1.2TDI gearbox: stopped working

It's also called a solenoid. I will try to find the link tonight.

RAB
 
Hi RAB,
Thank you very much for the link.
In the mean time, I have decided to send the car to a mechanic. I just talked with him on the phone and so far he doesn't know where the problem comes from. I'll keep in touch if I have more news.
Best regards,
Miguel
 
Hi RAB,
After all this time, the mechanic couldn't find the problem. I'm towing the car to an Audi garage tomorrow. Something new: sometimes, but it's very rare, the engine starts but then gears can't be changed or "don't work well" (the mechanic didn't detail). In fact, the day a person came to take the car and tow it to the garage, I managed to start the engine and start driving to the garage but then gear got stuck in "neutral" and the car had to be towed. To exit my street, I go down a hill, so I'm not sure if the car even engaged first gear or was in neutral the all time.
Best regards,
Miguel
 
Does the Audi garage have previous experience of the 1.2tdi? If not, I wouldn't be too optimistic! Rather than spend money to train other people, I decided many years ago that DIY was the only option. For that you need VCDS; it might seem expensive to buy but it soon pays for itself and has done so in my case, many, many times over. If you had VCDS, you could feed me the errors/codes and it could be fixed. I know of one case where an Audi garage replaced the hydraulic station, gearbox actuator and clutch actuator (all under extended warranty) for want of an accumulator! Good luck!

RAB
 
Hi RAB,
I have a VCDS (bought about 1 month ago when the problem showed) but unfortunately I don't have enough time (and place) to DIY. I'm very grateful for your availability to help me, thank you very much.
The Audi garage most probably don't have much experience with this model. I'm hopeful that a basic setting might fix the problem. PS: I hate to go there, it's too posh for me.
I'm even thinking about towing the car to Germany (closest place where I know there are garages with the knowledge) but Switzerland doesn't belong to the EU, so it's not that easy.
Cheers,
Miguel
 
Hi RAB,
Audi fixed the problem. Apparently, it was 2 non working 'gearbox control hydraulic positioner' (crappy translation from French). They had to open the gearbox to find the problem and have acces to the positioners. They also replaced 2 potentiometers but I don't know where/which. It took them quite a while to find the problem: they were already at 900CHF in search time before they could even find the problem. In total I payed almost 2000CHF (material ~400CHF for the positioners and ~360CHF for the 2 potentiometers). Honestly, a crazy investment (I'm at 160.000km and probably need to change the cam belt) but I wanted to keep the car.
Cheers and thanks again for your help.
Miguel
 
That’s £1500! Your A2 must feel so loved!

I felt I was giving it a treat when I got the ‘good’ cabin filter for the extra £6...


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Miguel Silva said:
Hi RAB,
Audi fixed the problem. Apparently, it was 2 non working 'gearbox control hydraulic positioner' (crappy translation from French). They had to open the gearbox to find the problem and have acces to the positioners. They also replaced 2 potentiometers but I don't know where/which. It took them quite a while to find the problem: they were already at 900CHF in search time before they could even find the problem. In total I payed almost 2000CHF (material ~400CHF for the positioners and ~360CHF for the 2 potentiometers). Honestly, a crazy investment (I'm at 160.000km and probably need to change the cam belt) but I wanted to keep the car.
Cheers and thanks again for your help.
Miguel
Click to expand...

I am not sure what a 'gearbox control hydraulic positioner' is but the gearbox is just a lightened manual gearbox, nothing more. It has no 'positioners' as such, unless they mean the selector forks but these are not hydraulic. The 'potentiometers' are presumably the Hall effect sensors on the gearbox actuator.

RAB
 
Hi RAB,
Could it be the 'electro-hydraulic valves' (solenoid valves N284-287, in page 9/27 of SPP_221) and the 'potentiomenter on the selector lever' (G239 and G240, page 32). I'll take a picture of the receipt and maybe you can figured it out.

PS: It (almost) breaks my heart to imagine this car going to the dump (same color as mine):
https://www.anibis.ch/fr/d-automobi...c=1&fts=audi+a2+1.2&sf=dpo&so=d&view=2&fcid=0
Do you think it would be possible to recover it without being too expensive (loo at the back)?
(I also know of a VW Lupo 3L with 400.000km, being sold for 300CHF! I think just the alloy wheels are worth it).

Cheers,
Miguel
 
They are the more likely parts but of course, they are not IN the gearbox.

Are the Lupo transmission parts (required by the A2) working? Maybe you could make one good car from two?

RAB
 
RAB said:
They are the more likely parts but of course, they are not IN the gearbox.

Are the Lupo transmission parts (required by the A2) working? Maybe you could make one good car from two?

RAB
Click to expand...

I'm not sure they really opened the gearbox and now I think they probably didn't. I don't know the exact status of the Lupo but nothing in the announcement says there's something broken.

https://en.comparis.ch/carfinder/marktplatz/details/show/23856406

Cheers,
Miguel
 
Well, well, the problem is back. Everything was working fine (as for the last few weeks), I parked the car and went away for 5 minutes. When I then came back and tried to start the motor, exactly the same symptoms: the gearbox pump motor doesn't start when I open the door, the clutch doesn't do the usual disengaging sound when I pressed the brake. Frustrated and already thinking about calling someone to tow the car, I released the hand-brake, opened the door and pulled/pushed the car to see if it was by chance in neutral. I then retried once again to start the motor and this time all worked fine! I drove back home (without ever stopping the engine), turned the motor off and tried again to start: same problem. Repeated the previous procedure (push/pull the car) and it restarted fine. I took it yesterday to Audi (again...) and told them about the procedure. They're going to take a look, they said maybe some positioning detector on the gearbox might be the source of the problem. Any ideas what's going on? Thanks in advance.
Cheers,
Miguel
 
Difficult to say without any fault codes. Failing hydraulic pump possibly.

Also, if Audi's basic setting was done correctly(?), if there is insufficient hydraulic pressure to start the engine, you shouldn't be able to push the car to-and-fro because it should be in 1st gear. My local Audi garage did this to me once and I had to go to France soon afterwards, so didn't have time to correct it. On the ferry, to park the car in 1st gear I had to do it manually and leave the key in the ignition (because you can't remove it!) and lock the car with a second key! A quick basic setting on return corrected it.

RAB
 
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Hi RAB,
I searched for faults (using my VCDS) when I came home. I'll post them later (I don't have the file here with me now). Thanks.

Miguel
 
Hi RAB,
I haven't yet the file from the VCDS (but I will). In the mean time I have quite some news from the Audi garage. First of all, the potentiometers they replaced (the first time I took the car to them about 1 month ago) were, like you said, the ones near the gearbox selector lever. Nothing else was replaced (that's at least what they're saying now although that's clearly not what I understood before). According to them, no fault codes were detected neither then and neither now. I even asked for a copy of what they did exactly the first time (their report) and the answer was: we can't, Audi doesn't allow, there are procedures in the report which aren't public. I confronted, to no avail, the Audi garage to the fact that I paid 2000CHF and finally the problem was something else and that they didn't see it. They ask 180CHF/hour by the way (that's roughly 140GBP).
This time, they say that they found out the problem is that the clutch slave cylinder is leaking and also that one sensor (probably the 'clutch movement sender'?) coming from it indicates that the clutch wear has attained the limit. They said the clutch needs to be replaced as well as the clutch slave cylinder. They told me how much it would cost to fix and I said NO (>3000CHF: 9 hours work plus parts). The car is now back at home. RAB, your words about Audi garages were prophetic.
Again, whenever I turn off the ignition key and then retry to start, the clutch doesn't disengage. I asked them how they explain that. They said that maybe there's a safety feature: during driving the problem might show up but the "car control" won't stop anything until I stop and turn off the ignition key. The fault then stops me from restarting (but there aren't any fault codes...). Also that when I try to push/pull the car it somehow forces the slave cylinder to a "good" position or that it somehow "resets".
RAB, I can't move the car when I push/pull: it just kind of "shakes" back and forward (I feel the gear engaged).
What I did exactly today (back at home) is the following: with the ignition key turned on, I put the selector lever in neutral (it doesn't disengage! but the display panel indicates I should be in neutral) and try to push/pull the car and THEN I hear and feel the clutch disengaging. Since the hand-brake is off I then even feel the car being free to move (I should never do this is an inclined road!!!).
I'm hoping that only the clutch slave cylinder is faulty. Any advice? What would you do? Thank you very much.

Cheers,
Miguel
 
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There's a quick way to check the clutch with VCDS:

http://wiki.ross-tech.com/wiki/index.php/5-Speed_Electronic_Manual_Transmission_(085)

Do the first part, as far a [Done, Go Back] and see what the clutch reading is. If you can get the reading between 2.0 and 1.8v, the clutch plate is OK. To adjust it, you might have to remove the hydraulic station (which is disconnected during this part of the procedure anyway).

If the clutch cylinder is leaking from the side, it just needs a new O-ring. If the reading above is not stable, it might indicate that the clutch potentiometer is failing. A sign of a failing potentiometer is failure to start in [STOP] but the car will start in neutral. Have you tried starting in neutral?

As for the Audi garage, I would complain to Audi. At the very least, they should have given you a list of the parts that you were charged for!

RAB
 
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Hi RAB,

OK, I'll see what I can do myself.
I haven't yet visually inspected the leak of the clutch cylinder.
I can't start neither in [STOP] or [N] when the problem is present. After the car push/pull and the clutch disengages (if the selector lever was left in [N] or when I then proceed to press the brake pedal while in [STOP]), I can start in either of the two selector lever positions (and works just fine until I turn off the ignition. The only thing which I think might be different is that I hear more often the gearbox pump working but maybe it's just me that I'm more aware of its sound).
I agree with you, I'm going to ask the Audi garage that list.
Thank you.

Cheers,
Miguel
 
When you're facing same symptoms, try not to tow car back and forth, but open hood, ant try to pull clutch cylinder cable. I had same problem when my clutch slave cylinder was faulty. Full basic settings was fixing temporary, but problem vanished away only after replacement to upgraded version with hall-sensor potentiometer.
 
Hi Ceonke,
Thank you very much for the information. I was on vacations and haven't yet start working on the car.

Cheers,
Miguel
 
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