Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 13:08:56 EDT
Reply-To: Jwilli941@AOL.COM
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: Todd Hill <Jwilli941@AOL.COM>
Subject: Re: auto vs. manual-reply
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Mark Gajewski wanted to know the hows and whys
of an automatic vs. a manual trans.
Briefly, I'm partial to manuals ;), however, credit is
due the 010 version of VW's automatic that went
into the Vanagons. This was a beefed up version
of the unit used in the Rabbits/Golfs/Jettas that
found its way into the Vanagon and some Audis.
From my experience as a VW dealer tech they
seemed to be pretty realiable and tended to give
good service/durability.
There were a couple of weak areas with the 010.
One was that VW failed to include a service
interval in the owner's manual (uhh... whats that? ;).
Because of that most owners treated it as a
sealed part that never needed checking or servicing.
These transaxles should be checked everytime your
oil is changed and should be serviced at least every
24 months- IM not so HO. Dirty ATF is the bane of
this kind of transaxle and killed more trannys before
their time than I can count. It wasn't the owner's
fault; they were following the recommended service
procedures that VW published when the vehicle was
sold. VW has since revised the service requirements
for the Auto but alot of older Vanagons are now on
their 2nd, 3rd, 4th owners and they may not be aware
of this revision.
The other weak area that I can think of right now is
the habit of the pinion shaft seals failing and the auto
portion of the transaxle pumping ATF into the
differential section. I've scalded myself a few times
while checking the diff with hot mixed ATF/Gear oil
squirting out under pressure from the diff. I learned
very quickly to stand off to the side and have a drip
pan handy! You can tell if the pinion seals have
failed if when checking the ATF level you find that it
is low- or bone dry!- and then using your trusty
17mm wrench on the diff section find that it seems
overfull. If the diff gear oil has a reddish-brown tint
and feels watery vs. the more normal dark amber
brown thicker fluid then you know that the seals
have failed. The only way to fix it is to yank the
trans out, seperate the two halves, replace the
seals, and reinstall in reverse order (as the Bentley
would say).
Finally, again IM not so HO opinion, VW tends to
treat the North American market like an unwanted
step child. There is no R&D going on with this now
superceded vehicle and transaxle design so the
parts available now are the best we're going to get.
The last reseal job I did the seals seemed to be of
the same design and mfg. as the old ones so this
maybe a continuing problem like the head gasket
leak. Not trying to rain on anyone's parade here
but just passing along what I saw with the autos
(not that the manuals were perfect either!)
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