Another One Bites The Dust

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Well Hello There Fellow Technicians And Hivers!

Another one bites the dust! Yeah these are known for their transmission problems or actually not I don't really know what they are known for but in our little shop they come in by bunches for transmission work, hence here we are.

Now this is a beautiful one, very well maintained at-least exterior and interior for that matter but what lies beneath the hood of this one is what really matters at the end of the day.

This car doesn't have a lot of problems in-fact the problem was so small that we almost didn't even notice it, bossman phoned the client to come drive with him to point out what exactly bothered him and the more we drove it the more we started feeling the faults.

Again it lies within the Mega-tronic.

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Laughs this is actually quite funny, I get that not everyone has the knowledge to work on vehicles and such but would it kill you to pop the hood and have a look at the water and oil levels of your vehicle?

Seeing this I wont believe the client even if he said he does check it, my point is if you did you'd have cleaned this out.

No biggy though, but I ain't gonna clean it out. 😄

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As always removing the negative battery pole is the first thing on my list, this is where people slip up they work on electronics and then they don't cut the power, yes chances of something blowing isn't all that high but it happens... and it happens when you least expect it.

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Without further delay let's get the car jacked up and ready to remove the Mega-tronic. To be honest I had to work like lightning since the insurance assessor was already on his way to inspect the vehicle.

I had to get the Mega-tronic removed and strip it up as quickly as possible.

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Now I know this isn't where I am supposed to work but before I start working on a vehicle I do a little self assessment to see what might lead to future problems not for the sake of the client but for the sake of protecting us, when I see a oil leak or two or maybe three I report to bossman because every damn time we work on a vehicle that has oil leaks the customer complains "But it's leaking oil now" yes, yes it does. "But it didn't leak before I brought it in" No, no it definitely did... Then the whole damn engine is covered with grime but it didn't leak before.. Yeah sure buddy we opened the hood and now your spare tyre is flat ey.

People are chancers, that is something I've learner in my short time as a technician!

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Well let's ignore the small oil leak on his oil filter and let's get on with what I need to be doing!

Again I've done this before many times and the most common problem on these transmissions is the Mega-tronic unit failing this in it self is already an expensive repair so when you do get a fault on it, it's best to stop driving and take it in for repairs. The reason for this is because this unit controls both the clutch and the selection of gears and yes it can get stuck in two gears making the vehicle completely immobile, even worse it can burn your clutch to bits when it gives problems.

As we all know those dual clutches is about the same price as a kidney, it will cost you dearly!

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It's a tricky little thing to remove and that is probably why even the dealers tend to break it on removal... Yes you read right THE DEALERS! We've gotten so many Mega-tronic's from both Audi and Volkswagen where they broke the computer board upon removal.

Ironic since they are the go to guys and also the oaks that are supposed to know the in's and out's of it all!

Now since the removal is a little bit tricky I like to remove the lower transmission mounting and then re-enter one of the bolts coming out of the mounting then I get a ratchet strap to pull the motor backwards.

If you don't want to remove the transmission mounting and pull the motor back you have to drain the coolant of the motor and remove one of the hoses leading into the radiator, otherwise you can forget it... So basically its an either or situation.

As I said I tend to pull it back, then I don't have to suffer through the tormentation of dripping coolant on my head.

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I've got her out, I did have a bit of a jingle where at first I couldn't get it out but the problem was that I didn't strap the motor back far enough. So while holding it with one hand half dangling in the air I scooted up to the ratchet and pulled it a little bit further and it just popped right out.

Also I think the main reason for me not getting it out was the fact that I didn't plug out the water temp sensor just above the radiator hose, usually I do that. Well I will surely do it when I re-fit this into the transmission.

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Just for the fun of it I decided to add this photo into the bunch.

Ofcourse you can see the gears in the picture but what I really want to show is the selector forks, so notice on the side of the pictures there are these ear lobe like metal pieces, the mega-tronic has little pistons that hook into those and then it's able to select the proper gears.

All electronic hey, can you imagine how many signals it must read every second to know when to shift to a higher or lower gear at just the right moment.

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Assessing The Tear Down Of The Megatronic

As you can see I have already torn down the whole megatronic, literally every last bolt is loosened, oh wait I am lying... I didn't remove the solenoids I'll have to do that on the morrow, oh yeah the assessor never showed up, he will only be coming next week Tuesday, so we had all that haste for what?

Nothing I tell you, well at least what's done is done.

Yes I know it's a mess of parts in front of me but let's run through what the actual problem might have been.

Since the vehicle was driving fine and then all of a sudden it has problems and then it's back to normal, the most obvious answer would be that the system is losing pressure.

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Exactly as we thought, this megatronic is losing pressure in various locations, the first being the O-ring around the Kinergo, this is where the bulk of the pressure is stored and since it has a torn and shredded O-ring that would have to be replaced, small problem but may cause large errors.

Don't write of the fact that the casing might also be cracked, it had a major release of pressure through that o-ring and that could have made a hairline crack into the casing.

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The second thing I noticed was this tiny o-ring, these almost never fail and this is legitly the very first one I came across that was hard as rock and pressed flat. Another spot in which in lost pressure.

A double pressure loss situation. Luckily that's all minor fixes.

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The o-rings and pressure loss in the megatronic are both really small problems that lead to big results, but what bothers me most is this stuff the filter caught up, this can also cause a circulation problem within the megatronic. But if this is caught in the filter where did it come from because this is a sealed unit...

I'm not sure exactly what it is but it feels and looks like some sort of fabric clogged up.

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It's not a lot I know but metal shavings are still metal shavings and they tend to work in and through everything that has surface contact with each other and when these shavings gets in between the surface contact points it does tend to create wear on the parts very fast!

Although it's not a lot, but we will see what the assessor says and what the insurance will pay out for.

Now it's all a waiting game.

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Dated 06/04/2023

Take note this is not a how to guide, merely myself talking about the work I do and my thoughts around certain things.

To everyone who made it this far into my post Thank you for the read and the support.

If you found this entertaining or educational please consider a re-blog and up-vote.

Most of all please leave a input in the comments below, whether is good or bad critic I would like to know, whether its your opinion or your way of doing things in a different manner I would like.

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