On my 2004 VW Passat 1.8t with an tiptronic transmission, the little o-ring on the ATF cooler portion on the radiator had rotted completely and suddenly failed. Left me stranded on the side of a road in the middle of Vermont driving to school.
The guy that lived nearby said I needed to move my car to the embankment ASAP or else it was a matter of when an intoxicated driver will rear end my car on the shoulder. It was flat but off and I need to pop my car in gear to just barely get it back on the road so I can roll it down the hill.
I got a lot of indication on Google that doing that will essentially destroy the transmission the moment you pop into gear without fluid. But I got a little hope that this transmission is robust enough to handle the beating.
What are your guys thoughts? It failed gracefully losing my clutch on the top of a hill, no noises or crunches or thuds. Just stopped applying power.
Here’s my take. I drive an Audi b6 cabriolet. 3.0 with the same transmission, my line POPPED off while I was driving it in tip and it blew the line off on a downshift into second. I emptied that thing not realizing it and when I got to my destination (roughly a mile up the road) I spent the hour figuring out what actually happened as the hose didn’t look like it was popped off but it was and the bolt was missing. I put 5 quarts into the trans at 40c and that’s when it started to leak out of the hole indicating it was full. Tiptronics hold 6 quarts without the torque converter. If you didn’t notice anything immediate other than not moving when you shut the car off, fill it back up after the repair and see if it moves or not. If you did damage it’s already done it’s not crazy expensive to see if you got lucky. Personally I think you’ll be fine as I had to move mine too.
Good news! I did what you said although I ditched the radiator fittings and got an aftermarket cooler from Amazon and it’s actually Better. I’ve been running the car with low ATF all this time (not too low).
It took me a few jugs of ATF to figure out how to fix the leak which basically flushed the system. That worried me since old transmissions will slip real bad with new fluid.
However, it didn’t slip at all and it Shifts FLAWLESSLY. These transmissions are great. Thanks for the help!