2000 JETTA transmission slips
 

My friend has a 2000 Jetta. It has about 150k miles on it. She says the transmission slips but, when she gets up to speed on the highway it is fine. She was told by the stealership (dealership) that she needs a new transmission. It will cost 3300 to install. She can't afford that.!!
I told her bring it to another "garage" and get a second opinion.
Is it possible all it needs is to have is the tranny flushed and new filter put in??????

Is it a manual or automatic transmission?

Is your friend certain that she knows that the transmission is slipping when not at highway speed? I would say that if it's shifting fine at highway speeds, then the transmission isn't slipping. (But I'll also add that I'm not really as versed as the other members on this board about cars, etc., but after owning a VW I'm quickly becoming so!)

I just had a discussion with my mechanic, because I felt that my transmission might be on the brink of starting to fail me. Pretty much a similar thing with my '03: feeling like it might be slipping when driving in stop and go suburban traffic, but highway was fine. Felt like it was bucking and struggling to get into the lower gears, upshifting and downshifting pretty roughly. The car always accelerates just fine and can pass really quickly on the highway. My mechanic test drove it, and he didn't think that it was shifting roughly. He did say that if I wasn't happy with the shifting that a flush could only help. From discussions with my friends who are somewhat grease monkeys they pretty much said the same thing. VW claims that my '03 and later (not sure about earlier models) NEVER needs a transmission flush! HA!

I wouldn't trust the dealer. A tranny rebuild is mucho expensivo and then the transmission is never the same anyway. If it's not slipping on the highway, do the flush. Some feedback from Jetta owners who have done that have said that their vehicles were noticeably healthier afterwards. I think most mechanics recommend a flush on auto transmissions at about 70K miles. Besides, it's always better to spend less on a smaller item and see if that fixes the problem than just go head-first and dump a lot of cash only to find out that you didn't need to. A flush shouldn't be more than a couple hundred.

I would bring it to a certified VW mechanic (non-dealer) or a shop that specializes in transmissions. See if your friend can test drive it with the mechanic (with her driving so that it's her driving style) and point out the things that concern her at the time. The mechanic might recommend that it's other things.

I guess she is going to run it through auction. Oh well, it is my girlfriends daughter.