Stopped by the trans shop on the way home and was told that the fluid was pretty bad (148k)and when the tech drove the car with a scanner hooked up he said that the input signal was in and out and there was a pressure code. He said it could be the valve body but he was going to take it out and see if everything was ok in trans. I find it odd that it works right when it is cold, acts up as it warms up and the works fairly well when hot. There is no slippage when it is shifting right. Does this sound like a valve body or stopped up filter? Also where can you get a mechtronic valve body and how much will it cost?
Based upon the 6 speed Tiptronic in my 2003 1.8t, purchased new, the trans lasted about 60k miles before problems started to surface, made it to around 70k miles when the trans fluid was hot the downshift at times was very harsh and would try to rip the engine and trans out of the car.
Cold it was a bit late and harsh shifting but nowhere near as bad when the fluid became really warm from a lot of stop and go traffic.
Never really any slippage in my trans.
So I heard there were transmission software updates, but you cannot put a software solution in for a hardware problem and have it work!! I think VW was just trying to get all of these trans out of the warranty window?
Anyway, decided to drop my pan for inspection. Overall things looked pretty good, some metal in the pan and on magnets, but was light along with some clutch debris and normal clouding of the pan surface. Looked good for trans with 70k on the clock and nothing unexpected. So I decided to pull the valve body and sent it out for an overhaul.
They rework the solenoids, ream out some of the spool valve bores and put over sized spool valves in the reamed ports.
So if it was my car, likely would drain the fluid into a clean container, drop the pan and inspect, take pictures if you want feedback. Be careful as the famous trick from many shops is to tell you and show you that there is metal in a trans pan. Metal is NORMAL for a higher mileage trans, but it is the amount of metal that you have to question. If the magnets look like Chia Pets, then you have issue.
FYI, my car was a daily commuter in a major metro area, shift, shift, shift, shift, shift. I am guessing the car shifted over 2000 shifts a day, much different than getting on to the highway and cruising, so my 70k city trans could be someones 110k highway trans.
Valve body rework at a shop would probably cost about $750 on the low side, $1100 on the high side with fluid, filter and labor?