i found a 2000 volkswagen passat and i got the free carfax from the dealer. it said that the first owner after 5 years and 50,000 miles had the transmission replaced. why would that owner have done that?
its an automatic. but yes it does have the tiptronic shifting, as do all passats of that era
The automatic transmissions on VW’s used before 2006 were not of the greatest quality; rough shifts, delayed shifts,delayed engagement of gears from shifting from park to drive or reverse… were amoung numerous issues that the automatic transmissions had during this time. It could have been a slow leak in the transmission that caused the fluid level to fall too low, thus cooking the trans; the fact is, we are unlikely to find out the actual cause.
Updates to the software, which regulated the automatic transmissions helped a great deal, but didn’t correct wear and tear that had occured before the various updates. Also, if the vehicle overheated that caused issues as well.
Still, even for the transmissions that have had all the updates performed, the transmissions were less reliable than average. VW changed suppliers of the transmission in some models after 2005 and later, these transmissions have so far proven to be more reliable than the previous generation. Some models have transmissions now supplied by Aisian-Warner, the people who supply many of the Japanese manufacturers, so I expect that these models will in fact be outstanding in reliability. VW is making changes to their vehicles to make them more relaible.
Hope this helps, a car nut.
3 Responses to “why would a transmission on a 2000 volkswagen passat be replaced after 5 years and 50,000 miles?”
Volkswagens in the US are mostly built in Mexico and the Mexican built models are of much lower quality than the European built ones.
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The automatic transmissions on VW’s used before 2006 were not of the greatest quality; rough shifts, delayed shifts,delayed engagement of gears from shifting from park to drive or reverse… were amoung numerous issues that the automatic transmissions had during this time. It could have been a slow leak in the transmission that caused the fluid level to fall too low, thus cooking the trans; the fact is, we are unlikely to find out the actual cause.
Updates to the software, which regulated the automatic transmissions helped a great deal, but didn’t correct wear and tear that had occured before the various updates. Also, if the vehicle overheated that caused issues as well.
Still, even for the transmissions that have had all the updates performed, the transmissions were less reliable than average. VW changed suppliers of the transmission in some models after 2005 and later, these transmissions have so far proven to be more reliable than the previous generation. Some models have transmissions now supplied by Aisian-Warner, the people who supply many of the Japanese manufacturers, so I expect that these models will in fact be outstanding in reliability. VW is making changes to their vehicles to make them more relaible.
Hope this helps, a car nut.
References :
25 years on/off in Volkswagen dealership service departments; over 30+ years in the automotive service business.
Maybe they had not learned how to drive a stick shift yet. Would have ground the crap out of it. Or they went from manual to automatic or vice versa.
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