The Project Pad

So i have an opportunity to pick up an 03 A6 with 113k on the clock for a crazy low price. The owner says it has a transmission issue (surprise surprise) but he said this about it:

Hi Michael - If you're driving the car normally, you'd never notice. If you're in a situation where it tries to shift at high RPM's, it will slip for a couple seconds.

I know this motor trans combo can be a headache but what are the chances this just needs a fluid change an filter to resolve it????

The car itself is beautiful and in amazing condition. The owner also said he had a shop (not dealer) recommend a new transmission but i know some shops simply just start there and dont try anything else.

Any thoughts are very appreciated.

01E FTW!

Manual swap or a rebuild of the auto trans will buy a few more years. If I had the space to do it, I'd be swapping the 01E in! Loved that C5 A6 I had. Miss it.

They are great cars for the money. I'm working on 2+ years with mine and I still love it!

Do the manual trans swap. The auto tranny is garbage on those cars.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2

Great cars, buy it, drive it, find a junkyard trans to swap in until you feel like doing the 6spd swap

Vroman wrote:Do the manual trans swap. The auto tranny is garbage on those cars.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2

They aren't the absolute best, but seriously the ZFHP24a is a pretty legit transmission. I hear people knocking on them all the time and I gotta say lets compare it's reliability to a TH400, TH350, 4L60e or better yet a Chrysler trans. Mine has held up to 300 crank horsepower, day in and day out for 185k. I have ZERO complaints from a trans that will pull that off.

Sorry for no update.... I missed buying the car by a day but.... The search continues for one because I have fallen in love with them. I never used to like the A6 but now i totally see that they are great especially with the v8. That said it is a lot of HP for that transmission.... There are a ton for sale with transmission problems however the owners that seem to maintain them according to the schedule never seem to have issues. I think Ben has a point too.... Having worked on plenty of 4l60e's i have to say I cant imaging anything being worse. I will let you guys know when I find one and buy it.

I love mine, and the transmission will last if you simply change the fluid and filter every 30k miles. Audi screwed up and spec'd the fluid as lifetime, but it is definitely not. The transmissions eat themselves because the fluid fails.

My brother is selling his 4.2 A6 if youre interested. Has KW V3s and Bentley Continental GT wheels. Black on tan. Message me if youre interested and I'll give you his info

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk 2