A6 C6 Tiptronic gearbox gear change grinding noise

[Garry_M]

Hi,

my 2010 A6 C6 has a tiptronic gearbox, during gentle driving and radio turned off I hear a slight grinding between 1st, 2nd and I think 3rd gear. Any advice greatly appreciated.

Regularly serviced and low milage at 74,000 miles
I do not tow anything
No oil leaks underneath
No fault codes on OBD reader (cheap ebay gadget)

I have read in the past on this forum that the tiptronic gearbox has oil for life and doesn't get serviced.

Regards,
Garry.

[Crasher]

That sounds like it needs an oil change, ignore the filled for life crap, the 6HP19 needs 50k oil changes and if you start to get a groaning in slow cornering the the diff oils need changing.

[C6Allroad]

Hi,

my 2010 A6 C6 has a tiptronic gearbox, during gentle driving and radio turned off I hear a slight grinding between 1st, 2nd and I think 3rd gear. Any advice greatly appreciated.

Regularly serviced and low milage at 74,000 miles
I do not tow anything
No oil leaks underneath
No fault codes on OBD reader (cheap ebay gadget)

I have read in the past on this forum that the tiptronic gearbox has oil for life and doesn't get serviced.

Regards,
Garry.

Depends on how it's been driven over 74k miles as to the life of the oil in the box - short trips round town with lots of gear changes and spirited driving will take it's toll. Also as you have it remapped it will put extra strain/ heat through the fluid. Get the box and diff's serviced a take it from there (should be <£400 ish)

[Garry_M]

Hi,

many thanks for both replies and advice.

I will look at local garage and Audi dealer for the work and compare quotes.

Regards,
Garry.

[C6Allroad]

Hi,

many thanks for both replies and advice.

I will look at local garage and Audi dealer for the work and compare quotes.

Regards,
Garry.

Don’t waste your time with an Audi dealer as officially the gearbox doesn’t need servicing and a general car repair outfit is unlikely to have the specialist skill or kit to do it. Look for an automatic transmission specialist who is familiar with ZF gearboxes (they are very common boxes on a range of cars).

[Scott K]

Hi Garry,
There is a ZF specialist near Glasgow - MACkie Transmissions. When he does a gearbox oil change, they have machines which flush the torque converter.

[Rbhelle]

Agree with the others, change atf fluids. It is unfortunately filled for life, but it should be filled for life as long as it within guarantee time....Anyway, 6HP19A ZF gearbox should use ZF8HP fluid, G 060 162 A2. I guess the 2010 model has ZF8 fluid originally and not the ZF6. Mine 2007 A6 Allroad has ZF6 fluid and I have not upgraded the software, so will still use ZF6 and not ZF8. I do think that 6HP19 use ZF6 and 6HP19A use ZF8. They do not mix very well.

[C6Allroad]

An automatic gearbox specialist did fluid change on the box and front and rear diffs last month at 105k miles. I wasn't having any issues but since then the gear changes are more seamless up and down and the points where the gears change in terms of load and revs seem more 'appropriate'.

[Rbhelle]

Good, ATF fluid change is important to keep the gearbox for another 100 000 miles with no problem. Also consider to change the filter and seals next time. There is at least a pint inside filter and bottom bracket when disassembled. The rest of the oil is in the converter and you won't get it out unless do a flush (or change the oil 1-2 more times within a short time). I got out 5 ltrs, refilled with 5ltrs, ran all gears through as specified and then tapped out 2 more liters and filled 2 new litr of oil back up. So total of 7 ltrs of new oil (semi semi semi flush... ;-)

[Garry_M]

Many thanks for all your replies. I have sold the A6 with gearbox noise. I took it to a local garage that does tuning and he said I could spend money flushing oil etc and noise may stll exist. The car was 2010, I owned since 2012 so selling it in 2021 after nine years just seemed right. I sold it to webuyanycaar (deliberate spelling mistake incase advertising banned) and they were perfect to deal with. I got £4885 for it, 76000miles. The garage said to me, if I sold it private and gearbox failed, new owner could pester me, they said fairest way is to trade it and new garage would sell it with a warranty which could replace fault/grind noise.

I bought a 2021 Alfa Romeo Giulia sprint 2.0 turbo petrol... its epic.

Last week I bought a mk2 golf gti 3 door and in the process of ripping out the comedy sound system wiring, old alarm and immobiliser wiring, fitting central locking and remote... re living my teenage years of car tweaking... i'm 42 now (mid life crisis!!!!! hahaha)

Thansk again.