CVT - reality check?

[wand106]

Hi Guys,
I've recently bought a 2004 A4 2.5TDI saloon with CVT - then I decided to google audi CVT!

I'm seeing lots of people with issues with this gearbox, failures at 40k and below very expensive repair bills etc, one audi guy saying that most failures occur with the B6 A4's and just wondering if anyone actually is running these upto big miles without issues? My car is at 61k and the CVT seems faultless, silky smooth so far, sometimes a bit unpredictable but I'm still getting used to it.

I'm seriously wondering if I should sell it on before the problems begin? Maybe I need a reality check, are they really this bad?

Any advice?

Thanks

Wayne

[aragorn65]

Check out my Horror CVT Story post.

[wand106]

yeah I saw that, I was going to say bad luck, but I don't think it is luck, I think their maybe some technical problem with the CVT's but its hard to say what. Probably worse for you as you are in Philippines, so you have limited choice for servicing; at least the car is still running.

I was hoping that I would get some people posting to say how their A4 had done 100k and all was ok or even 80k with no CVT issues, the problem is when browsing forums is that you tend to see all of the people with problems and not the good 'uns which is quite biased I think, hence the reality check!

[aragorn65]

Check this out I got it from AUDISSIMO
EDIT:

The main problem is that a multi plate clutch worns out abnormally, this is unwanted feature of the first generation CVT's. Obviously Audi has been made some kind of mistake about design torque. Audi says, that the first generation CVT is dimensioned for 280 Nm torque, in real, it doesn't manage even 210 Nm torque (which is in 1.8T). The CVT with 7-plate multi plate clutch is used e.g Audi A6 2.7 TDI, which generates 380 Nm output torque. Further information available in link below: Audi World Site > Company > Comfortable long-distance specialist: Audi A6 2.7 TDI with multitronic

[wand106]

Interesting, so I wonder if my car being 2.5tdi has the 7 plate or 5 plate clutch, as you would expect quite a bit of torque from the diesel. Also when do the first generation CVT's end and 2nd generation start, I guess they fixed the problems in 2nd generation (you would hope)

[davidfbmw]

i also have a 2.5 tdi multi tronic with 60000 miles and wondered if the later boxes had been fixed has i haven't heard of any after 2004

[aragorn65]

My CVT juddering problem was fixed by proper flushing of the ATF and putting a new trans fluid. I had it done in a non dealer shop. The dealership recommended a transmission assembly replacement. They claimed the ATF was still fine. The replacement cost is around US$19,000 in our country!