Detaied question about 2004 Tranny prob.

[nadamski]

I have a question about my 2004 Passat GLS. I have been having trouble with it for about a month now, and have taken it in twice to my local non-dealer mechanic that specializes in VW's. He has been unable to figure out what is wrong, so I took it took the local VW dealer service center. It's a 2004 with 85,500 miles. It has the shiftronic transmission, or "slapstick", which i never really use. This car had an oil pressure problem before we bought it last year, so the engine was replaced by the VW dealer, so the engine only has about 24,000 miles on it. We have done all the scheduled service since we bought it.

This is what it has been doing: When I take my foot off the accelerator, it feels like something is "grabbing" and the car slows down on its own without touching the brakes. It continues to do this while breaking. Also, if I watch the tachomoter while this is going on, it will sort of jerk in time with how the car feels, if that makes any sense at all.

When I took it in to the VW dealer, they had the car all day long, and initially after the technician rode in it he said that maybe it was something to do with the suspension. They had the car all day, and finally called me to say that they couldn't go any further with diagnosis at this point without taking the transmission pan off, and that they thought that most likely it is a transmission problem of some sort. They claim to have been very thorough with the testing to diagnose it so far, but I just don't know what to think. There were no fault codes present when they checked the transmission on the computer. To get the new pan and diagnose the problem will cost us another 500 dollars. I paid them 176 dollars to have them tell me this, and I am very frustrated. I am a young girl and I feel like because of that they might feel like they can rip me off. The service coordinator said that if it needs a new transmission that it will be 3,500-4,000 dollars... I really don't want to have to invest that in a car that was already costly to begin with. So, just wondering if anyone on here has had a similar problem or has any wisdom regarding this situation... Any help would be greatly appreciated!