2005 Passat TDI Transmission Problems

2005 Passat TDI w/ about 165k miles, BSM delete.

Wife was driving it a couple days ago, went around a corner and thought she hit a pothole because she felt a thunk and it was very sluggish. Drove it to the side of the road, stopped it and had it towed to a mechanic.
Troubleshooting so far by the mechanic.
Gear 2: Incorrect Ratio, Mechanical Failure
Gear 3: Incorrect Ratio, Mechanical Failure
He cleared the codes drove it and it immediately went to overdrive. I sent him this link about TCM issues, http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=311922&highlight=2005+transmission+problem , and he said the TCM is dry. Next is to check the wires in the passenger door. If no problems there, where else would you suggest looking? I'm also thinking of dropping the pan to see what the oil looks like and if there is metal in there. Fluid was changed about 3 yrs. and 25k miles ago.

Dropping the pan is definitely the next step.


You should contact forum member CoolAirVw. He has plenty of rebuilding experience with the 01v trans and is in your neighborhood.

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showpost.php?p=4126646&postcount=31


His website..
http://kansascitytdi.com/contact/


.

Thanks for the contact info, I thought the closest experienced TDI person was Oilhammer in St. Louis. I'll link up with him.

Coolair has a good reputation here and you would be well advised to get his opinion. However if, as I suspect, you have a bunch of broken hard parts in the trans, you will find that buying the vw offering, zf factory reman trans is the most economical solution. Rebuilding, using genuine zf parts, can often cost more than the zf reman unit done correctly. Just the master kit, including steels and friction clutches, etc, runs over 900 so if you add a grand's worth of hard parts, and a possibly damaged case, you could well be way over the vw price. The so called transmission chain shops do not use oem parts and their work in most cases fails before long.

So Richard at Kansas City TDI looked at it and unfortunately 2nd gear is gone so it needs a new transmission. Anyone interested in buying as is, put a tranny in yourself?

Pm me with price! And pics!!!

sorry you have to give it up. I sort of figured you had broken internal hard parts from your description of the failure.