Also if you can carry your own parts to an independant mechanic.

One of the guys on A6 posted this link, which I immediately bookmarked. $9.50 per liter if buying 5 or more. I don't know how expensive their shipping is, but it would have to be pretty expensive for that not to be a good deal.<ul><li><a href="http://www.etyparts.com/lubro%20moly.htm">Here.</a></li></ul>

I figure if BMW uses the same tranny, why can't you add regular or synthetic ATF into our trannies? What is so fundamentally unique about them?

Thanks for the tip though.

Does BMW use anything else? I doubt it. They're largely using the same family of ZF ATs. Look at the ZF application chart in the Transmission section of Audipages.

What stops me is the "what if" of actually having a tranny failure and the resultant high costs of replacing the Audi unit out of warranty if Audi were to blame me.

My main thing is wanting to use a different fluid to increase pressure under all conditions - the Audi ZF always feels "weak" to me, and my unscientific conclusion is that it is caused by low pressures. As an example, an old GM turbohydramatic with a shift kit feels like it is "solid", even though they don't have lock-up torque convertors.

Do you know others who have done the same? Is this something that a dealer of indy mechanic recommended, and if so, who / where? What model / year, and what was the recommended ATF?

I spoke with the new owner (Ron) of my old car 98 A8. He said that the
local Dealer (Burlingame) that did the work for the PO ( not me, the guy
before me) totally screwed him on a bunch of different things. First
of all they put the wrong coolant in the car. This caused the head
gasket to be eaten away. At the 90k service they did not replace the
rear cam shaft seal ( which leaked ) and they put the valve cover
gaskets on upside down ( which leaked too ) So Ron the guy who bought
the car from me a month and a half ago had to put in 4 grand into the
car ( which is now in tip top shape). I am surprised that this Stealer
( Wrecked em?? Damn near smashed it to bits!!) is allowed to keep their
franchise with stories like this. Talk about criminals!



The plot thickens.. Ron's next door neighbor used to work for said
dealer, and quit due to the "internal policies" of paying the mechanics
a certain amount of money and then docking their pay if they don't get
through enough cars or jobs. According to the neighbor, a 30k mile
service in one particular instance included parking the car in the
corner of the room and nothing else. No fluid changes of any kind ...
His neighbor said that any time you get the multi point inspections
done, check the air in the spare tire to see how thorough they really
are.



So Ron told me that his new mechanic sent some of Audis expen$ive,
synthetic transmission fluid to be tested. The test house found that
the Audi fluid which was indeed synthetic, easily burnt, and in his
opinion was no way near as good as the redline fluid. He uses Redline
in all of the changes at his shop.

I still have an A6 4.2 (trying to sell), and I hate the shifts. Probably the worst aspect of the car. However I don't think it's related to the fluid but the tranny software. It's programmed that way to provide "smoother" shifting for the general "luxury" target market. Your best bet is to invest in a chip for crisper shifts.

As for voiding a warranty using non-Audi ATF, I'd think that they'd have to prove why it's harmful to the tranny. Sounds like Moss-Magnuson material to me.

Yes, an automatic M3. The fluid was claimed as lifetime by BMW, but almost all other M3 owners I knew changed out the fluid to either Mobil 1 or Redline. This wasn't recommended by any mechanic, just by my choice using common sense. I drove the car for about 40k miles w/o any problems.

.....in their A8 trannys? I think the fact that ZF and Audi are saying you must use different fluids shows that there is no one specific ATF you have to use. Both companies claim that if you don't use their recommended fluid, the tranny will fail. First off, I want to know the consensus of weather Audi's ATF is synthetic or dyno. We know that Esso's is not. I think the clear choice is to use the ATF that we know is the best (Redline/M1).

I want to try this.. also i have to replace my rear diff seal so i might as well use that as well..

Are there different types?

What do you recommend..

The 75W90NS does not contain a friction modifier for non-limited slip diffs.

It was excellent. Ran smooth and cool, and trans shifted a lot better.