Solenoid kit for 01M

Hi,
I don't have any errors on my 01M tranny yet (2003 Golf TDI US spec) but when I drive hard over hills (San Francisco or Santa Cruz), it stops shifting temporarily until I let it cool (wont go from 2/3rd to 4th/5th). I have had the tranny serviced and fluid changed very recently (under 1k miles). I asked my diesel tech buddy who did the tranny service and he instantly said, replace the solenoids. Seem reasonable, solenoids kit is cheap and replacement is easy. Question, what kit should I get?
I see one on ebay from "Electrical Advantage" that has 5 shift solenoids, 2 EPC solenoids, and a harness for $150 something. But I have no idea how's the quality. Amazon has a set of 5 shift solenoids for $80 with good ratings (hope they aren't fake).
I see places I shop at online (Kerma, IDparts, DieselGeek) don't carry solenoid kits Any recommendations? Thanks.

Cheap things are cheap for a reason.

There is NOTHING cheap about dealing with these transmissions!

Why was the fluid (and filter, I'm assuming)? If there were issues it's often necessary to do repeated fluid changes: torque converter cannot be drained; it can hold a fair amount of fluid, fluid which won't come out during the fluid change- you end up still having a bunch of old fluid in there. Was there any noting of particles in the old fluid (or filter)? Lot of information not here for proper evaluation. So...

I would recommend doing a search for CoolAirVW 01m on this site. Richard has several threads covering most everything about the 01m. He lives with these things; he not only does a lot of repairs on them but he has various replacement parts and reconditions valve bodies himself (I recently acquired one in the hopes of prolonging the life of one of these transmissions- it only popped a couple of codes, no real discernible shifting issues though).

Again, you've shelled out a few dollars/clams on the fluid change and service and you still have issues. Next round will jack that outlay up. And if you guess wrong you're going to be looking at round 3 (assuming that by that time it's determined that taking another shot has any real sense of resulting in success).

UhOh said:

Cheap things are cheap for a reason.

There is NOTHING cheap about dealing with these transmissions!
......
......
.... has any real sense of resulting in success).

Click to expand...

Thanks for the pointer to CoolAirVW. I am simultaneously upgrading the performance. So, I am not going to spend $$ on this tranny. Will run it as long as it doesn't rack up any significant repair and runs ok (which it does for the most part). If it dies, I am swapping in a 5 or 6 speed manual transmission

I used tranny service kit from IDparts (along with lots of other R&R on the car). No clue what the old oil looked like but it shifted the same before it got serviced. I had it serviced as PM and also because a ton of other things were getting serviced on the car.

Heres a link to good quality stuff.

http://kansascitytdi.com/shopping/

"New" VB from Richard seems to be doing fine in the daughter's wagon: installed hoping to hold off problems. Car's running a Malone Stage 1 tune: now that I feel a bit better about the state of the transmission I'm thinking of upgrading nozzles and going to a Stage 2 tune- even with the Stge 1 tune the car really hauls (one thing about the automatics is that you can just hold your foot down).

Richard, not sure if it's common practice, but I'd really appreciate hearing what you end up finding with the old VB. I suppose it doesn't matter much, but I'm just kind of curious.

CoolAirVw said:

Heres a link to good quality stuff.

http://kansascitytdi.com/shopping/

Click to expand...

Thanks, do you have a solenoid kit? Or, what parts from your site should I get to make a kit?

Contact him via his website.