Removing and installing additional ATF filter: Audi A8 D3
Step-by-step removing and installing additional ATF filter for the Audi A8 D3: 11 steps. What to remove, in what order, and what to check after.
Taking off the additional ATF filter on the Audi A8 (4E, D3), which sits on the ATF cooler underneath the car rather than inside the gearbox. With the car raised (jacking mode first on air suspension), the auxiliary heater exhaust is freed from the noise insulation where fitted and the insulation panels come down. The cooler is unbolted and lowered with the filter still attached and the hoses left connected, so nothing has to be drained beyond what runs out of the opened joints. The ATF pipe is detached from the cooler, the union nut slackened and the filter unbolted. Catching the fluid cleanly and fitting a new O-ring decide whether it stays dry, and the ATF level has to be checked afterwards.
🧭 Before you start
Raise the car, activating jacking mode on air suspension, then remove the heater exhaust screws if fitted and detach the noise insulation panels. Unbolt the ATF cooler and lower it with the filter and hoses attached. With a collection unit underneath, detach the ATF pipe, loosen the union nut and unbolt the filter. Refit with a new O-ring and check the ATF level.
Fits: Audi A8 D3 (4E, 2002–2010)
Don't miss
- Activate jacking mode before lifting a car with adaptive air suspension.
- Leave the cooler hoses connected; only the ATF pipe and union nut are opened.
- Renew the O-ring on the ATF pipe joint.
- Check the ATF level once the filter is back on.
- Keep everything clean around open ATF connections, as is normal practice for automatic gearboxes.
Written for this job from the workshop steps below · TorqFix editorial.
📋 Procedure
- If applicable, activate jacking mode when raising the vehicle Running gear, front-wheel drive and four-wheel drive43Adaptive air suspension.
- Raise vehicle.
- On vehicles fitted with auxiliary heater, remove screws (arrows) securing exhaust pipe of auxiliary/ additional heater to noise insulation.
- Release quick-release fasteners (1) and (2) and detach noise insulation panels.
- Remove bolts (arrows) and detach ATF cooler with additional ATF filter (hoses remain connected).
- Place used oil collection and extraction unitV.A.G 1782 below ATF cooler.
- Remove bolt (10) and detach ATF pipe from ATF cooler (5).
- Loosen union nut (12).
- Remove bolts (2) and detach additional ATF filter (1).
- Renew O-ring (8).
- Check ATF level .
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Who makes these pages, and how
TorqFix was built by a mechanic — after a 2,700 km drive with five roadside repairs that no diagnostic tool could explain.
The figures on this page come from manufacturer workshop documentation and are shown as they are. The page is assembled automatically from that data — it is not written by an AI. The AI works in the chat, where it answers for your specific car. It writes nothing here.
Variants of the same model differ. Cross-check torque against the factory manual for your engine before final tightening.
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The story behind TorqFix →Workshop data on this page last updated 20 Sep 2026.