Hey members of Audizine, im a long time reader, first time poster. I have read a lot of your guy's info and advice and can see theres some knowledgable people on here.

Before you say "USE THE SEARCH FUNCTION!", i have. I just have a follow up question to those who have had the 0741 code.

To start, I have a 2002 S4 with about 85K miles. I know i will have to replace the TC soon. The 0741 code popped up the other week, however I am confused. I have done a lot of research and I dont have the usual symptoms (wavering RPMs, slipping, whining noises, "clanking", vibrations, etc.). I consider myself a car enthusiast so I would like to think I would notice these symptoms.

My symptoms: I can drive the car fine in the city and highway. I can click through the gears fine on flat roads and minor hills (by fine i mean none of the previous mentioned symptoms). I have cleared the code 3 times now and have isolated the problem. When I am going up a steep hill and the car downshifts from 5th to 4th gear, the CEL pops up. Its happened 3 times now. I did the same hill, but used the tiptonic mode to keep the car in 4th the whole way and it was fine.

After doing days of research I found a few sites like: http://engine-codes.com/p0741_audi.html and It seems there may be a few fixes. Now before I dump $1800 on a TC (which I will do in the next 12-18 months anyways when I save up a little more $$$), should I spend a few hundred bucks and try an ATF flush and TCC solenoid swap? I have read that people have tried it, but the threads go dead and no one ever posts if it works or not.

I should mention that the previos owner installed the GIAC tranny chip, could this play a role in the problem?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

I want to apologize in advance if there is a thread just like this and I missed it, go easy, Im a newbie