Change Auto Box Oil

[Eddie4]

I've had a search through the forum and didn't find anything discussing changing oil on the automatic gear box (which is supposed to be lifetime sealed).
I found this link to taligentx.com which presents a few maintenence procedures, one of which is not only replacing the oil, but also removing the gearbox sump and replacing the oil filter and cleaning any metal shards from the magnets in the sump.

http://taligentx.com/passat/maintenance/atfchange/

To me this looked very useful and something I should look to do as I have 160K on my auto box and I have no idea if the oil has ever been changed. My box changes gears well, but this tells me my autobox oil is due a change. Especially as it appears a fairly straight forward and inexpensive procedure.

Has anyone done this and if so do they have any helpful tips/comments?
One question I have is what is the part number/name for the filter that fits in the sump?

thanks
Eddie :biglaugh:

[adamss24]

You need to replace the strainer (filter to you and me ) as well while at IT. Do it but you need vag-com to make shure the oil level is ok...

[snapdragon]

General recommendation (not just VAG) is to drain and refill without removing the sump and drive for a month and the new fluid will loosen and dissolve the black slimy coating on everything which will get trapped in the filter and dissolved in the oil and then remove the sump and replace filter and gasket and renew fluid. Then just do the drain and refills for a few years (these are only partial changes anyway).

The original ESSO LT7114 which is the only approved ZF oil, was only available in drums or in expensive VW G052 16 bottles from the dealer , but is now sold by Comma (who are owned by ESSO) in 1 and 5 litre bottles http://www.commaoil.com/productsguide/view/6/180