Update:
Well, forked out a lot of dough and got a new tranny. It is a trade-in housing with all new internals.
My old tranny went back to Audi in Germany where they will take everything out, thouroughly clean the housing and insert new components. None of my old internal components will be re-used.
That completely rebuilt tranny will be sold as an "X" part (a trade-in part).
The drives like a dream now. No more play, no more jolts and jerks. No more workarounds to prevent the tranny from thumping badly while down-shifting etc.
The cause of the failure of my old tranny is also known now. The pump broke and started spraying ATF everywhere inside the housing.
This caused a built-up of ATF pressure. At one point the ATF came jetting out of every gap it could find, causing that big sudden loss of ATF.
Questions:
1. Does this new tranny need to "learn" it's shifting-patterns again?
2. Does a brand new tranny to be broken in, like one needs to do a new engine?
3. The selection-lever moves with more resistance now. It's a bit more clunky and needs a bit more force to be put in a certain position. I did not expect this. Is this normal ?