Lets here what you guys think. Not much info out on this for our platform and its above my experience, hoping some more technical guys could chime in as well and explain some of the drawbacks and gains from this mod and if it even worth for our platform and the mods available,and what ratio would be best, and does anyone know how much they cost? TIA
I know in the s4 its a big rpm drop. I woukd say post your crusing rpm at like 75 and then we can see how the gear raito on the 3.0 stacks up to the s4.
JHM has a chart on their site for the B5 S4 01E. They offer two 6th gear options there that aren’t stock, 0.68 and 0.60. I think which is best really depends on your driving. If you do a lot of highway driving, or high-speed driving, 0.60 is probably better, but it looks to be a huge RPM drop from 5th gear. Based on this calculator, you’d have a 1000 rpm drop at ~65mph between 5th->6th for a 0.60 6th gear and a 700 rpm drop for a 0.68 6th gear at the same speed. I’ve considered it as well, but can’t justify the $1000 in parts plus a lot of labor to rebuild the transmission just to save a few $$ in gas. Now, if the transmission goes, I’d consider getting it rebuilt with a better 6th gear. I’m sure if you wanted to go fully custom, you could pick whatever you wanted, but those two gear ratios are readily available, and I’ve seen the same two offered for other 01E rebuild kits. Personally, I’d probably go for the 0.68 6th gear as it’d be better for most of my driving and wouldn’t require me to push the engine at low RPMs for some of my driving.
Straight off JHM’s site. Sorry for the copy and paste JHM.
The JHM-Performance 01E 6-speed Full Rebuild Kit w/ Updated 1-2 Collar INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING: Transmission Rebuild Video on DVD (1 hour 47 minutes in length) - JHM PERFORMANCE CARBON synchronizer rings (6) w updated 1-2 synchronizers included - OEM synchronizer springs (6) - OEM input shaft seal - OEM output shaft seal - OEM front output shaft seals (2) - OEM selector shaft seal - OEM case gasket - Rear Tailshaft Housing O-ring - Front Differential O-Ring - Selector Shaft Cover O-ring - also a new OEM updated 1-2 shift collar (outer collar only, the inner collar never fails, if yours is locked up just press it apart.) This is the part that causes 1st and/or 2nd gear to lock up when it fails.
OPTIONS: If you do not need the complete kit or need just the parts to make a repair please go back one section to the “Transmission Parts” section. We sell our JHM PERFORMANCE CARBON Synchros separately from this kit in sets of six or individually. If you have further questions, please email sales@jhmotorsports.com for pricing. We want to speak with you and make sure you get exactly what you need.
6TH GEAR OPTIONS: If you are looking for better fuel economy and/or a higher top speed in 6th gear, there are two options we sell. Go back to the “Transmission Parts” section and select the “01E-Higher 6th gear for better fuel economy and higher top speed”. The stock 6th gear is .68 and yields about 3000rpm at 80mph. The .60 Overdrive option yields about 2650rpm at 80mph and the .56 Overdrive option yields about 2450rpm at 80mph. These gears are high quality OEM gears direct from Germany, and are not available from Audi dealers in the United States. We have many other ratios available for the other gears as well. (Allow 2 to 3 weeks for delivery on the gears, depending on current availability.)
Sorry for the shotty pics. I wasn’t planning this just happened to think of it when I hit a good long straight today and wanted to know my cruising RPM’s so I snapped a few shots, these 2 are at 70 and 80 with cruise control on in 6th gear.
http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z457/A4QuattroV6/IMG_20130401_140758_486_zps950ea711.jpg
http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z457/A4QuattroV6/IMG_20130401_140658_858_zps2be936f8.jpg
I can snap one of mine but ill have to see if we have the same gear raito