AW55-50SN woes-easy to repair? Topic is solved

[abscate]

Nice - do you reflexively lift your left foot when you do this..??

In your sig.

VW Transporter 2.5TDI

I wish we could get nice things in the US...Ive got a last year imported T4 camper that I am live in fear of getting hit as we can't get new ones here.

[precopster]

I used to lift the foot before a manually activated 1-2 change because it would thump into gear pretty badly.....not so any more so I just let it change. I don't do this often as I am too fond of her now.

I bought the 2005 Transporter as a project over 1.5 years ago and she sits there at MILs waiting for a new camshaft kit (already purchased from Germany) Unfortunately she won't fit under my carport at home so I may have to complete her when we move house in a couple of years. Engine has to be tilted to remove intake manifold.

The ultimate goal is to turn her into a camper van because she has the optional high roof. Lots of sign-writing on her to remove (stick on stuff) and a good detail. I will post up some pics on the Matthews VW forum when I have a moment. What year is the T4 you have? That would be a rare sight over there!!

[vt9000cse]

Hello. 2003 Saab 9-3 Linear here in USA. Sounds like something I was thinking of trying and now I see some success. Thanks for the confirmation. I'm hearing a whirring/whining sound that happens when the car first starts and can sometimes get the car to move forward or backward. When the sound goes away the car no longer moves. I've even gone so far as rebuilding the solenoids and replacing the valve body. Of course using the correct 3309 fluid but the car is now dead. I'm gonna try the skewer technique first and see if I can clear up the filter some. Thanks for the information here. Here are some of my troubleshooting and repair videos.

[vt9000cse]

Thanks. I've been meaning to do this on my 9-3 from Saab with the same issues. Whine when it first turns on then no gears within about 2-4 minutes. I've struggled on this thing for so long.

[vt9000cse]

Today I tried skewering the filter through the drain hole. I think I need something more flexible to reach through the drain hole, into the filter and then up into the filter material.

Then I topped the fluid level off and restarted the car. No success. But you can hear the whining noise which I believe is the pump cavitating. Listen to the video closely.

[01_Nautic_V70]

Pump whine is the hallmark of this mode of failure in these transmissions.

It's a starved pump. As these are gear type pumps, one with blocked suction will make a whine/growl. As an automatic transmission is a hydraulic machine, if there is no pump discharge, nothing at all happens. In fact, any gear, any rpm, no motion occurs. You can change fluid and rework the valve body (I did) but nothing will work unless that pump can do its thing.

I put a new filter in mine and got a little over a year out of it before other issues took it out. Now, working with a salvage yard unit that I've put a new filter in, all is well. Precopster had the idea and the fortitude to drill a hole under the filter and knock out the media. Use an inline filter in the cooler lines as this is external and can easily be changed and thrown away. All indications are that this works great, though it will not address the source(s) of the material clogging the filter (friction material from worn clutch packs.)

[precopster]

Welcome to the forum!! Great to see some Saab lurkers here as well.

I say drill the hole and try it. The proof that it's the filter is to remove the upper cooling hose and look at the fluid flow. It will be a trickle with engine running instead of a steady stream.

Work through an 8mm hole first so if you damage the edges you can go 2 sizes higher. I went to M12 for the final bolt though as I mentioned the thread pitch should be 1.5mm or under as the material is thin.

If car has high k's and a poor history of fluid changes the blocked filter is a natural by-product. It doesn't necessarily mean the transmission is worn out though a professional re-builder would have you believe otherwise. My shifts are perfect and I don't know why I don't have valve body trouble. I owned the car for about 19,000kms before the trouble. Perhaps it will fail in another way down the track but for now going to enjoy it and prolong the savings.

[vt9000cse]

Tonight I took apart the bell housing from my spare parts engine and transmission. First off. WOW. These are some seriously heavy transmissions. I can easily pick up a 5 speed manual transmission from an OG9-3. This thing is HEAVY.

Here are pictures of the Saab 9-3 (2003+) AW55 style transmission. I particularly was interested in seeing where to punch a hole through to skewer the filter in hopes that mine is gunked up. I did take a look at this filter material. In the Saab transmission it is definitely a fine metal mesh. I mean really fine. I may bring it to work and put it under a magnifying glass to see. But it does take some effort to pop holes in it.

Any way here are the pictures. I think I found a nice flat surface where I will attempt to punch a hole to open up the filter media some. I will post my findings and results. Thank you all for you input and feedback.

[precopster]

You may feel the filter being pushed up and out of the filter housing as I did. Once this happened a ton of fluid gushed out of the hole I drilled.

[vt9000cse]

Took a filter out of my spare parts engine/transmission last night and as promised took the bottom off to show with the filter media looks like. It's extremely fine material. Feels like some kind of metal mesh/screen. There is little debris that is magnetic on it. Again this is a SPARE transmission that I purchased with the eventual goal of replacing the one in my 2003 Saab 9-3 2.0t Linear model with the AW55. It is whining and will only go forward and backwards once in a while. Usually when I first start it up.

See pictures.