd, but go check all of thehalf shafts. This is the shaft from the differential out to the wheel (has a CV joint on each end). You will want to check all four of them assuming you have quattro. If one of the shafts is broken, all of the power goes to that one shaft but you don't get anything out to any of the other wheels. It seems like everything is working ok, but the car won't move.

 

Good call. I had a Boxster on my lift once that both axles unbolted from the flanges while the customer was driving. The car went into gear, but wouldn't move.

However, if the axles popped out of the trans itself, you'd see gear oil everywhere. Could simply be a destroyed CV, as it is a BT 1.8.

Another possibility is a broken clutch fork, but definitely check the linkages first.

 

You were absolutely right. The front drivers side was disconnected from the trans. I will try reconnecting it, and let you know how it goes.

Thank you all very much.
Greatly appreciated

 

damn, this site is great!

 

Finally was able to get to it... it worked and it is back on the road... thanks for all the help