Transmission oil replacement.

[Finless]

My car is an A4 Avant Estate, B6, 2.4 petrol V6 automatic with, so I've been told, a CVT that has the usual problem (can be juddery when pulling away or at low speed and, recently, when in reverse. The car is on its way to 130,000 miles on the odometer.

I understand that changing the oil won't help if damage has been done to the transmission but I wondered if anybody had noticed an improvement by changing the oil? According to my regular garage mechanics they don't recommend changing the oil.

Is there an easy access point where I can check the state of my current transmission oil?

I thought that the following was quite informative about 'my dilemma'?
Can Changing your Transmission Fluid Cause Damage? - YouTube

[Crasher]

Yes you have a Multitronic (AKA Multichronic) CVT type 01J gearbox. There is a fluid change interval on this box at 40K miles and if this exceeded, the fluid breaks down and starts to cause wear to the friction plate pack, the drive chain and its pulley sets. On boxes where the fluid has been neglected, it makes sense to follow the official purging and line cleaning procedure and then refill with new fluid which is 01J CVT specific. This has to be injected from below and the level is set with the fluid temperature monitored and adjusted between 30 and 35 degrees c. The dry capacity is 7.7 litres so having 8 litres available is sensible, VAG part number G 052 180 A2 for a litre bottle or aftermarket alternatives such as Febi 27975

[Finless]

I fear that this is beyond my ability to do (in the open on a concrete slab in the back garden).

I don't have any equipment for temperature control or any equipment to 'purge the lines'. For that matter, I don't even have anything with which to put the fluid in 'from below'.

My problem is that I have no idea when the fluid was last changed. I'll have a look at the service history when I get home and see if this has been recorded as having been done before and, if so, what mileage was on the the clock when done.

Do you hold any credence to the adage that 'changing the fluid can cause problems to occur (if it hasn't been done at regular intervals before)?

[Crasher]

I forgot to add that the manual states the vehicle must be completely level, we raise them using a four post lift and tweak the padd heights until we get it level according to an app on my iPhone... yes we are a bit OTT...

The temperature is measured using VCDS or similar in measuring blocks where you can see the temperature but the filling part is easy, we have one of these



There is always that nag in the back of your mind that the stories you have heard may come true but look at it this way, if you don't chnage the fluid when you are supposed to, it WILL fail not matter what and on this car a CVT box failure means a one way ticket to the breakers yard where the only part anyone will be interested in is... the gearbox.