1,9 Auto Diesel Gearbox Or Clutch Issue?

[dhclark]

Hi All,

 

Just stumbled across here when frantically searching for info!

 

Hope you can help (i've had a look but cant find the same issue)

 

Picked up a 2000 (X reg) 1.9 Diesel Auto Galaxy less than an hour ago!

 

Bought privately and a major bargain (actually in pretty good condition).................. seems it was to good to be true!

 

Test drove fine, picked up and all seemed fine, changing through gears fine, hit dual carriage way and quite happily motored along without any issue.

 

Came off onto country roads, put my foot down to get up a hill and it seemed like it dropped me down a gear but then dropped me down to about 2nd! Decided it was me and my heavy foot so eased off and crawled up the hill! Next hill i very gently accelarated and it climbed fine but nothing major. 

 

Waited till i was on the flat and put my foot down, it seemed to chuck me out of gear and rev right up to 5000? Pulled foot off and revs dropped and put me back in gear, carried on motoring!

 

It did it a few times and it seems like i can put my foot down, revs climb to 2500 (might get gear change or) then it deselects anything and revs for with no power.

 

Tried clicking it over to manual and popped it in 4th to climb a slight incline and it still dropped me down into 3rd without me touching it and then attempted to drop me to 2nd, skipped second (screaming at 4000 revs until) i pulled off and shoved it back in D. 

 

So............... I have NO mechanical knowledge, i am not about to go rummaging under the bonnet but want to know if this is a screamingly obvious fault?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Dave

[dhclark]

AND....... thinking about potential causes, the turbo is slightly whistling but only audible at low speeds.

[sparky Paul]

In the absence of any more helpful replies, I'm no expert on the auto boxes but here's my two penn'orth.

 

The Jatco auto boxes on these cars are known to be problematic, and the symptoms you describe are not unusual. Some members have successfully fixed random problems by replacing the auto fluid, although this is quite an involved process. That said, you have to consider that the symptoms may be the result of more serious problems requiring major overhaul, and I'm afraid that this is quite a common outcome. Electrical issues are also reasonably common, particularly faults in the loom wiring and connectors around the gearbox.

 

It might be worth getting someone with the VAG-COM diagnostic tool to see if any error codes are present on the gearbox, and in any case you need access to this to replace the gearbox fluid.

 

I would have a search around the forum to read up about some of these issues, particularly if you are new to the Galaxy/Sharan/Alhambra.