TD5 Transmission rebuild - Melbourne

[tzioup]

Howdy

Over the past 6 months I've experienced a small number of erratic issues which feel very much like my auto TD5 transmission needs some TLC.

Things that come to mind include:

The clutch didn't lock up on a 1h freeway trip the other day,
When starting cold, the car takes 15-20 seconds before it starts rolling forward in drive, and doesn't much like throttle before then, used to go straight away
On a couple of occasions, Reverse didn't engage, had to go to Neutral and back into Reverse
On occasions I feel that the engine revs a lot harder than it should before gearing up.
Recently I had an M & S issue when trying to drive off from a steep ramp. Had to roll back to flat and turn the engine over again to get out. Took the car to the local mechanic after this and they squeezed about half a litre into the transmission. I already had the car booked in to get the leak fixed, but I feel this is throwing a couple of grand at something that won't fix any of the above.


Can anyone recommend somewhere to have the tranny spruced up in the Melbourne area? bonus point for northern suburbs...

I spoke to Wholesale Automatic Transmissions in Bayswater and they have a 3 months wait...

Side question - my economy has gone down significantly, for some time I thought it might be due to adding roof racks with an awning an bazooka on the car, but hoping the transmission might be the culprit... I now barely get 500km out of a tank with mostly metro driving - used to get 600+. Seems like a sharp drop for an alloy rack event accounting for wind resistance. Thoughts? Might be wishful thinking, I've noticed the economy drop when the above issues were not prevalent.

Thanks all

[discorevy]

No torque converter lock up is the reason for poor economy.
Trans will need a full rebuild , more than likely a new oil pump i$ required.
Get them to reseal transfer case at the same time, including intermediate shaft.
Also new cooler and lines.
If the car is a keeper Either a V8 converter upgrade or at least lowering the stall rate of TD5 converter together with remap is strongly recommended

[shack]

I agree entirely with Discorevy's synopsis.

The auto needs a rebuild most likely, that and all the extras you've bolted on are probably then entire reason for the economy woes!

On a stock auto with stock gearing, and with only a bullbar as an add on and hybrid turbo, I get about 10.3 on a 600 km highway run, with about an hour and a half in Adelaide City thrown in.

I've also got another with a desperately flogged auto that consistently gets about 14 or so.......

[Tins]

I’d have a chat with Andrew at Les Richmond Automotive. If he doesn’t do them he’ll know someone good who does.

[AK83]

I've had a good experience with Borg's Automatics in Coburg North .. very close to my house too(ie. very handy).

They aren't the cheapest, but good people.

Last few things I've had them do is a couple of power steering pumps. One cheaply enough .. but the Tdi pump cost a small fortune in the end.

Their ph is 0393504500 and they have a website if you search.

If you are much further up north as Tins said try LRA. I'm 99.9% they don't do auto rebuilds, but they do mechanical work, so would do the remove/refit and seal up the TC.

A few months back in my Tdi(auto) .. I had a similar issue re lockup. it sometimes(randomly and rarely) did this no lockup even up to 100k/h, but slowing a tad(say 90), manually pull back to 3rd, back into 4th and straight away it's change into 4th and lockup 1/2 sec later.

This one time tho, no matter how many times I tried this trick.. just would lockup.
Pulled into a servo, got a 1/2 lt bottle of trans fluid, slowly emptied bottle into dipstick tube(real bloody slowly) ... lockup back in business.
Next day, checked trans level .. just a smidge over the full line. Hard to fathom that just half a litre could do that. I was thinking that maybe it was the cold weather or something.

I've had to top it up a bit more than 1lt a few times over the past 100k klms I've had it, and it hasn't done the 'no lockup' thing for so long.

One other question for 'ya.

Does it lock up now? does it sometimes not? From my experience with the Td5 (and Tdi) is that they're quite resistant to unlocking at say 100 k/h when working well.
When brother owned (now) my Td5, it had some lockup issues. Wouldn't lockup, then would. and so on. But when his would lockup, it unlocked at the slightest touch of accelerator during this time, and more importantly a very hard vibration when locked, just prior to unlocking. We and mechanic basically guessed that the torque converter was on it's way out. Did a stall test and it revved up over 3k rpm all too easily.

A week or so later, new torque converter was installed, rebuilt by Dominator Torque converters .. quick turnaround(this was back in about 2017-2018) .. they operated around the corner from where LRA used to be in Thomastown, pulled into there bought a HD flex plate too .. up to mechanics and just done.

You say you get about 500k's per tank, but how many litres are you filling up with? Do you fill to the first or second click and stop there?
Makes difference.
Dunno if anyone else notices this(at least in Melbourne) but Mobil diesel foams up a lot less than all other 'brands' of diesel.

(note I say 'brands' in quote marks because there are only one other brand of diesel in Melbourne .. don't know about other states) .. no matter what diesel you buy, it's either Mobil or Shell .. but they do have blend varieties).

[Homestar]

I can recommend Chris at Airport Automatics in Tullamarine.

[simonmelb]

The two most often quoted are A & B Automatic Transmission Service | Repairs & Remanufacturing – AB Automatics (http://abautomatics.com.au/) who are the official ZF re builder. And Manual Automatics in Thomastown who rebuilt mine completely- going very well.

Back about 4 years ago the going rate was about $5500 drive in drive out.

[d2dave]

I can vouch for A and B automatics.

[onebob]

I can vouch for A and B automatics.

X2 [emoji1417][emoji1417]

[tzioup]

No torque converter lock up is the reason for poor economy.
Trans will need a full rebuild , more than likely a new oil pump i$ required.
Get them to reseal transfer case at the same time, including intermediate shaft.
Also new cooler and lines.
If the car is a keeper Either a V8 converter upgrade or at least lowering the stall rate of TD5 converter together with remap is strongly recommended

As I mentioned the TC not locking up happened on a single occasion and 80% of my driving is in metro setting so sub lock up range. So this can't explain the economy.

@AK83 See above re: your question about locking up. And re: filling level, I always fill to the last click and then hold up the hose to let it drip in there to avoid making a mess! So should be full to the brim - but I've noticed the tank level dial never goes above just below the full line (starting on flat ground), which I can't tell if it's always been the case or not?

I'll ring up all the people mentioned and see who can take me in first at the right price, thanks all!

[tzioup]

Update:

Spoke to A and B, the office person said she reckons they don't do them anymore but will ask 'the boys'.

Borg's: seemed very hesitant, quoted $4.5k based on the last one they did but when I started asking about whether that included resealing the transfer case and a new pump he said he's not that familiar with them and I should speak to Ritter, see what they say is involved and then call him back

Ritter: dropped a bomb and said a number of parts involved in the rebuild (couldn't say which) are no longer manufactured so anyone who says they will do a rebuild will either be using old parts that likely shouldn't be going in, or just doesn't know what they're talking about.

He said my best bet was to find a reco'ed transmission sitting on a shelf somewhere that comes with a decent warranty....

So that's a bit upsetting to hear, anyone who's got a D2 TD5 is essentially sailing a sinking ship by the sounds of it... Has anyone got better news?

[Fattima]

Ashcroft transmissions sell reconditioned ones if you want to get one shipped from the UK.

[Slunnie]

Update:

Spoke to A and B, the office person said she reckons they don't do them anymore but will ask 'the boys'.

Borg's: seemed very hesitant, quoted $4.5k based on the last one they did but when I started asking about whether that included resealing the transfer case and a new pump he said he's not that familiar with them and I should speak to Ritter, see what they say is involved and then call him back

Ritter: dropped a bomb and said a number of parts involved in the rebuild (couldn't say which) are no longer manufactured so anyone who says they will do a rebuild will either be using old parts that likely shouldn't be going in, or just doesn't know what they're talking about.

He said my best bet was to find a reco'ed transmission sitting on a shelf somewhere that comes with a decent warranty....

So that's a bit upsetting to hear, anyone who's got a D2 TD5 is essentially sailing a sinking ship by the sounds of it... Has anyone got better news?

That is really interesting information! I'm assuming Ritters information explains A&B's position, especially considering A&B are Australia's ZF partner.

[Pedro_The_Swift]

Hard to believe ZF have given up on that box.. there must be millions of them world wide..

[Tins]

Ashcroft transmissions sell reconditioned ones if you want to get one shipped from the UK.

They also sell kits. Any competent trans builder could work from there. ZF Master Rebuild Kit - Ashcroft Transmissions (https://ashcroft-transmissions.co.uk/product/zf-master-rebuild-kit/)

Problem, I think, is that it's a heavy job and most of the "shops" don't want to offer a warranty in case they have to do it again.

[Tins]

Hard to believe ZF have given up on that box.. there must be millions of them world wide..

Sadly, Pedro, that's the modern world. Pretty soon ZF 8 speed trans will be old hat.

[Slunnie]

Sadly, Pedro, that's the modern world. Pretty soon ZF 8 speed trans will be old hat.

Thats the thing. We must be very close to the stage where the repair on these things is an engine/gearbox transplant. If 4HP support is basically gone, the 6HP combo will be the next to go. I think the 8HP is still a current box, so hopefully those combinations will have support for long enough.

[4runnernomore]

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/blob:https://www.aulro.com/55e7d07d-6622-4e26-8c58-d2bc12223bdaTop idea

LS3 and transmission conversions for everyone. All hail Les Richmond 🤩

:banana:

[SPROVER]

I had my transmission done by A and B in Dandenong. I wasn't very impressed with the way they handled things. Long story short was I picked up my D2 the afternoon before they closed for Christmas holidays.
As soon as I drove off, it felt like it was really struggling. As if it was taking off in 3rd gear. I rang them as soon as I got back to work and there reason was, that the D2 td5 is a very laggy motor...[emoji1751] Mind you my D2 has a stage 2 remap, large intercooler and hybrid turbo.
After a day or 2 trying to sort it out I told them I wanted it looked at again. I have a thread on here about the whole saga. But I couldn't get it looked at until January.... so that was the end of my trip to Queensland. [emoji2959]
In the end they took it back out and told me it was a faulty torque converter. What do you know... no more lag.
So to be brutally honest I wouldn't recommend them!

[shack]

I do not know much about autos.

However I have been told, and have good reason to believe it.. That on the disco box, when they need rebuilding, it's usually due to the converter dying, overheating, slipping cooking the rest of the box with hot fluid, and distributing itself into it as well.

If your auto needs a rebuild, your torque converter does as well.