MateoA8

well my 98 A8, my baby, has finally given up the ghost and has gone to pretty much constant limp mode with some serious tranywhine. I hardly drive her anymore, just short trips to the store, etc. But we live atop a hill which as accelerated the problem I'm sure, but she seems to be willing to make the trip in limp mode.

My question is how much time do I have before the trany totally gives out? Am I doing any (more) damage by driving her? And how much am I looking at to fix her?

TOMAS7

There has to be another problem. Wait and see what the other wiser listers will recommend.

It's hard for me to accept that your tranny is out with only 66K, specially seeing the maintenance that was performed by the previous owner. That's usually a sign that the vehicle was cared for.

KYNZ

they made a huge design error (or actually ZF did) and just never had a reason to remedy it...there were so few of these cars made and the guys who bought them new have moved onto something else (more than likely). These tranny issues we all have suffered only rear their head after the warranty period was way up. Im sorry to hear about your problem...get it to a tranny shop soon and just bite the bullet and get her rebuilt...then she will last you a LONG time.

Push That Tush

Does it work in all gears?

roughyear

when was the trany flushed?? have u pulled any codes yet?

PaulW

Then you'll probably need a rebuild. You mention it's whinning....repeated fluid flushes MIGHT fix it.....but doubtful.

I would bite the bullet and get it rebuilt. No need to do this more than once.

svxit

As my '98 never went into limp mode (but did have tranny issues), I am not certain if you can use tiptronic? If so, and you are still driving, I would strongly encourage you to tip it, especially up hills. Allowing the tranny to be in 3rd or 4th on a 1st or 2nd gear hill will only build up more heat in the tranny bring things to a close that much faster. Just my 0.02 cents.

MateoA8

(I've got to change my sigline) she's got 120K now. I had to use it as a commuter car for the past year and put 35K on the poor girl since this time last year, mostly driving from California to Utah and in the desert.

MateoA8

I never rely on the computer to shift for me. Unfortunately she shifts right out of tiptronic and into the limp mode after only a few mins.

tozoM8

Do you have any codes?