Mystery automatic tranny problem

[Christiane Raymond]

I drove my '98 techno blue home from work last night - a whopping 3 miles. I was home for about 20 minutes and had to leave again. As I was backing out of my parking space the car lurched with a bit of a thunk. I wondered what it was but continued backing up then put it in drive. After a few seconds I heard a kind of grinding noise, almost like the belly pan was hanging off and dragging on the street. It freaked me out so I put it in reverse and was going to back into my parking sapce. It was like it was stuck in drive and wouldn't back up. I decided to have it towed to the repair shop this morning, and it wouldn't back up. The tow driver told me to give it a lot of gas while it was in reverse, which I did and then it lurched a bit and backed up. Now it's at the repair shop and the problem has disappeared. What gives?

[DZLBUG]

I cant say I've heard of that exact problem before...but these auto trannies are finding new and exciting ways of failing all the time. How many miles on it?

Peronally I am suspecting a problem in the area of the final drive. ATF and final drive fluids should be checked.

Is this shop experienced with VW auto trannies? If you have a failure...keep in mind that rebuilds of these transmissions do not have a reliable track record. Only options I would consider would be to swap it out for a 5 speed ($2000-$2500, depending on who does the work and for how much)...or replacing it with a VW reman ($3500 list price, installation extra).

Your transmission is likely not long for this world. Good luck.