This epic pile of rubbish I purchased in 2021, a 2005 Volkswagen Passat TDI wagon with an automated transmission.
So, the automobile was nice for a short while, no less than lengthy sufficient that I by no means wrote an replace for this web site. Then, it began exhibiting points entering into fifth gear. Now, thoughts you, the transmission on it was supposedly only a few years outdated, so it shouldn’t have been doing that.
Eventually, the transmission challenge received so dangerous that it generally didn’t like entering into fourth gear as nicely. What would occur is the transmission would try to start a shift to fourth or fifth, tons of vibration would happen, I’d really feel and listen to a tough metallic bang, then the automobile would enter transmission limp mode.
I parked the automobile for a yr, deciding to place it on ice whereas the automobile may nonetheless transfer beneath its personal energy. The concept was that I’d purchase a handbook transmission and have my indy do the swap. Well, earlier this yr, my indy mentioned he doesn’t do swaps. So, I pulled it out of storage and determined to promote it. During the time I’ve had it on the market, one thing occurred to the automobile’s vacuum system, now the brakes are tremendous exhausting and the turbo doesn’t enhance. My spouse then unintentionally misplaced the title. I may repair the vacuum downside (most likely the pump or a line) and change the title, however with a trash transmission it’s possibly value $500-$1,000, anyway. I’ve now owned three of those diesel wagons with automated transmissions and all of them had some kind of transmission downside.
Of course, I didn’t study my lesson…I ended up shopping for one other 2005 Passat TDI wagon (now my fourth), however with a handbook already swapped into it!
Source: jalopnik.com