camelman
Veteran Member
I just performed some surgery on my 01M today, and it appears to have fixed the shifting problems. I'll continue to post as I put miles on it, or if the problems resurface. For now, here is what I did:
~ purchased car at 116,000
~ noticed the common 01M failures around 130,000 which were false neutral in first when I came to a stop, hard 2-3 and 3-4 shifting, inconsistant shifts, occasional hunting during shifting, and the occasional thunk that felt like something had actually broken
~ I changed the filter and performed a line pressure boost of about 16psi at 135,000 with marginal improvement
~ I filled the tranny fluid higher per a post I found, and found minimal improvement
~ winter set in, and lower temps seemed to help the shifting since the tranny stayed cooler, but as soon as it warmed up enough, the problems were back
~ In the last few days, hard shifting just started appearing that made me think hard parts were breaking off my gears
~ I had purchased a re-man valve body off eBay with the Sonnex mods, and installed it today
~ Shifting is now silky smooth, no false neutrals showed up, even after the car warmed up, the shifts feel much more positive and consistant, and it doesn't feel like the transmission is taking forever to engage the next gear like it had before.
My conclusions to date:
~ the re-man valve body definitey fixed the problems... for now
~ cooler temps help the transmission operate better
~ the reason the tranny operates well when cool, and badly when warm/hot may come from worn out seals allowing the tranny fluid to leak past more easily when it is hotter and thinner
~ a clean tranny filter does seem to improve shifting performance
~ overfilling the tranny didn't really help anything on my tranny
Future work:
~ observe the tranny operation with the new valve body for at least 5,000 miles
~ install a tranny fluid cooler come spring time if the transmission is still operating
The biggest thing 01M owners must keep in mind is that parts break for a reason. I am sure there are many failure modes for these transmissions, but I can almost guarantee you that if your transmission is shifting harshly, or thunking into first gear, then you are putting undue stress on it that will cause it to fail. So, before your transmissions fail, try doing something to fix it.
To whoever is planning on how to respond to this post with a statement about how these trannys are crap and will always fail and there is no use to try to work on them since it is a waster of time:
~ Have you ever actually determined why they fail?
~ Have you ever tried to find a solution to the failure before it occurs?
~ Do you have any insight to offer on the exact failure mechanisms that occur so that we can find out how to remedy the failure modes before they cause a failure?
~ Why do the re-man VW units behave and last better than the original ones? Is it possibly because they utilize some modifications including the Sonnex mod that was done to my new valve body?
I bought my valve body off eBay. This is the direct line to the business I bought it from. Central Valve Bodies. 1-877-341-0266
Camelman
~ purchased car at 116,000
~ noticed the common 01M failures around 130,000 which were false neutral in first when I came to a stop, hard 2-3 and 3-4 shifting, inconsistant shifts, occasional hunting during shifting, and the occasional thunk that felt like something had actually broken
~ I changed the filter and performed a line pressure boost of about 16psi at 135,000 with marginal improvement
~ I filled the tranny fluid higher per a post I found, and found minimal improvement
~ winter set in, and lower temps seemed to help the shifting since the tranny stayed cooler, but as soon as it warmed up enough, the problems were back
~ In the last few days, hard shifting just started appearing that made me think hard parts were breaking off my gears
~ I had purchased a re-man valve body off eBay with the Sonnex mods, and installed it today
~ Shifting is now silky smooth, no false neutrals showed up, even after the car warmed up, the shifts feel much more positive and consistant, and it doesn't feel like the transmission is taking forever to engage the next gear like it had before.
My conclusions to date:
~ the re-man valve body definitey fixed the problems... for now
~ cooler temps help the transmission operate better
~ the reason the tranny operates well when cool, and badly when warm/hot may come from worn out seals allowing the tranny fluid to leak past more easily when it is hotter and thinner
~ a clean tranny filter does seem to improve shifting performance
~ overfilling the tranny didn't really help anything on my tranny
Future work:
~ observe the tranny operation with the new valve body for at least 5,000 miles
~ install a tranny fluid cooler come spring time if the transmission is still operating
The biggest thing 01M owners must keep in mind is that parts break for a reason. I am sure there are many failure modes for these transmissions, but I can almost guarantee you that if your transmission is shifting harshly, or thunking into first gear, then you are putting undue stress on it that will cause it to fail. So, before your transmissions fail, try doing something to fix it.
To whoever is planning on how to respond to this post with a statement about how these trannys are crap and will always fail and there is no use to try to work on them since it is a waster of time:
~ Have you ever actually determined why they fail?
~ Have you ever tried to find a solution to the failure before it occurs?
~ Do you have any insight to offer on the exact failure mechanisms that occur so that we can find out how to remedy the failure modes before they cause a failure?
~ Why do the re-man VW units behave and last better than the original ones? Is it possibly because they utilize some modifications including the Sonnex mod that was done to my new valve body?
I bought my valve body off eBay. This is the direct line to the business I bought it from. Central Valve Bodies. 1-877-341-0266
Camelman