Gearbox replacement, anybody used Mister Transmission ?

[660z]

Hi forum, I am thinking of getting the dreaded gearbox rebuilt by Mister Transmission in Charlton London, has anybody used them before ? I have done various searches of the forums and cannot find any mention of them and yet they claim to have rebuilt many C5 RS6 gearboxes.

[audi_driver79]

Hmm, I guess that would be a no then? I'm from up North but maybe Google and speak to Chester Automatic Transmission Centre. They seem to be highly recommended and used by alot of garages to do our gearboxes.

[jockthedog]

You want a ZF registered service center if you can find one.

I did rebuild one myself and it's not too hard

[660z]

Thanks Audi_driver79, perhaps you fancy doing another one Jockthedog......

[jockthedog]

I do have a wee hankering. What's up with it?
I'd farm out the Valve Body testing and possible rebuild to another Shop but I can handle the more mechanical side of things.

In fact, you should really get the VB checked while the box is in the car.
They can quickly find any mechanical issues from any crap they find in the sump and the VB can be removed and tested (at a specialist) with the box still in the car. For the price of an oil-change + VB testing, might be worth a look before you go the whole hog.

You may have a problem finding a garage that wants to have your engine on its floor for a day or ten while the box is refurbed, and it could take longer than that.
Just getting ZF parts takes a week.
I would be doing the work for free. Just parts to pay for.
This would only be my second ZF Auto box, and I'd need your patience w the rebuild.
I do have all the tools I need, now.

[Mɐʇʇ]

Chester Auto's have (had) exchange boxes in stock ready to go - overnight service, they arranged all the shipping and give it a 12 month warranty. What's not to like.

[Shoppinit]

Jock, it would be useful if you could post a contact for a valve body specialist. Don't think I've come across one before.

[jockthedog]

Jock, it would be useful if you could post a contact for a valve body specialist. Don't think I've come across one before.

Mackie Transmissions in Glasgow is one.
Any ZF specialist can do it AFAIK. There are a few in the UK.

Mackies charged me 500-odd to test, repair and retest the VB.

[kvxxy]

You can buy uprated clutches for this box. I think they're exedy ones. If you're gonna rebuild it, it maybe worth while fitting better parts. I've always wanted to unrat the VB but never known of anyone who can do it in the uk.

I've only ever come across this site

https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/aud ... late,12199

[660z]

Thanks again for all the comments, certainly food for thought re updated clutches, of course I am thinking that with the engine out, there may be other seals / gaskets that could do with changing just in case...... plus the car is also due its first cambelt as well.
Jock let me give you a brief history of the car, it is an 04, I bought it about 9 years ago with 20,000 miles on the clock, it had DRC issues despite the fact that replacement units had already been fitted, I contacted Audi about this and they gave me the run around and concluded that they would be prepared to make a small contribution towards the replacement of the units once the issue was diagnosed properly, at my expense of course, it looked like I was going to be hit for about £4K which for for a 3 year old car I found totally unacceptable, I was so pissed off with the whole thing that I left the car sitting for a few years every now and again taking it for a quick spin as it hopped and skipped all over the place, Audi remained adamant that it was not a safety issue........ Then after pressure from RS6 owners Audi finally capitulated, Audi USA replaced or paid for replacement suspension without silly conditions, Audi UK however finally agreed there was a problem and set out silly conditions that very few could meet so I went to war with Audi in more earnest this time, hammering their customer services until they gave me what I wanted which was a full suspension system for an S6 which I figured would be preferable to the shitty DRC. Meanwhile I found a s/h Bilstein PSS9 kit on eBay for about £400 which would have been rude not to buy and sold the S6 kit for £350 to an Audi tech who also had an RS6 who claimed it was cheaper than buying it from his own Audi dealership in London. So the car finally had semi-decent suspension and was running like a dream ish, I have never been entirely happy with the PSS9's as they are way too soft on anything but the hardest settings and bottoms out even on the highest height setting like a pig. So again the car has not been driven much, in fact it has only just done about 35000 miles, 15,000 with me in the past 9 years.
Back when the car was 3 years old with 20K on the clock, the gearbox did not sound perfect either, at high speed with full throttle it would change up into 5th and 6th gear near the redline with a bang, this was always disconcerting, and in truth always made me wonder what the hell Audi was thinking when they unleashed this badly developed car on the world, as time went on more and more owners complained of gearbox and suspension issues which was no surprise to me having had the car for so long with very little mileage, truth is it has been the worst car I have ever paid good money for, I have a few much faster cars and so whilst I found it's performance impressive for such a big old barge it was always negated by its major faults namely Gearbox and suspension, together with a number of other irritating problems I have never encountered with a car so new like replacement alternator about 8 years ago, a persistent ABS issue that I finally traced to a bad connection under the dash, electric windows going bonkers and opening in the middle of the night whilst it was raining, damp and a resultant number of electrical issues.....the list is endless, so whilst most issues have been sorted, oh and a replacement engine wiring loom after a so called specialist butchered the existing loom trying to figure out why the car was popping fuel injection fuses....... SMH
Going back to the gearbox, a couple of times in the past few years the gearbox would bang into gear when selecting reverse then go into limp mode with all gear lights showing on the dash, restarting the car would usually cure this, and it would not happen again for a while, this has happened a few times in the past 10000 miles, it was also having trouble selecting second gear on occasion, it would rev close to the redline before jumping into second then very quickly into third because the revs were so high, this has again happened about 8 times in the past 10K miles and 5 years, all along I figured the gearbox was on its way out and was closely watching all the manual gearbox conversions going on with the intention of junking the rubbish auto once and for all, my reasoning all along is that there is no point spending good money on replacement parts that are really not up to the job, so the car has not been used much, now recently it has launched a more serious gearbox trick, it will go into reverse with a bang, go into limp mode and stay there regardless of whether you switch it off or not, whilst driving, it may start jerking and shooting off as if it was switching between limp mode and normal, seemingly with a mind of its own and obviously quite dangerous, it has done this about 3 times in the past month, sometimes after a long warm up (30 mins) before selecting gear it will go into reverse without a bang but stay in limp mode, so you switch it off and about 5 mins later you turn it on and no bang on selecting reverse and no limp mode lights, this happened on Tuesday so I took it for a 30 mile run in heavy traffic on the M25 and it drove perfectly, kickdown to high speed was faultless, switched engine off 20mins later it started again no fuss and I drove home again no issue at all, yesterday I started car and it immediately went into limp mode even before I touched the gear lever........ Sorry for the long post but I am trying to give the full picture.
Oh and yes about 6 years ago I took it up the pod and it consistently ran 12.96 @ 118mph on the crap DRC so I have always been happy with the performance. The car is totally stock.

[660z]

So Jock, what do you think ? Mr transmission reckon they can remove rebuild and refit my gearbox for £1800, they claim they can do it so cheaply because they have done so many it can be in and out in no time. I found them whilst searching for a ZF specialist.

[660z]

So Jock, what do you think ? Mr transmission reckon they can remove rebuild and refit my gearbox for £1800, they claim they can do it so cheaply because they have done so many it can be in and out in no time. I found them whilst searching for a ZF specialist.

[bilko1]

Definitely a faulty box if you have 6 gears.

[jockthedog]

Definitely a faulty box if you have 6 gears.

hehe yes indeed. It;s a 5speed

Banging into reverse sounds like the F clutch piston problem. That means the whole box would need stripped down and rebuilt. That part is right at the bottom of the stack.
It was probably caused by dirt or wear in the VB.

1800 for a fitted, working box is a very good deal. Considering the engine has to come out,at least part-way, that is super-cheap.
My own rebuild cost more than that just for labour (40 hours) and 2x that to have my own box rebuilt. I spent another 3k on changing/replacing other parts at the same time.

[660z]

Of course 5 speed, thanks for the nudge.....LOLOL And yes Jock that is what bothers me, the 3K's worth of work that might get overlooked, It's a tough one and yet as you say £1800 is a blinding deal, almost too good to be true and yet I am kinda tempted to let them do it as the people I know who have dealt with them in the past have only had good things to say about them and they have been around for quite a long time.
Out of interest Jock what should they be looking for amidst the other 3K ?