JA6X

Greetings all,

I've had my 2000 A6 4.2 for 11 months. Really love the car, FWIW it's Casablanca White/Melange, and currently has 133K on the clock. About two weeks ago, with absolutely no warning, the TIP decided to seriously act up. Best analogy I can come up with, and yes I stole this from another post but don't know where and by whom, my apologies, is a newbie learning to drive a manual. They have a tendency to feed the gas too fast and let out the clutch too slow, then it will engage with a bang. I did the requisite Trans Service, and when I dropped the pan, nothing looked too bad, the magnets looked average, perhaps 1/8 - 3/16ths of "porcupine", and the fluid was dark, but not opaque. Did a re-drain and fill about a week later. Used RedLine's D4 both times as recommended by Griffin Motorwerke, who has never steered me in the wrong direction over the course of the past 30 years. Well, the service didn't do much, and the TIP has its good and bad days, sometimes it will act normal, others, well, I've become a bit familiar with Limp Mode. So now I figure the TiP is at the end of it's useful life, and while I was just going to have Griffin rebuild it, upgraded of course, the Mod bug snuck in and I got to thinking to myself "self, why don't you do a 6-speed Manual?"

Just a little history, this is my first Audi, and the car was given a clean bill of health by Griffin when I purchased it 28K miles ago. I come to you from the BMW camp, having owned E30, E36, E34, E38, and an E46, and wasn't able to find an E46 iX. I really needed AWD this time around. Mechanically, other than the TIP issue, the car is mechanically sound, so to me, it's worth the cost and effort of replacing the transmission.

So having read the forums here and at AZ, that seems to be the direction I'm headed. I've already spoken with Phil and Bryan over at Audis5Parts, and will be purchasing the swap kit in the next few days, I may try and get the car to limp to Tucson, as they have the best R&R labor price so far. I've also spoken with JHM and they assure me they can recode the ECU to make this work. Unfortunately, I have the worst MY to do this swap.

Normally I would tackle this on my own, and it would have been fun to do a DIY, but I'm pretty busy, and have shoulder surgery coming up at the end of the month, so I will have to leave it to the pro's. It will get done at one of three places: JHM, Audis4Parts, or Griffin.

Wish me luck, I'll keep you posted as to how it all shakes out. I'll be posting this over at AZ too.

Joe

Pchelka01

Hi Joe,
That's quite a task to tackle, the only guy I know of achieving this in a 4.2 is Gabor or Tozo is his user name, he usually hangs out in the a8 d2 forum, he knows the Audi transmissions inside out, so he's the guy to go to if you have any questions, he's kinda hard to miss because Everybody knows him

Teutonix

I did this swap myself several years ago... It's not really that terribly difficult, just time consuming. It sounds like you're talking to the right people about doing it for you, so I think you're on the right path.

Side note: 28k miles in 11 months, if I'm reading correctly? Too much windshield time for me.

JA6X

You interpreted that correctly, 28K in 11 months, I drive a lot, and those miles are just for this car LOL. Recently did a Banzai trip to Chicago and back in 68 hours to pick up something a bit more interesting for my brother.

How do you like the conversion? I'm thinking it will transform the car into something that'll be a lot more fun to drive.

Pchelka01

Which tranny did you use?

Teutonix

It was pretty nice. The low-end torque was the best part. In the end, I still prefer a turbo engine, so I only drove the car for about a year before selling.


An 01E 6spd from a 2.7t A6. It was a while ago, so I don't remember the specific code. I pulled the entire drivetrain from a donor car. I sold the 6spd 4.2 car to a private party about 2 years ago.

About 1-2 years prior to this, I built a v8/5-speed '92 100cs quattro avant. That car was actually more fun than the later A6 V8 6-spd.

Gecko Asiks

If you haven't seen it, this may be of interest?

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tulli...C/206339962785

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...9962785&type=3

JA6X

OK, the time has finally come to kick off this project. I got the swap kit from Brian at Audis4parts and have chosen JHM to do the swap. JHM, as of Monday, has the car and will be commencing the project. Of course, I couldn't leave well enough alone, and we're doing a bunch of other stuff as well. Working with Jason and Dru at JHM, we're looking into a big brake kit (with the Porsche Brembo calipers) and hoping to make this a reality. Will keep you guys posted on the progress. JHM will have the car for at least the next 3 weeks.

The main factor in choosing JHM, was the ECU was going to have to go there anyway, and as Dru explained, the fact they would have the ECU on site for 3 weeks would result in what can effectively be called a custom tune, as they will have the opportunity to make tweaks, run the car and make further tweaks as needed. I can't wait to get her back.

Joe

GTA_Driver

Thanks for keeping us posted.

The 4.2 came with a 6-speed in Europe, so they definitely have programs for the ECU to handle this. One option is to check with MTM, since it's a German tuner, about using their ECU or program.

Just Me

Not sure what the question is in this, but a few comments:

1. The torque converters are the known weak point. You cna have it rebuilt.
2. Many, many people have done MT6 swaps. Most S6s. I understand there is even a kit, or so i heard - search here and on other similar forums (hint, hint)
3. If you do the swap, other things change. For example, the car is now lighter, and the nose rises on its springs. Good to lose weight, bad to have an inclined car, rather than an inclined plane :-)
4. 4.2s if well maintained are otherwise durable. Done the timing belt and front control arms yet?

Grant