Hello all!

My wife's 2011 non S is having some tranny issues. Only 51k miles! When it's cold 1st and 2nd gear slip a little and the 1/2 and 2/3 shifts are very hard. Once it starts to warm up it behaves better. I changed some fluid last week and that changed how it was acting to some degree. Yesterday I pulled the pan and changed the filter/screen and as much fluid as I could get out. Refilled with Transmaxx full synthetic that is multi vehicle and JWS-3309 approved. The fluid that came out was dark, but not awful and not burnt.
No grit and the magnets did not have much material stuck to them. After driving approx. 40 miles with lots of stopping and starting to make sure it gets plenty of shifting cycles it drives much better, but not quite perfect. This morning when completely cold it still slips and the 1/2 3/4 shifts while not as hard were not as smooth as they should be. Within 5 mins of driving it was warm enough to start driving almost normal. Once fully warm it feels pretty close to perfect.

So what now? While much better, it's still not right. I really didn't get a ton of fluid out of it, so I don't feel like I got near a full exchange of fluid. Anyone think more fluid exchange will help? I guess my next plan would be to order a rebuilt valve body. Since it can shift and drive well my thoughts are the issues are valve body related.

I'd love to hear some thoughts from those who may have some more transmission experience or first hand experience with similar issues.

Thanks!

 

Ok. I just did this job this year, and I can give you some feedback. First, I think you did the right thing going the extra mile changing the filter. I don't know what your experience was, but my pan had a film of metal "dust" I wiped out of it, so I think it was well worth my while to change the filter (at 61k miles on my 2009 S).

The transmission system holds a little over 4 quarts in my car, if memory serves, and I got out about 3 quarts when I dropped the pan. So right off the bat, I figured that I was only changing about 75% of the fluid on the first go. So I had already planned on doing 3 changes, with the filter on the first one.

After I drove around about 100 miles on the first change, I drained the fluid by removing the drain plug AND the standpipe. I, too, felt that it was shifting better, but just not as good as I expected. Whatever you get over the standpipe is just overflow.That's temperature dependent, more on that later.
I measured what I got out, which was about 2 quarts or so. I replaced this much, using the VW method, which pumps it in from the bottom, with an adapter to the drain plug hole. PM me if you want more info.

I again drove around for about 100 miles, with plenty of shifting around. It still wasn't exactly right, but again better. I was already nervous about doing this job by myself to begin with (I didn't EVER want to replace the transmission), so I drove around with a little pucker factor this whole time. Anyway, I figured that, at this point. I had probably "refreshed" my fluid to about 87% new (half of the old 25%, plus the original 75%). So I changed it one more time. 2 quarts out, 2 quarts in.

So now I figured I'm at 93% fresh fluid. Now I know this isn't scientific - I'm just telling you why I changed the fluid 3 times. I'm thinking that in the grand scheme of things, the transmission fluid isn't really that expensive to try and get as much fresh fluid in as I can.

So after driving it around for a few more days, I thought I would try to do one last level check before I buttoned it up for another "lifetime" of 61k miles. Sure enough, at 100 degrees, it was a little low, so I added about a pint, then closed her up. Now the shifting was pretty smooth, but it still lagged sometimes when I really got on it.

This is not the end of the story. I still had to put about 500-1000 miles on the car before the transmission started shifting the way I expected it to. Now it's as smooth as butter. So, my experience (YMMV) is to change the fluid a couple of more times after the first change, and then be patient.I wouldn't worry unless you have another 1000 miles on the tranny and still don't notice a difference.

Hope this is of some use to you.

 

Thanks for the very detailed reply. I already have more fluid sitting on the shelf at home and I just picked up the fill adapter, so based on your info I think I will go ahead and drive for a few miles, change more fluid, etc. before I spend $500-600 on a reman valve body. Thanks again for your help. I'll update here on my progress.

 

There's some valve body adjustment info here that might help with the problem.

https://www.sonnax.com/tech_resource...n-fwd-6-speeds

 

Update!!

So after reading another 30 or so pages of various posts, I finally realized I'm doing the level check wrong. Some how I missed that the engine should be running. I already made the mistake of starting the car with the fill plug out (tranny fluid volcano!). So, last night I added about a half quart on the assumption the fluid is probably low. Wow! It, drives much better. I will check at the appropriate temp with the engine running this weekend and get the level right.