demise of the "always forward" A4LD

Installed the heavily rebuilt valve body earlier today. Added fluid and LubeGard.

It still wants to go forward in Park and Neutral. I did get Reverse to do something new: Now I can make the X almost hop up and down. In Reverse it wants to go forward and now backwards, too. Needless to say, it doesn't move in Reverse (it did when I started this project).

Neutral behaves exactly like Drive does. I think it only works in first gear, too. If it moves on to 2nd, I can't feel it. If I try to hold the pedal constant, it slips like crazy; RPMs increase. If I roll off throttle, it coasts about like it should. If I stomp on it, it hooks up okay.

So sad. Glacier991 mentioned that something internal might have become welded together (I'm sorry but I forget what at the moment). That's my theory now. The transmission shop where I bought the LubeGard thought that something had become welded together, too.

Now I have to decide between a) buying a used one now and rebuilding my existing one later this fall after the racing season is over or b) buying and installing a rebuilt one ($999 - $1,350). The used one would only need to last until early October.

Do commercially rebuilt ones ever last more than 40k? It doesn't seem like many do. I'm pretty sure I could rebuild one to last 100k+. That being said, my existing one might not be a great candidate for a rebuild. It seems pretty messed up.

Saxon,

I priced a used one at the yard up in Lynwood on pac highway and they said it would cost around $500. I am sure I could talk them down if I had cash in hand. I would say go for a used one, they warranty them out the door for like a month or so, its the law I think. Also if it turns out to be bad they should exchange it or give you a refund.

A used should last till october no problem as long as you take care of it.

Good luck

imo once a tranny from the factory goes bad no matter what you do to it it'll suck from there on. I would buy a low milage used one.

Not all transmissions from the dealer are good. I once had an 89 Sable that came with a defective transmission from the factory. Another time, I bought an A4LD from a dealer that was defective. I opened it up, and saw that it had a lot of very old hard parts. It was probably a soft parts only rebuild. You would expect something better from them. They gave it a title "remanufactured". That would imply that it had all new parts, but wasn't the case. I would suggest that you either pull out the VB, and recheck everything that was just upgraded, or swap another VB. I did see somebody selling an entire A4LD in the parts section for $600 with 6k miles on the rebuild. You wouldn't find anything with such low mileage in a junk yard.

I wouldnt even buy a rebuild. Unless its a brand spankin new tranny with everything new....not even bolted under a vehicle i would buy it. Back in the day we had a 89 toures, bought brand new in 88, the tranny crapped out at 200,000, rebuilt it and it crapped out 20k later. Bought a brand new one...well 1000 mies from a rear ended taures and its still in the car with 325,000 miles on it. The same with our 91 chrysler. 220,000 till the tranny went then had it rebuilt. lasted till 260,000 and then started to slip..needless to say we sold it. oh the trannies we rebuilt by aamco.

It sounds like you put on a lot of heavy duty mileage. I put on about 4k miles a year (mostly city driving).

my dad is a cardiologist. He started in 85 and pretty much he had to drive 86 miles to and from work. WHen he became more financially comfortable we moved closer. Now he runs his own office, and drives around only 50-60 miles a day to make rounds at other hospitals.