Automatic Transmission Gear Indicator problems of the 2007 Volkswagen GTI

I live in CT and was visiting cousins in NJ on Saturday October 25, 2014. I take the exit of the new jersey turnpike and stop at the first light. I start to go and then see that the car was revving but not changing gears. I see the prnds lights on the dash flash simultaneously non stop. I just barely pull off to the nearest parking lot since there was no shoulder on the 50 mph road. I stop the car and put it in park and the car did not shift out of park after that. The nearest dealer had just closed and they said to wait until Monday! I called my cousins who still lived an hour away to see if they had aaa and luckily they did. I then towed the car home over 300 miles! apparently the mechatronics unit died (the brains of the transmission) without any error codes or warning. There seem to be quite a few complaints online about these units with some failing while people are driving on the highway!! I guess I should consider myself 'lucky' that it died when it did?! vw dealer charged me over $2400 to replace it. What's even worse is that they only warrant the new part for 12 months/12,000 miles so I guess I better not take any long trips with this car.

I was driving as I do 5 nights a week to work. Traveling about 55mph when suddenly, my Gti equipped with a dsg transmission downshifted to what I believe was 1st gear. The revs suddenly were very high. The vehicles speed seemed to drastically lower to 20mph. I was almost hit by multiple cars behind me. Luckily I was able to leave the middle lane and get on the side of the highway safely. Once I pulled to the side of the highway, my prnds on the dash were flashing. I turned the car over and still flashing. I checked every gear and on drive I was able to make it home slowly. It seemed that the transmission only ran on 1st gear. Reverse gear is completely gone. I can't even properly parallel park my car any more. Vw seems to be covering some model year dsg cars. I have read some places that 2008-2010 years are covered, and some places where February 2007 - 2010 production years are covered. Mine is a production year of January 2007. This dsg issue is well known for all years. It is knows as the "flash of death" or flashing prnds. Google dsg flash of death and there will be many links linked to this issue. I am a huge vw fan. I own a 2006 gli 6 speed manual and this 2007 Gti with dsg transmission. My father owns a 99 jetta and my brother and sister both own 2007 passats. Vwoa should know this is a huge safety issue, they should know that this is a known dsg defect for all years and cover any issues relating to it. I have done the dsg service twice. I called vwoa and they said my car has no recalls relating to the dsg. I have scanned the car and have come up with these codes, p0751= shift solenoid 1 (n88). P1746= trans. Solenoid power relay and p2723 = pressure control solenoid 5. Vw how do you explain a failure to your transmission with no warnings? what if I got into an accident and someone or my self was seriously injured because of a manufacturer defect?.

While taking an on-ramp onto the highway my car got stuck in 2nd gear and would not upshift. I tried switching to manual mode but that did not work either. The prnds was flashing and I had to pull over and shut the vehicle off. It worked normal after that for a few miles. I filled up at a gas station and when leaving the car went into neutral and the prnds was flashing again.

I drive a 2007 vw Gti with an automatic transmission and the "mechatronic" unit located within the transmission is bad and will cost upwards of $2000. 00 to have it replaced. The car has 122,000 miles on it. Nothing last forever and I expect certain failures over time. However, the nature of the failure is a concern with this unit as, at least in my case, the transmission downshifted to first gear on its own without warning. Fortunately I was in town in slow traffic and was able to handle the sudden deceleration. It could have been very different at highway speeds. There is no warning or indication of an impending unit failure. The only indication I had spanned several months in a very intermittent manner: 1)a slight "shuddering" when accelerating which I thought was fuel related. 2) the "prnds" display would flash repeatedly even though the transmission would operate just fine. I could reset the display by turning off the car and restarting it. This phenomenon was very intermittent. I could find no info about any of this in the owners manuals (I've had the car since new) or on line.

I was merging on to the highway, the car in front of me stopped to let cars go by until it was there turn to merge. The car merged it was my turn and I hit the gas and my car lurched forward and I had no power, and my car had drifted enough to be hit by oncoming traffic. I looked down and saw that my prndl lights on the dash were flashing. I thought the car stalled so I shut the car off and turned it back on again and hit the gas, I had drive power again. I came to a stop light and the prndl lights started flashing again and I had no power, I shut the engine off, restarted and had power. This continued for the remainder of my trip.