Automatic Transmission - real bad sound when in Park or neutral
 

worried Noob here.

I have a 1998 A4 2.8 Quattro, auto transmission. 110K miles. Was driving to lunch today, stopped at a traffic light and put the car in park as I needed to grab something from the back seat real quick. When I shifted into park, I was greeted by a very bad sound -- like something grinding real fast & real loud -- definitely not a sound a car is supposed to make. I switched right back to drive and the sound was gone. Noticed it made the same sound when I shifted past neutral as well.

I'm not too handy with engines, and am afraid this means my transmission is on it's way out? However what is strange is I drove the couple blocks further back to work, parked the car for 10 minutes or so, came back to it and started it up again, and had no sounds at all when in any gear. drove around the block and didn't notice anything--the sound had magically disappeared.

I'm wondering what this could be -- does anyone have any advice? Should I have it looked at ASAP? and transmission repairs aren't cheap, are they? yikes!

thanks in advance!

like fharting noise or more like fharting mixed w/ fluid?
 

it'd be worth checking your drawers after that..

Re: like fharting noise or more like fharting mixed w/ fluid?
 

hmm...interesting question. well, didn't really sound like fluid. If I had to relate it to a sound I've heard, I would have to say it sounded like a belt whirring really fast and rubbing against something. Maybe that has something to do with it? But didn't really sound like any type of fluid was involved.

Sorry for my not so scientific description--I need to get another listen to give a better idea what's going on. Hopefully, though, it won't happen again!

When was the last time the tranny fluid was flushed?

Get your fluid and filter changed....The A8 guys often have problems with this

Maybe a blade inside the torque converter broke off.

Re: Automatic Transmission - real bad sound when in Park or neutral
 

So a little more info. Just went out to the car hoping to be able to go home. But found even more problems once I got there--

Turned on the car, didn't get the bad whirring sounds the first time around, but my lights wouldn't turn on! Tried turning them on and off, restarting car, but the interior lights would go on and my brights would work, but my normal headlights wouldn't come on! Only could get the two orange ones on the side to light up. It's strange because I changed both the front light bulbs maybe 2 months ago and they've been working fine--now they're shot. Maybe a problem for a different post.

But to make matters worse, the bad sound came back again after the 3rd or 4th restart. Really sounds like something is out of whack somewhere. It's a loud whirring sound (very loud) and occurs in Reverse and Neutral, as explained before. There's a shop close to here that I think I'll take it to tonight to have it looked at tomorrow morning, and hopefully this will be resolved.

So now I have no lights and an engine that sounds like it's about to explode! do these cars self-destruct after 100,000 miles???

yeah diarheaa noise can be bad..

Re: Automatic Transmission - real bad sound when in Park or neutral
 

Wow. Scary similar.

My '94 90-series with 115K seems to have developed the exact same problem. While stopped this afternoon I shifted from reverse to drive and heard a loud grinding noise. It's there in Park or Neutral but seems fine while in a driving gear. Tonight while re-testing it I noticed that my headlights wouldn't work (they would if I pulled on the bright adjustment lever, but wouldn't when on hi or low beam without being held).

Do you know how this drama ends yet? Any insight you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

Chuck