2002 Jetta 01M Transmission Problems

Sorry for the long post. Long time lurker, but haven't posted much. I'm the 2nd owner of a 2002 Jetta TDI, bought at 127k - now at 169k.

Around 137-138k miles, the transmission started acting up - biggest issue was lagging when switching between 2nd and 3rd gear (the car would stop accelerating for a moment, then the gear would "clunk" in and everything was normal). Around 139k miles, I started experiencing the drop out of gear issues in park and at stand still. I'd have to rev up the engine on hills to get 1st gear to re-engage. It was also periodically throwing the P0740 (TCC) code.

I brought it to a local shop in Los Angeles to have it rebuilt. They swapped the TCC and rebuilt the rest of the transmission "as needed". Also filled it up with new fluid and checked it a few times in the first 5k miles. Not too long after, the 2nd to 3rd hesitation would occur infrequently, but overall it ran great.

Now at just under 169K miles, I cannot keep the transmission in 1st or reverse when going slow. The car also "shudders" when going very slow (under 2-3 mph), making for an always interesting event pulling into my small garage. Trying to get from 1st gear to 2nd gear at a reasonable speed results in huge over-revving followed by a "clunk". I can get a relatively smooth shift if I basically stop accelerating around 20MPH and just wait for it to drop into the next gear. 2nd to 3rd also has it's lag/clunk problem unless I stop accelerating around 45MPH.

From talking to a mechanic (he didn't inspect it yet, just listening to the problems), it sounds like at least the valve body is done, if not more damage due to that problem. He recommended a reman as the only "reliable" fix, excluding a manual swap.

So my options seem to be:
1) trying another diagnose/partial rebuild (at least fluid flush + valve body) - $2-3k?
2) reman transmission - quoted around $5k installed
3) lease/finance 2013 TDI - $2-3K down + trade-in value + monthly payment

For option 3, does anybody have an idea of what I may get either trade-in or private sale with this transmission problem? There's not a lot of used TDIs in the area to compare at the moment (San Jose, CA). Besides the transmission, the car is in relatively great shape. Few dings/scratches, recently replaced tires/front brakes/rear struts + regular maintenance.

What's the general consensus these days on how to handle the 01M? Is the mechanics assessment reasonable given the symptoms and fact that it was already rebuilt once? I'm not getting any CEL codes, but haven't used VCDS yet to pull the codes on the transmission itself.

Manual transmission is pretty much out of the question (never driven one and I usually drive in traffic - can't imagine it would be pleasant). I can make some repairs on the car myself, but I'm definitely not ready or setup for transmission work.

Thanks for reading.

Thinkdiff said:

What's the general consensus these days on how to handle the 01M? Is the mechanics assessment reasonable given the symptoms and fact that it was already rebuilt once?

Click to expand...

His opinion sounds about right to me. If I were you, I'd probably be going the route of a VW remanufactured trans. (And I may be, someday. I'm afflicted with the 01m as well.)

Welcome to the world of the 01m.

this has a 1 year warranty and is a lot less than $5000

http://www.autotransparts.com/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=201

get a rebuilt vavle body from kansas city vw guy, i think coolair vw guy on here should fix your problem

Ah, the good ol' rebuilt 01M boomerang...

dabeetereater said:

get a rebuilt vavle body from kansas city vw guy, i think coolair vw guy on here should fix your problem

Click to expand...

http://kansascitytdi.com/

Had some pretty good times in Ocala. Hope I didn't make any kids there. LOL...

Edit:

Wonder what causes the 2-3rd lag/clunk?
I have seen that mentioned before.
I don't know ANYTHING about transmissions.
Would love to learn...

Thanks for the suggestions so far guys.

How quickly things change... tried to drive it in to work this morning - usually 10 minute drive but unusually high traffic today. Transmission completely gave up about half way there. I had to let the car roll from stand still for about 45 seconds until it got to around 15 mph just on gravity and excess engine momentum (all while the car was shuddering mildly). Only then would it kick in to 1st gear. Once this started, I pulled over and had it towed to a local shop (different from the one that recommended the reman). They're running a diagnostic on it tomorrow, but I'm not feeling very good about it.

I'm not too familiar with ordering my own parts when dealing with a mechanic - is this something I can just have shipped to the shop? Is it normal to expect him to wait for the parts to arrive or would that be considered asking too much.

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=189029

That thread has some info about the 01M. CoolAirVW has some excellent in-depth more detailed posts about it, but I can assure you this transmission is a well-known dud. If you got as many miles as you did out of it, you did good.

I'm dont think based on what your saying that VB work will help.

I'd swap it for a 5 speed. I'm assuming you can't do the work yourself, there are a few guys here willing to do the work for a fee. I did my own, it was a project but do-able with the help of the forum, some know-how, and good set of tools. I don't want to do it again though.

As far as you not knowing how to drive stick, my girlfriend learned the basics in a day out of necessity when her car broke. I really don't want to know what happened to my car, or clutch, but she does good now. I don't mind it in traffic, but for the most part all I've ever owned have been stick shifts since I was 16.

FWIW, I have 4 MKIV tdi's, 3 of them were 01M's, all 3 of those are now 02J's. The 01M's gave up on 2 of them between 150 and 160K. That is all you will get out of them. rebuilds only seem to work if you do it before they are too far gone, I have one 01M with 110K on it that I pulled out of my '02 Golf that you are willing to have for the cost to ship it out from the east coast. It worked when pulled 8 months ago. I pulled it because it is my daughters car, she is in school in New Orleans and I didn't want to have to deal with the eventual failure.

Another option you have other than getting a brand new car is an '04 to '06 auto tdi. They are more reliable and would cost a bunch less than a new tdi. But the new engines are really nice and you would have a car that you don't have issues with for a long time.