Hi, my Audi A6 2002 has recently show “PRNDS” light fault i.e. exactly as what's described in this site; http://www.ecutesting.com/audi_a4_a6...c_gearbox.html

Question1: has anyone experienced the same and how yours is solved?
Question2: the above web site claims to be a much cheaper solution (shipping ECU unit to them, in UK apparently for around 250 pounds) in comparison with taking the car to garage which could end up thousands. The website looks very promising, what do you think?

PS: the car is solid up & down mountain for skiing, we (my wife & I) are really enjoy it until this fault comes up!

Thank you if you can share some ideas to gain my confident and making a right decision (thinking of asking local garage to take out ECU unit and ship to UK for a repair).


Thank you all..

Is your car the Quattro or front wheel drive? I've not experienced this problem in my car. (2001 A6 3.0 Petrol Quattro with 215,000Kms)

I have a 2001 Quattro and I believe that the gearbox ECU actually sits inside the gearbox. I don't think the gearbox has to come out to remove the ECU but you do need to go underneath and remove an end-plate/cover to get to it. A tricky job if you don’t have a ramp.

If you don’t have the tools, skills and time it may be better to take the car to a garage.

Interesting if that fixes the fault however my question would be how one knows it isn't actually reporting back a gearbox fault?

My advise would be to put it on VAGCOM to start with and see what it is telling...

Looking on other sites it seems if you quote GEARBOX8 to them you get a 10% discount.

Mine is 2002 A6 4.2 Quattro with 230,000 kms.
Yes, that's what I am thinking of to do.. (hope the gararge will not over charge).

Good point, I actually asked a local gararge to check it but they found no fault at all (well, not an authorized garage). However, after just a few meters off the garage, the problem (light) came up again.

OK. I am pretty sure you have the same gearbox as me. That box was used for the C5 series Quattro cars. I'd go with saint7UK's advice and first get a VAGCOM download of the DTCs from the gearbox controller. If it does look like you have the known fault as you describe, then it could well be worth the costs to have the ECU refurbished. (According to what I read on the internet it seems that if the PRND1 message appears on the dash then this can only be the ECU fault. However, other websites report the problem starts with jerky gear changes, unexpected gear changes, holding onto the lower gears for too long etc)

However, if it is an actual gearbox failure - Walk away. A new/recon box for your car will set you back around 6000CHF in CH.

I forgot to say that an alternative is to buy a replacement ECU from eBay. There's a few for sale for around the same price as a refurbished item. Then you would just need to pay a garage with a VAGCOM/ROSSTECH tool to adapt/recode the ECU once fitted to your car.