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I have a 2009 Jetta SE (99,600 miles) with an automatic transmission. While driving in stop and go traffic on the highway, my car seemed like the transmission may have slipped. The car was a little louder (not sure if it was the engine or not, it didn’t have a lot of power, but I was able to drive it off the highway, stop, and pull into a parking lot. I put it in park, then in drive and it was fine. I don’t have issues with putting it in gear or it automatically shifting gears. I have been driving it after this (two days since incident as of the writing of this post) and have not had a problem. Do you think it was the transmission? Thank you.
Need a replacement transmission? Quality transmissions are hard to find. Free estimate to your email.First, just to satisfy my, would you have the transmission fluid level checked? The reason I am asking for that move is that many times transmission fluid that is down just a bit can make your transmission act as it was having a major internal problem.
With that said and second area I would have looked at, and like as not the move that will yield some information, it is having a diagnostic reading taken with an OBD-II scanner. The scan will find any transmission-related error codes that have been stowed. I think the scan will likely yield one or more error codes.
The chances are good you will find that there may be an intermittent in one of the solenoids that control your gear selection. It may be that it is causing the gear to slip and out at times. Or, it may be that one of the electronic sensors associated with your transmission — the Mass Air Flow, Mass Air Pressure, Throttle Positioning Sensor and the like. If one of the sensors is sending bad information occasionally or is checking out once in a while, then it is possible that your transmission will perform as it is doing.
The other area where your problem may lie is in the “limp-home” mode itself. “Limp-home” mode is there to keep you rolling should your transmission develop a problem. Usually, “limp-home” will leave you one or two gears forward and reverse. If the problem is especially bad you may only have a low gear available to keep you rolling. Now, if the transmission control unit — the computer that runs the transmission — has gotten flaky then it is possible that it may be throwing error conditions at the tranny at times or reading them. If that’s the case, then your VW will perform as you indicate.
Here are the steps you should take to find out the answer (if our suggestions don’t help):
1. Go to a service area
2. Ask them to run a diagnostic of your transmission
3. Discuss the error findings with the technician, if any errors turn up
4. Have the problem areas fixedWorst case, you may be looking at a rebuilt transmission which will cost in the vicinity of $3,400 or so. But, I don’t think that’s the case. I think you will find that the problem is likely in the solenoids or an electronic subsystem whose repair is a lot less. How much less will it be? It’s tough to say, but figure at least $1,200 to $1,600.
Please keep me in the loop on this as I am intrigued by your problem.
Just a thought on what might have happened — I was thinking about it just now. Sometimes, for whatever reason, things just happen in transmissions and you cannot figure out why. There’s a legit name for this, it’s called intermittancy. In other words, a transient occurrence happened that was too quick to be logged by the engine control module (ECM) or the transmission control module (TCM).
I know it sounds like the good old UFO explanation — guys in little spacesuits with phasers running around causing havoc — but it really isn’t. Something occurred in your transmission that was brief. It was aggravating and it was nerve-wracking.
With that said, intermittents are seldom found — as the name implies, the are brief events — but when they happen they are very real.
My thought as the culprit in this goes back to either a solenoid or sensor. If the solenoid fails the fire, for whatever reason, your Jetta may seem like it is slipping. By the same token, if a sensor, like the TPS (throttle positioner sensor) or the MAF (mass airflow) fails to tell the TCM to do something at the proper time by registering an incorrect value, you can have the same results.
Thanks for keeping me up to date. I hope everything helped.
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