Thoughts on Ebay 01M Valvebodies for $200?

Monksy

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https://www.ebay.ca/itm/OEM-Genuine...ash=item41d7fdd25d:g:7ZkAAOSwEOpaTfIH&vxp=mtr

^link to current valve body and harness being sold on eBay apparently coming from California. I see some from the state and some from china, all for around the same price.. $200-250 Canadian.
My jetta went into the trans shop today for further diagnostics since its been surging consistently now, they said 1800-2500 for a full rebuild. I'm not convinced that the whole trans is scrap yet since everyone points to the valve body. With transmaxx and coolairvw running around $900-950 for a valve body I'm thinking I'm going to take a chance on this one. Has anyone bought and had success with an eBay valve body and harness?
 
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joep1234

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Research the ebay company. RevMax in Charlotte, NC takes them apart, bores out the valves and sleeves them with stainless barrels and uses a new harness and solenoids. Cost a little more but once and done. The original problem is the aluminum parts sliding on aluminum bores that scuff and cause all of the problems.
 

Monksy

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I have had https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/361599208451 in my car for about 15k miles and it still shifts well. The biggest thing is that you didn’t already kill your torque converter. If the tcc clutch isn’t dead usually the valve body will help.
How would I know? I graphed the shifts, and it is very clear the surging. I was told by the previous owner that the torque converter had already been replaced about 20,000km ago. Not willing to bet on it but that's what he said.
 

Monksy

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Well sorry for taking so long to give an update. Here's how it went:

Replaced the valvebody (fairly straight forward and easy, took about 3 hours, being careful and having a friend come by with the VAGCOM to check the level after).
Car ran better for about 3 days, then started surging again just like it used to.

Problems:
My trans fluid was absolutely black, worse than any long overdue oil change. Perhaps if the trans fluid was still in good condition this would be an ok thing to do, but based on my experience, if your fluid is black I wouldn't recommend doing the valve body, not when a manual swap is only double the money. All in it cost me about $400 for the valvebody, fluid/filter. I wish I wouldn't have done it because a replacement manual transmission with all the parts is about $800.

This also did not do anything for my hard shift into gear, it was the exact same before and after the swap.
 

KyleMillione

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Sorry it seems your tranny was too far gone, black fluid is a really bad sign. You can try coding off the fuzzy logic if it shifted good for afew days then started shifting poorly. Using vcds recode the transmission to 00012 for sport mode (I think it’s better) or 00011 for economy mode. Helped some of my odd TCc lock/unlock issues.
 

UhOh

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These things are a tough call to repair. One thing to note is that the TC holds a lot of fluid and that it can take a couple of changes or so to completely purge out the old fluid. Doing so is another gamble of money and time.

One other thing to note is that one ought to change the ribbon cable out (they tend to break down).

Seems like there should be some codes popping up with bad shifting behaviors.

I had the VB changed in the daughter's wagon. I went with one from CoolAirVW (trusted vendor). So far, though it seems to shift soft (and I'm wondering if I hear a transmission whine) it's holding up. My total outlay was about $1k, which, while a bit steep, isn't all that much if it keeps the car going for another couple years (daughter cannot drive a manual; and, it's in a congested city, where even I would be loathe to having a manual).
 

wonneber

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These things are a tough call to repair. One thing to note is that the TC holds a lot of fluid and that it can take a couple of changes or so to completely purge out the old fluid. Doing so is another gamble of money and time.
QUOTE]
Has anyone tried drilling a hole in the side of the TC and tapping it for a 1/8 brass pipe plug?
I use to do this with the old pre-lockup GM converters.
It had to be a short plug with a hex hole for an allen wrench to tighten.
Drill with the correct size for the tap & tap it while the fluid was coming out.
 

UhOh

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Rich, I'd think that if this was reasonable approach that CoolAirVW would be doing it. I just know that it seems common practice(?) that people end up doing several flushes, and that after doing so there are reports of improvements. I don't know whether I'd have enough patience to do a bunch of flushes: and, well, I pay others to mess with the 01m- I'm not brave enough to touch them!
 

wonneber

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Rich, I'd think that if this was reasonable approach that CoolAirVW would be doing it. I just know that it seems common practice(?) that people end up doing several flushes, and that after doing so there are reports of improvements. I don't know whether I'd have enough patience to do a bunch of flushes: and, well, I pay others to mess with the 01m- I'm not brave enough to touch them!
It was an old thought from the 70's. :)
I'm not even sure if the bell housing area has access to get to the point.
The only VW automatic I rebuilt was in a late 60's type 3 fastback.
Drove the car a few months & sold it.
 

Monksy

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Yea I don't think I will trying to change the fluid again, or a few times. The CV joints are also shot so I need new axles and I'd rather just spend the coin, do the conversion and be reasonably confident that I wont have more transmission problems for a while.

Would the Valvebody even be worth selling to someone? Burn_your_money if you're interested in it I will be swapping the trans in about a month from now. I also still have the old one in a box now.
 

burn_your_money

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I'm definitely interested. I've been watching this thread to see the results of your experiment. It seems worth the risk for me at this point. It's just a parts car I want to try it in anyways.
 

Monksy

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I'm definitely interested. I've been watching this thread to see the results of your experiment. It seems worth the risk for me at this point. It's just a parts car I want to try it in anyways.
Ok I will keep this in mind when I do the swap. Depending on if the guys I'm getting the manual from want the 01M back as a core (don't know why they would, its shot) I will have both the new and original valvebody if you're interested in that one too.
 
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