01v transmission problem (cross-posted from myturbodiesel)

i have a 2005 passat with 127,000 miles on it. my engine started making the dreaded bhw-specification chain noise so i geared up for the alh oil pump swap. i pulled the engine and transmission out of the vehicle as i could find no way of renting what i considered to be an adequate engine support to perform the in-vehicle subframe drop. i've pulled engines out of multiple engines out of various vehicles and had no fear of the process. once i got the alh oil pump installed the engine and transmission went back together without drama and i hooked everything back up. i cranked the car with the injector connector unplugged until the oil pressure light went out (3 different cranking events of about 20 seconds each), put the injector connector together, and the engine started right up. yay.

the biggest problem i had with the whole process was disconnecting and then reconnecting the socket on the end of the transmission cable to the ball on the transmission gear selector. i spend a ridiculous amount of time working on both ends of the problem. i finally supported the left side of the gearbox with a jack backed up with a jackstand and removed the driver's side transmission mount. if you remove the 16 mm transmission mounting bolt and the 3 eight mm socket head bolts attaching the mount to the transmission the mount will come right out. you now have excellent access to the ball and socket. i used the curved end of a crowbar placed on the socket which was already located on the ball and gave a healthy tug. the whole thing of removing the mount, attaching the ball and socket, and reinstalling the mount took maybe 20 minutes.

everything was great until the transmission stopped working during the test drive. boo.

let me explain what happened during my test drive in a little more detail. i put about 15 miles on the car driving around town, on a freeway, stopping and going and up and down hills. i was climbing a little hill at maybe 35 mph and added a little throttle to pass a car in the other lane. i don't remember any bang or bump or noise other than the engine suddenly revving up as it was obviously disconnected from any load. the 'prndl' display on the dashboard was inverted so the transmission was in one of the emergency modes. i got over to the right lane and shut the engine off and then turned it back on and the transmission was no longer had the gear display highlighted.

i read the piece about making sure that the torque converter was properly installed back in the transmission input shaft. i rotated the torque converter until it seated back inside the bell housing. with the transmission mounted to engine i could turn the torque converter smoothly and independently of the engine, and vice versa, until i put the drive plate bolts back in. it sure acts like the fluid pump in the transmission isn't pumping. there is no indication that the car is going into any gear either forward or reverse.

looking at the transmission data blocks in vcds everything looks fine. i disconnected one of the fluid lines running up to the transmission cooler and then started the engine, and absolutely no fluid was pumped out (some drained out, but nothing was pumped out).

my diagnosis is that i either installed the torque converter incorrectly (but for the life of me i don't understand what i did wrong) or there was another failure that killed the oil pump drive.

do i replace the torque converter or the whole thing?

It would sound from your description that either the tc ears sheared off in the pump or there was an oil leak which pumped the trans dry. BTW, a very good engine support is available from HF for 50-60 bucks on sale. At that mileage you possibly may want to consider 5-6 speed conversion.

so i have the transmission off the engine and the torque converter removed. i pulled this from the transmission input shaft cavity:



do i replace the torque converter or the transmission?

Those parts might be the ones to which the TC connects on the oil pump http://transpartsdirect.com/images/products/K54201A%20AFT.JPG. I cannot remember if they are replaceable or if you need to replace the oil pump/pump gear.

If I remember correctly, as the TC is connected to the oil pump and the slots engage to the lugs on the pump, the TC goes "in" some 1/2" or so. Then one knows that the TC has been correctly seated. Otherwise the lugs will be broken when the TC is bolted to the engine torque plate.

If you post a pic of the tc neck we might be able to determine if they are what remains of the pump drive ears. If they are, as I suspect, the minimum you would need is a tc, pump, seal, however at 130k miles I'd consider either 5-6 speed conversion or a vw reman trans rather than chance having to r&r the unit again after spending quite a bit on tc, pump, etc.

yeah, i think they're the oil pump drive dogs. i've ordered a reman transmission from vw. thanks for everyone's help.

ok, so on to the next problem. got the reman transmission from vw, installed it (properly this time) to the engine and put the engine and transmission back in the car and hooked everything up. the car started right up, and i took it for a test drive. it ran very poorly until i hooked up the intake boot that i'd forgotten to insert.

i went out on the highway and the car was running very well until i started pulling a hill on the interstate while cruise control was on. the car began to miss and i couldn't use more than about half throttle without the car missing. i had this problem when i bought the car and solved it by replacing the fuel filter. this might have been the original fuel filter as the fuel that came out of it was absolutely black.

so i bought another fuel filter, changed it out, and car will not start. it has actually started twice after very long cranking sessions but one time i shut it off and it would not restart and the other time the engine quit after a couple of minutes.

there are no engine or instrumentation codes set. i have verified the lift pump operates by using jumpers to power the pump and measuring the pump's volumetric output. i also measured the output of the tandem pump's fuel pressure limiter which also seemed to pass (my measuring container only went down to 200 ml but all i got out of the return line was a drip, drip, drip instead of any kind of stream).

the crank sensor seems ok because the tach needle shows about 200-250 rpm when the engine is cranking.

at this point i am out of ideas. does anybody have any suggestions?

Could be an air leak at the filter, allowing loss of prime. I would check the thermo tee oring for a tear.

dhagood said:

ok, so on to the next problem. got the reman transmission from vw, installed it (properly this time) to the engine and put the engine and transmission back in the car and hooked everything up. the car started right up, and i took it for a test drive. it ran very poorly until i hooked up the intake boot that i'd forgotten to insert.

i went out on the highway and the car was running very well until i started pulling a hill on the interstate while cruise control was on. the car began to miss and i couldn't use more than about half throttle without the car missing. i had this problem when i bought the car and solved it by replacing the fuel filter. this might have been the original fuel filter as the fuel that came out of it was absolutely black.

so i bought another fuel filter, changed it out, and car will not start. it has actually started twice after very long cranking sessions but one time i shut it off and it would not restart and the other time the engine quit after a couple of minutes.

there are no engine or instrumentation codes set. i have verified the lift pump operates by using jumpers to power the pump and measuring the pump's volumetric output. i also measured the output of the tandem pump's fuel pressure limiter which also seemed to pass (my measuring container only went down to 200 ml but all i got out of the return line was a drip, drip, drip instead of any kind of stream).

the crank sensor seems ok because the tach needle shows about 200-250 rpm when the engine is cranking.

at this point i am out of ideas. does anybody have any suggestions?

Click to expand...

Just curious -- did you change the fuel filter, then cycle the ignition key on for about 3-5 seconds, off for 2-3, on again, off again, and so on for about ten cycles? And when doing so, do you hear the noise of the electric pump each time?

I'm thinking there's either air still in the fuel system, or worse, a contaminant that made its way past the filter or a glob of something in the return line. Definitely I'm no expert on this but others might chime in...

got it fixed. turned out i crossed the fuel lines going from the fuel filter to the tandem pump. what i can't figure out is how it ever ran in that configuration.

i also learned that VCDS will help you prime the fuel system. pretty neat.

Glad to hear! For those of us without VCDS, we use the fuel pump cycling procedure I described to bleed the system after filter replacement.

(If it weren't for this forum I would've been in a world of confusion after I changed my filter the first time )

dhagood said:

got it fixed. turned out i crossed the fuel lines going from the fuel filter to the tandem pump. what i can't figure out is how it ever ran in that configuration.
i also learned that VCDS will help you prime the fuel system. pretty neat.

Click to expand...

Oh G*d. Been there done that. For the 2004/2005 Passats, the fuel supply lines have WHITE markings and are attached to the metal tubes on the filter. The fuel return lines have BLUE markings and are attached to the fuel tee.

There is enough fuel in the system to run for a little bit. It also helps to pour diesel or diesel purge straight into the filter to prime the system faster.