If you wait to change your fluid until you have problems IT'S ALREADY TOO LATE (eg. you already have a problem). I understand that if you have 80K plus miles on your tranny and you have no problems, it is likely that you should leave well enough alone to maximize lifetime. However, if you have the opportunity to perform fluid changes as a preventative maintenance item starting early in the life of the tranny, then that is recommended by no other than our local tranny expert Tozo. As for you initial questions:

1. "S" is a software setting only, no difference in the fluid channels in the tranny.

2. You should run the transmission through the "gears" while monitoring Vag-com; you don't want to wait until the fluid is all the way up to temperature first, because it will be too hot before you get the transmission overflow/fill plug back in and it will result in an under fill condition. You want to be sure to get the fluid level full and the plug in with the fluid within temperature specifications.

3. It has been my experience that there isn't much fluid pushed out while running through the gears, but I always have a catch pan under the fill port because you need to have it full enough to overflow (and the only way to know that is to overflow it)!

Good luck!

2003 S8
Brilliant Black on Caramel
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