Transmission Concern

[C-5Hvy]

I have a 6MT trans and I have had a strange occurance on a few occassions. It has only ever happened in the morning time when I first start the car for the day and the trans is cold. I will put the car in reverse to back out of the garage and for no reason the trans will pop out of reverse, as if I didnt fully engage the gear. Once I put the car back into reverse it seems to hold as it should everytime. Like I said, it has only happened maybe 8 times or so over 19 months and i didnt think much of it until today. I picked up the new issue of Road and Track and towards the back they had the followup on their long term B8 S4 review. The car got very high marks and was a a favorite to all of the staff except for its reliability. They had the T-stat fail, which I think we have all had grief over, and they had THE ENTIRE trans replaced because they too had a car that would pop out of reverse. In the comment box they noted that the trans repair was all under warranty but if off warranty it was over $5000 in repairs. Has anyone else experienced this issue? Ill be calling my audi dealer first thing tomorrow morning.

Update: Just went outside and tested it, the trans temp has nothing to do with it. If I feather the clutch out and hold it slightly in at the top, like I do everday backing out of the garage, the gear will hold fine. As soon as I fully release the clutch it will pop out of gear like 2 seconds later. I guess because I never really have a need to fully release the clutch in reverse it has gone so long without me knowing. This sucks.

[queue]

Thanks for the heads up - I'll check out that R&T article too.

[patinsd]

I have 23K on mine and never notice something like that .
It's always harder to go on first gear when the car is cold but tht's all .
Do you have a short shifter ?

[C-5Hvy]

No short shifter. It's is a transmission problem. The article I read discribed the same thing I have going on. The tech in the article called it a reverse glitch. As soon as the clutch is all th way out it pops out of gear. Going to call dealer service ASAP.

[UmIsThisThingOn]

OMG [headbang]

[C-5Hvy]

First the T-stat, then the brake noise, now this. I hope I can get something free out of this lol.

[hinckley]

I had this exact issue in an Acura many years ago. The transmission had to be replaced . . . thankfully under warranty.

[NHS4]

I suspect a few of us will be finding a reason to drive a 100 yards or so in reverse today... Hopefully just an a couple of isolated incidents, but I can't recall reversing very far in this car.

[gringoloco2000]

I think I will test this when I get my car back from the shop. I have had a laundry list of TSBs already. What is one more. I bet most of us never fully release the clutch in reverse so even if present, we would not know. It would not matter so much unless you keep it until out of warranty and it gets worse. $5K for reverse would suck.

[C-5Hvy]

So i just got off the phone with my service adviser and it sounded strangely like he knew exactly what I was going to say. Set me up with an immediate appointment no questions asked. There was a sort of "oh crap not one of these cars" sound to his voice. Ill keep yas updated, go test your reverse!

[mkato13]

Gonna have to test mine when I get out of work. Hope they give you good news or at least something free

[Retrospect]

So i just got off the phone with my service adviser and it sounded strangely like he knew exactly what I was going to say. Set me up with an immediate appointment no questions asked. There was a sort of "oh crap not one of these cars" sound to his voice. Ill keep yas updated, go test your reverse!

Shit. Good luck!

[C-5Hvy]

So I went to the dealer today and they are getting me a whole new transmission fresh out the box. I am a little upset that the job needs to be done but at least it is all covered by audi. The service rep was really helpful and taught me a lot about how our 6MT trans works. He did his check, then called the audi transmission specialists and they decided dont rebuild it, dont even waste time checking the fluid for metal, just pop a new one in. It will be all back to new next week.

[jsh139]

Solid necro-bump here. I just noticed this exact same thing happening with my car. Two times over the past week I was backing up and the shifter popped out of reverse. Both times I was giving it more gas than I would when normally reversing and I'm pretty sure the clutch was fully engaged (which it almost never is while in reverse).

I have an aftermarket warranty with Allstate that has about 4,000 miles left on it. I'm thinking of calling them and starting a claim. Wondering what the actual problem is and if anyone else has had this happen besides the OP?

[nunzo]

I posted a thread recently about this same issue. Randomly happens to me only when backing up my steep driveway. I always assumed it was something to do with making the car pop out of gear when getting towed.

[jsh139]

I posted a thread recently about this same issue. Randomly happens to me only when backing up my steep driveway. I always assumed it was something to do with making the car pop out of gear when getting towed.

Thanks for the reply. I just read your thread. Odd that it didn’t show up in my search.