aaronalfa
New member
So I finally got sick of waiting up to 10 minutes to drive away when the car was cold due to the no-shifting crap-tronic 09A solenoid problem so many of us have after 100xxx miles or so (your mileage may vary) and ordered a rebuilt valve body with all new solenoids from a recommended Ebay vendor.
I'd done much reading about this problem over time, and decided against doing just one valve after talking to a couple of shops who have repaired this. Per these guys, if you're going to all the trouble of taking it apart, do the whole thing and get new solenoids all around, and check the two gaskets behind the body, one of which is prone to leaking and causes the other typical failure mode of no reverse. The valve body was $550 plus shipping with a two year warranty BTW.
Now for the "fun" part - getting to it. It would appear from what I read in most places, people got to it partially through the side and by pulling the transmission backwards after releasing one of the mounts - I'm stubborn, and besides, that sounded like way too much work taking the wheel off and all that. So here's how I did it in under two hours:
1.Drove car up on ramps - front only.
2.Remove bumper and support beam underneath
3.Remove headlights, front center support and trunk latch
4.Remove upper radiator hose, fan connectors, drop radiator and condenser down as one unit.
5.Remove airbox, maf, battery, battery tray, shift linkage
6.Remove power steering hard line at pump (large banjo fitting)
7.Using zip ties, tie back misc wiring harnesses, hoses, etc from front of trans pan.
Voila - you now have FULLY CLEAR access to the pan, and can sit smugly on a pillow while leasurely removing the pan and valve body without having to guess or feel from the top or side. Trust me, removing all of these items did not take even an hour. As a bonus, I'll be able to replace my oil pan which has been leaking for sometime, and check on other usually hard to access items on the front of the car at that time.
I'd done much reading about this problem over time, and decided against doing just one valve after talking to a couple of shops who have repaired this. Per these guys, if you're going to all the trouble of taking it apart, do the whole thing and get new solenoids all around, and check the two gaskets behind the body, one of which is prone to leaking and causes the other typical failure mode of no reverse. The valve body was $550 plus shipping with a two year warranty BTW.
Now for the "fun" part - getting to it. It would appear from what I read in most places, people got to it partially through the side and by pulling the transmission backwards after releasing one of the mounts - I'm stubborn, and besides, that sounded like way too much work taking the wheel off and all that. So here's how I did it in under two hours:
1.Drove car up on ramps - front only.
2.Remove bumper and support beam underneath
3.Remove headlights, front center support and trunk latch
4.Remove upper radiator hose, fan connectors, drop radiator and condenser down as one unit.
5.Remove airbox, maf, battery, battery tray, shift linkage
6.Remove power steering hard line at pump (large banjo fitting)
7.Using zip ties, tie back misc wiring harnesses, hoses, etc from front of trans pan.
Voila - you now have FULLY CLEAR access to the pan, and can sit smugly on a pillow while leasurely removing the pan and valve body without having to guess or feel from the top or side. Trust me, removing all of these items did not take even an hour. As a bonus, I'll be able to replace my oil pan which has been leaking for sometime, and check on other usually hard to access items on the front of the car at that time.
