Only does this while in gear. Reverse or Drive, doesn't matter. Does not make a peep while in neutral. Car is in my sig, the 2G TSI AWD Auto. It likes to stick while in gear and not shift up or down. If I click OD off it feels like it tries to shift down into first. Refuses to shift normally unless I actually move the lever from L, 2, D. Educated opinions welcome.

Hmm flexplate issue is what it sounds like. But it should do with the engine running period. Pull the inspection cover and check . Did you pull the trans recently?

Flexplate bolts tight? Perhaps torque converter itself? If its shifting ok manually I would think thats a TCU issue or range sensor?

This is that engine you just put in to get it going right?

This is why I will never have another auto and rip everyone I see out, just too much to go wrong, too many variables, twice the rebuild price... No thanks, I like to put the car into the gear I want when I want.

The flexplate bolts may not be tight, because the torque wrench was acting funny and I only used Blue Loctite on the bolts, but there's another issue. I pushed the car back and there's quite a large stain[parked over cat litter on purpose] of ATF. It downshifted HARD earlier, so I'm thinking that busted the case. That or the pump seal is leaking. Either way, I'm gonna invest in another transmission. Once I pull this current trans and diagnose, I'll update the thread. I'm pretty sure it's flexplate bolts as well. The Torque Converter was bought secondhand and is questionable as well, so I will absolutely be replacing that too. Just to know 100% for certain, that's not the issue.

Man what a mess.

I just posted a vid of ours driving in profile check it out

Converter bolts are tight as hell, there are no leaks or cracks in the bellhousing. However when underneath the car and turning the crank with a ratchet, you can hear a clear scraping metal on metal grinding sounding coming from the torque converter/front pump area. Either a bad converter or something wrong with the pump.


The large stain in the cat litter, was coolant and not ATF like I assumed. There's a cut in one of the turbo coolant lines, so that's kind of a relief. Right now I'm betting the problem is I got sent the wrong front pump(there's only a spot for one ring in the input shaft for this pump), or the TC I bought secondhand is bad. Which honestly I think it's the pump more than the TC, but who knows.

Cory, my son has a 97 auto and it was making a noise which we thought was a rod but ended up being a broken flexplate. They are not very beefy and his was cracked in 2 of the 3 webs. Sounded horrible. Can you see up in there at all to check for that? He went with a Kiggly flex plate after that. Just throwin that out there.

When I was underneath it I looked at the flexplate real good because that's one of the things I was thinking, and the flexplate isn't cracked or broken. You can't wiggle the flexplate at all, it's attached like it's supposed to be.

Well good but bad cause now we are still trying to figure out your problem. I hope it's something not major!!

It's odd because it sounds like a TOB would in a manual trans however it does sound like it's coming from the bell housing/transmission area. Sounds like you're going to have to pull that trans buddy.

So I was doing some searching, and I found this thread.

http://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/auto-converter-install-issue.433564/


I'll save you some reading and tell you in that thread someone has a VERY similar problem. There's no solution, but there was a post in there specifically that mentioned JDM flex-plates will make or break you. And I realized something...this flexplate that's on this car, is off of an RVR motor. The previous long-block in the car was a full RVR motor, so I'm fairly certain it's the flexplate. The previous pump was eaten in this car, and now I'm pretty sure I know why. I'm gonna pull it and change the flex plate, and see how that works. If this fixes the issue I'll be a SOB.

Throwing this out there just because ,

I bent my inspection plate while overhauling the trans (stepped on it)
It made some strange noises

I thought something was f$&ked till I went under and pushed on my inspection plate and it got worse

Is there any marks on the inspection plate?
Let's hope it's a simple fix

Inspection plate is off. Lol. I'd be nice if it was a simple fix.

CrackedDSM said:

Inspection plate is off. Lol. I'd be nice if it was a simple fix.

Click to expand...

It never is sadly

o0GuitarKid0o said:

It never is sadly

Click to expand...

Ain't THAT the damn truth.

Did a little bit of work today. Very minor. I fixed some solenoid wiring screw ups from the previous owner, and went to drive the car. It has first and second, but no third. It doesn't even really try to shift out of 2nd, just stays there. What gets me, is reverse is great. Park and Neutral work as they should. And it shifts and downshifts from 1-2 like it should, and it shifts great. No hard clunking or obnoxious shifting. It's literally just not shifting enough times. I'm beginning to wonder if it's junk in the VB or a solenoid issue.


Thoughts?

Sorry to hear you're having issues. I know how it is getting the car back together for the first time and having to work out the bugs.

I have petty much zero experience with auto DSM transmission, so I'm not going to be much help. Anymore leaks?

GST with PSI said:

Sorry to hear you're having issues. I know how it is getting the car back together for the first time and having to work out the bugs.

I have petty much zero experience with auto DSM transmission, so I'm not going to be much help. Anymore leaks?

Click to expand...

Haha, thanks for the good wishes brotha. And no more leaks thankfully.


Also, this thread can be resolved now. Allow me to explain.

My motor came from an RVR JDM unit that was Auto. It came with the flexplate and pilot bushing in the crank. I assume the previous owner thought this was fine, so he just installed it and went. Well, it ate into the front pump, which I replaced. Now this noise is happening and metal-on-metal grinding sound is occuring when I hand-rotate the crank.

The problem lies with the flexplate as I've mentioned before...but ALSO, the problem is the pilot bushing! The RVR Auto pilot bushing is identical to the 1G auto pilot bushing. Not the same as the 2G pilot bushing which is spaced differently. Guess what an improperly spaced pilot bushing and flexplate will do? Push the TC into the pump, killing it. So, anyone in the future having the same noise and issue. Replace your flexplate and pilot bushing with a 100% guaranteed known unit from YOUR MODEL AND YEAR CAR, and it'll go away.