My turn for the B2 piston failure.. Turning onto a busy street I stomped on the gas and all I got was a growl from the tranny as the B2 band slipped.. At 260K miles I knew it was coming, and am lucky that I could get home by just easing it up to speed until it was out of 2nd gear. I struggled with the choice of either buying an overhauled transmission, or just replacing the B2 piston, and have decided that since I had to order some other things from fastlane, I'd just go ahead and do the repair myself.. I know what I'm doing over christmas...

How do you know when it is the B2 piston that has failed, and what does the part look like? Is it the part on Fastlane that's called the AT Brake Band (B-2)? Do you have to drop the transmission to change it out?

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1991 MB 300D 2.5 Turbo (207000km) (now gone)
1993 Audi 100 CS Quattro (300000km)
1999 VW Jetta TDI (290000km)
2002 Audi A6 3.0 Quattro (150000km)
2005 MB E320 CDI (34000km)

It's not the actual B2 band, but the B2 piston that tightens the band.. It's a known weak point (if you could say that, it went 260k miles) in these transmissions. When the B2 piston developes problems, you get little or no forward motion out of 1st and 2nd gears.. just maybe some strange growling noises as the planetary gears that should be held stationary by the band spin free instead of being held in place to transmit the power out to the driveline. Without being able to get up to speed, you can't get into the other gears that aren't affected. Some people will describe it as only having reverse, and sometimes they fail catastrophically, sometimes they die slowly. (my case). For some people a transmission treatment (trans-x) will loosen up the piston and make it operational again, providing it was just sticky and not broken. I recently did a flush with trans-x so figure it's probably time to do the piston and bushing. Should be able to do it by only partially dropping the transmission.. I'm doing the safety switch while I'm there to hopefull get my backup lights working again..

its really not that hard. i did mine not too long ago. infact i have my old one sitting on my moniter as a decoration

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have no worries.....President Obama swears "If you like your gun, you can keep it

Let us know whether it is broken or just stuck in there..
Sorta curious..

My benz has 270K miles (next tank :-D) and I specifically didn't look at the B2 cover to see if it was new or old style

I don't want to know until either the garage has space or I don't need the car for a day or two...

How hard was it to coax?

since it didn't fail altogether, I suspect it's just cracked or stuck, not completely broken. I'll take some pictures when it comes out. Coaxing it home was just a matter of not stepping on the accelerator more than just a little bit making sure it didn't slip, until I was in 3rd gear..... Have you been developing problems?

No not really...just wondered how bad it was to try to limp home.
My transmission seems to be pretty well for its age...lucky I guess

Brandon