Even een korte update:
I won't ship the car to my Audi specialist for a while. I can not leave the car there for months after the initial diagnosis. Transporting it over there, and then back home again, is costly.
Even if it is just a seal for example, as the tranny was in a not-so-ideal shape anyway (can't blame it after 350.000km) this will propably have been a killing blow. I assume the worst.
The car needs to be 100% reliable. Putting this tranny back, even with new seals and fresh oil, will not make me sleep well.
It had it's share of problems which i could work around (a thump when shifting from 5->4 under more than 50% throttle for example).
With each ATF change, the magnets in the pan showed a lot of collected iron-filings. I don't even want to look at them now...
As a factory brand-new ZF tranny will cost me about 500 euro's more than a revision-tranny, i'm gonna save up for a new one.
As the rest of the car is practically new by now (complete control-arm job + every other suspension-part, steering-rack, top-half of engine, alternator, cooling-fan, turbo etc. etc.) it is a defendable investment.
The only parts of the car that have not been replaced yet after a new-tranny install, are the fuel-pump, airco-compressor, steering-fluid-pump and fuel-injector-pump.
The car has never ever had an electrical problem or glitch. Couple that to the already-done replacement of practically all mechanical parts and the foundation is there for many more miles. If i put a new tranny in, the car will be, for the large part, be factory-new.
The interior is also very well maintained, it's still like new as well, apart from a rare and small scratch here or there. The upholstery, wood-work, it's all flawless. Leather still smooth and not cracked etc.
I drive about 5800km per month (3600 miles). I cannot afford to sell this car (won't get much for it anyway) and get another D2 or, rather, get a D3.
A D3 is not so DIY friendly anyway and this car i understand and can maintain myself (for the major part).
So i have no choice to, if i want to keep driving a "big eight", to keep this particular car running.
Luckily i can get original parts relativly cheap thanks to grey-import of parts (outside the Dutch distributor) and staying away from dealers.
I don't use immitation parts. Ever. The only exception being the wheels which are high-quality RS4 19" replicas as Audi never made them in 19".
This way, replacing parts, for preventive maintainance or sudden repairs (like now), has been a financially smart and affordable alternative so far.
This is the first major blow, as i need to spend a lot of money in one go this time. And my bank-account just does not have *that* much on it at the moment. I need to save for a couple of months first.
The rest has been done over the past 1,5 years, replacing a part at a time (front end suspension, three months later the rear, etc. etc.).