rez

I did not review the specific maintenance recommendations for our Q5 until after purchasing but was quite concerned that Audi recommends no oil changes for the life of the 8spd transmission. This just did not seem right to me so I emailed ZF in Germany (first email excerpt below) and got the following reply (email adds and names intentionally blanked out).

I think that someone who lives in a more challenging climate like ours here in Canada, and some northern U.S., Audi's recommendation in this regard might be called negligent. I suppose that someone who typically trades or sells their car with less than 80,000 km (50,000 miles) on the odo probably won't care but I tend to keep my cars 8-10 years so this is an issue for me.

To my mind this also has a bearing on Audi's credibility in recommending oil changes every 15,000 km (10,000 miles) - I think I'll be doing mine every 8,000 km (5,000 miles).

My email
We have just purchased a 2012 Audi Q5 2.0T with the 8 spd ZF transmission. Audi does not recommend changing transmission fluid, however, I am concerned that with extreme cold conditions in Canada it would be a good idea to change the fluid at some point. Do you have a tech reference for how to change the oil in the Audi version of the ZF 8HP? Thanks in advance,

ZF's reply

Hello Mr. ---,

generally we suggest to change the oil between 80.000km and 120.00km. Attached you can find our
official list of lubricants (TE-ML11) with the necessary information about, when to change the oil and
what kind of oil you should use. The second document shows you how to change the oil. But, please
be careful, because you need any kind of tester to read out the temperature while you change the oil.
If the temperature is not correct, you could damage your transmission!
Mit freundlichen Grüßen/Kind regards
-----
ZF Services
Technische Projekte / Technical Projects

ZF Friedrichshafen AG
Untertürkheimer Straße 4, 66117 Saarbrücken, Deutschland/Germany
Telefon/Phone +
-----@zf.com
www.zf.com

Vorsitzender des Aufsichtsrats/Chairman of the Supervisory Board: Prof. Dr. Giorgio Behr
Vorstand/Board of Management: Hans-Georg Härter (Vorsitzender/CEO), Reinhard Buhl, Jürgen Holeksa, Rolf Lutz, Dr. Peter Ottenbruch, Dr. Michael Paul, Dr. Konstantin Sauer, Dr. Stefan Sommer, Dr. Gerhard Wagner
Sitz/Headquarters: Friedrichshafen
Handelsregistereintrag Amtsgericht Ulm HRB 630206/Trade register of the municipal court of Ulm HRB 630206

Coolieman1220

i can understand the oil as full synthetics can last 1 year of 25k miles of driving. Amsoil has been doing this for years. 6 month oil changes aren't necessary anymore with a good full synthetic. Do a oil eval test and you will see this.

They may say lifetime but it does indeed need to be changed. BMW states their coolant is lifetime. thats BS. I'd change my tranny fluid around when ZF says too.

lmariorod

This puts alot of Audi owners in the proverbial between a rock and a hard place position. Do you do as Audi NA recommends and not change it? Or do you do peace of mind maintenance and change it?

Afterall, sounds like it must be done correctly, or risk damage to the tranny. Do you trust tranny places to know enough about your Audi Quattro tranny to do this? Or for that matter, Audi dealers themselves, since it sounds as if few tranny oil changes are ever done. If something were to go wrong, they'll be the first to point out that tranny fluid is lifetime and not meant to be changed and therefore its at your own risk. Surely a quandary for most of us owners that plan on keeping our cars for many years.

uberwgn

It's fairly obvious the transmission needs to be serviced if you plan to keep the car for the long haul.

desert_q5

Please upload the email attachments they sent you so that we may also read their instructions!

AudiQ5sleeper

changing the trany fluid is not bad at all, you can do it every 3500,10000,75000,100000k all up to you if you want to spend money on it like that. Just keeping your tranny in good condition.

rez

Will do later today when I get to my home email. The instructions appear to be more for a diy type of process and I would say you would need to be an adept diy'er - in fact, as mentioned earlier in the thread, this process appears complicated enough that it does raise the issue of damage to the unit simply by changing the oil on it! I'm pretty sure there must be a shop manual that a garage would use which would probably be a good companion to the attachment I got from ZF. More soon.

HaveBullDogWillTravel

If the Audi tranny is similar to the BMW ZF and GM transmissions then the oil must be pushed/pumped into the transmission until it back flows over a stand-pipe(built into the pan) and at a certain temp. As mentioned, the temp(as fluid expands) is most important to get the fluid level just right. It's also very important to have the vehicle LEVEL. NOT so EASY!

rez

Who'd a' thunk - Mr. Goodwrench to change the Audi's oil - but if they have experience and tools for doing it this might be the best option!

As promised docs attached.

Over Ivory

Hello All,
I'm a new owner of a 2009 Audi Q5 bought second hand with 30K mi
I'm living in West Africa and I just received the car. I want for an oil change and my garagist by mistake opened the ATF so I lost some ATF. I'm very worried since I do not know how much was lost. So i'm thinking about adding additional ATF but I'm worrying the same when I see the process and I do not trust the guys here to do that.
It happened last saturday and I haven't seen any issue with teh transmission so far. So i was thinking of just leaving it as it is.
Any advice will really be welcomed.
Thanks in advnace