Towing a jet ski with a B8 A4 CVT (I know right)

[1099ezg]

Before you even say it I know CVT's are definitely not meant to be towing anything.

Especially when my CVT has 130,000 miles on it

That being said, I am buying a jet ski soon and I don't want to always have to rely on my friend with a truck to have to tow it to the lake every time.

I am thinking about getting a tow receiver to go under the car and tow it myself. Its a old jetski and from the specs ive seen it seems that the Jeski only weighs 400lbs and the utility trailer that we made into a PWC trailer is only 250lbs.



The lake near me is about a 35-minute straight highway drive, and over the summer I'm hoping I can bring it down there once a week.

I have seen that the rated towing capacity for the quattro is about 4200lbs, but since I have the CVT I have not found any specific data.

I am wondering if doing this once a week for a few months (Ill get a truck next year) will toast my already old CVT. I don't have any current issues with it and I'm going to change the fluid soon since I do not know if it has ever been changed. Since its only around 700 lbs which is half the payload capacity im thinking it will be okay.


What do you guys think? Is it going to absolutely overheat and over torque my crappy CVT or should I be just fine since its so light?

[lhlan]

As you don't know the history of this CVT maintenance, the best thing to do is to change fluid and see for yourself how it looks like.

Next load a full family with luggage at the back to see how it handle 1,000lbs.

I absolutely love my CVT. People's bad experience with it is more about lack of maintenance, launching, abusing.

Look, this forum is for Audi enthusiasts who want to know a car's limit. A very popular way to know a car's limit is to push it beyond its limit (layman's word: abuse it). And there went a CVT or any transmissions.

Absolutely half of the payload is not abusing.

Specs as I see for FWD CVT: 3,300-3680 kg at gradient up to 12 degrees, inclusive of vehicle and its trailer. Number varies according to your engine power.

[featherman]

Straight highway with no hills? Send it man, keep up with maintenance (fluid and filter changes) and take it easy and you'll be fine. They tow campers with small sedans in Europe. We have people driving unloaded dually diesel tonka trucks around the US and we're used to overkill. You'll be fine.

[1099ezg]

Sounds good, I will definitely take care of the transmission fluid and filter very soon but since I haven't had any overheating issues or odd electrical problems with the CVT I hope its alright in there.

[1099ezg]

Do you know a easy way to change the transmission fluid by yourself? Everyone I have seen uses a fluid pump extractor since it is filled from under the car so that's the only reason, I have not done it yet. Audi stealer ship near me wanted $700 for a fluid change saying that the oil was like $70 a quart which is so dumb as I've seen some for $30 a quart. Do you even need to use the OEM oil or can I just use some Valvoline CVT oil?

[Theiceman]

didn't know these audis treaded water that well.... :)

[allstock]

Do you know a easy way to change the transmission fluid by yourself? Everyone I have seen uses a fluid pump extractor since it is filled from under the car so that's the only reason, I have not done it yet. Audi stealer ship near me wanted $700 for a fluid change saying that the oil was like $70 a quart which is so dumb as I've seen some for $30 a quart. Do you even need to use the OEM oil or can I just use some Valvoline CVT oil?

Use Audi fluid.

It's not difficult, the hardest part is leveling and following the temp preparation. It's very similar to the 8 speed automatic.

You'll need a fluid transfer pump that will probably not fit the bottle and the correct sockets to remove the fill and drain plugs.

[lhlan]

didn't know these audis treaded water that well.... :)

When I bought my B8 a few years ago, I did not know what people were thinking about CVT.

Two weeks later, reading around forums, I was convinced I'd made a mistake.

Two years later, the CVT convinced myself it had been the right decision.

Happy ending!

[audrobotic]

The CVT gets a lot of flak, but the B8 generation is fine. I think at this point (around 14-15 years since first production in US) it's safe to say it was a success. It was not the unreliable mess that people said it would be, and probably hoped for. (Not sure why Paul from shop DAP is such a whiner about the CVT because he finds one B8 CVT with problems - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktdgRxBoKMM)

To OPs original question - I can't imagine 700 lbs is going to make much difference. You of course want to avoid crazy acceleration. Here's a video that may be helpful on the fluid changing process. In the US, it's not very common to change the filter, but seems more so in other countries. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsmZMlLT9K0

[RPMtech147]

Make sure your parking brake works. The parking pawl in the transmission is not meant to hold the car on hills, much less at a steep boat ramp with a boat on the back. I'm sure you've seen videos.