1.8T 09A Transmission Issue

[MattGTI1.8]

Hey everyone,

My 2002 1.8T GTI with an 09A transmission is having some problems. It has been shifting hard when cold, first start up of the day, or after its been sitting for a while. It kind of lags a bit when going into 3rd gear, when cold. It seems to be slipping a bit in 3rd gear. The other night it did something new, while in DRIVE it went into a "false neutral" type of thing. Just revved up a bit, not in gear, then kind of slipped into gear. It did this through 1st 2nd and 3rd. When I switched into tiptronic mode, it did the same thing between gears. I attempted to recreate this today, with no success.

I took it into a transmission shop in town and they couldn't find anything obviously wrong with the transmission itself, they said it was "electrical" and gave me another shop to check out as they have know-how on these types of issues. I have yet to take it to the second shop, but I will be doing that this week.

I thought it might be MAF related because some of the symptoms are similar as having a bad maf. The hard shifting and lagging into 3rd. But wouldn't it be present all of the time? Not just when its cold.

In short:
-Hard shifts when cold
-Lags into 3rd when cold
-Slipping into 3rd when cold, warm, hot
-"False neutral" when engaging gears. Happened once.
-Transmission shop told me electrical, not transmission.

I appreciate any light that can be shed onto this problem. If any more information is needed I will provide it. Thanks Vortex.

[carfreak01]

I think that the first thing you should do is to scan the TCM and ECM, if it's an electrical issue it will show up there.
Check ATF levels.
Those are the basic things you should do before attempting anything else.

Gear slipping or hard shifting are common failures on these units, search this forum and you will find several issues like yours.
If you do not have equipment to scan your car's computers, then once you take it to the 2nd shop ask them for written results of the scan and post them here.

Good luck.
Jose Luis

[byeh]

Matt,

I had the same issue - Its most def. the Solenoids. Get them replaced.


Common issue with 09a JATCO JF506E Transmissions -See the thread here: http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthrea...5#post77790145

*I changed had all of my solenoids changed after consulting the vortex forum - No error codes ever showed up during diagnosis... After new solenoids the car is almost perfect now except for some very slight lag in 2-3 gears - I suspect its the secondary clutch or something else in the main transmission body (waiting to see what that is)...suffice to say the 09a or JATCO JF506E transmission does not seem to have a good lifespan as it seems that these are all failing at the roughly the same mileage. If anyone out there knows what will fail next on this please post..

Here are the solenoids: http://cobratransmission.com/index.p...e_solenoid_kit

Here are the functions: http://forums.fourtitude.com/showthr...ation-Function

Here is the total manual on the 09a (self diagnostics on p64):
http://www.volkspage.net/technik/ssp/ssp/SSP_232.pdf

Solenoid test video - 5spd vw :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABTFWfXrjJI

There is a pictorial how to in the vortex forum somewhere if you search for it.

Good luck with it !

[Neezy13]

Here is the total manual on the 09a (self diagnostics on p64):
http://www.volkspage.net/technik/ssp/ssp/SSP_232.pdf

This needs to be in the faq

[byeh]

This is a great resource: (Transmission Self-Diagnostic)

* One problem is that unless you can find a good transmission shop that is skilled enough to fix it - most will recommend that you just do an overhaul or replace it. (That was my problem) I did convince him to change the solenoids out which (mostly) fixed the issue - but others remain.

* Other option is that if you are skilled enough to do the work yourself and have the time - this is a super resource for the fix it yourself scenario.