I have a 95 Passat VR6 with a 01M auto tranny (with 155K mi.). It started slipping at highway speeds in 4th, now it won't even get to 4th gear. Instead it slips at any speed in 3rd gear, and even higher rpm's in 2nd. My Vag-Soft program doesn't find any fault codes, I put in new, expensive VW fluid/filter/gasket, and only normal "silt" was on tranny sump's magnet. Checked all solenoid resistances per Bahn manual, but no smoking gun, so I don't think it's a poor connection problem. Vag-Soft does show my torque converter lock-out clutch slipping when problem occurs. VW dealer says overhauled tranny + torque converter (at $5K installed) will fix. Other people suspect TCM, although there's no fault codes. Put mucho $ into tires, front end, fuel pump, camshaft position sensor, etc. in last year and would like to find an easy (on my now thin wallet) way out. I'd hate to put in another tranny and have the same problem. Maybe just change tranny valve body ($1200 new)? How often does the torque converter fail? Somebody save my Passat from the boneyard!
