[tightbox]

I would love to get more information on the premature death of these.

I believe mine was due to a leaky radiator that I fixed myself. I replaced the radiator, then refilled the system with coolant, and the car drove fine for about 5k miles. 200 miles after some extended (and very spirited) driving at Boxstoberfest, my 2-3 shift began slipping. It continued to get worse until third would no longer engage - either with the buttons or automatically.

More research indicated I had neglected to jumper the fuse to open the tiptronic valve in the cooling system to circulate coolant through the extra radiator (never mentioned in MANY online directions for the refill, or my repair manual). I assume I overheated the transmission and burned the bands/syncros between 2/3. The trans fluid smelled really bad and was very dark. Multiple fluid changes, swapping the entire solenoid block, etc. did not rectify the shift behavior.

Any ideas (even a guess) on what lead to yours dying? These stories are getting more and more common on very low mile transmissions. Keep your cooling system healthy, and change that trans fluid early!

**Don't feel so bad, mine went around 50k miles. Luckily I found a 12k mile takeout trans from someone completing a manual swap.