A4LD Meltdown- what now???

[zavetsky]

My tranny dies too....

Mt ranny gave out a couple weeks back whilst on vacation......

$2300 at an AAMCO shop in Norfolk, VA ( I live in Pittsburgh, PA).......got a "nationwide" warranty for 3yr/50k miles....the truck has 74k on it right now...........

I took it back today to a local shop as directed for the "10 day checkup"........and to complain about a weird upshift problem...

When cruising at 25-40 MPH, if you give it just a little gas to go a little faster, what I get is a huge jump in RPMs and then it relatively slowly drops about 500 rpm and you can feel the truck begin to accelerate........This is very annoying......

The first AAMCO shop said at forst that there is nothing wrong and when I persisted me and the mechanic took a ride so I could point out the issue........Basically they want me to bring it back, but they will call me in a WEEK to tell me when a good day would be (theyre very stacked up right now)..........they will check the vac modulator but aside from that they wouldnt be able to do much since they dont think that its a problem........

So I took it to a second AAMCO just to see what would happen.......these guys pretty much said that I'm imagining things, that its fine......

I KNOW it didnt do this prior to the swapout.........They didnt rebuild the old one, just put another already rebuilt one in it...........

ANyone have this type of issue? I am lost as to what to do......maybe I am being to finicky???

 

[wabbit]

zavetsky,
Sorry to hear of your tranny woes. I must say $2300 sounds like a major "strappin". A 3yr/50 warranty sounds great, if they will actually act on it. Sorry to say, I know the feeling. My tranny seems to shift different too. And I'm not sure if different is bad or just different??? Like I said, it's all to mysterious and costly for me to not be wary. It's almost like I wanna go out and push it to the brink just to see if it will break so I can return to the shop with some degree of confidence and say,"OK, now let's get it right this time fellas."
I am running 3.73 gears and 32's and this sounds wierd but it had a better feel at the shift points before it was rebuilt. Which stands to reason that the excessive slippage of a toasted tranny would compliment the effective gear ratio of the larger tires. So now I too am wondering if I'm being too picky...
If your warranty is solid for the term described I would suggest driving it for a couple weeks and take it out and run it through it's paces and see if it starts to seem better. If not, I would stay on them to remedy the problem.
Hope this helps...
Warren (member-trannytrauma anonymous)

 

[JWood]

Tranny's first shift of the day leads to warranty work!!

I definitely am sympathetic to your transmission woes. Mine was rebuilt in July 2000 for the 2nd time. Two weeks ago it began to upshift slowly out of first gear on the first shift of the day. I would back out of the driveway, drive down the street and wait for a shift @ 15 MPH as I approached the stop sign at the end of the street. Then, while stopped, I could release the brake pedal and it would just barely creep forward. I would drive another 300 feet or so to the next stop sign during which an eventual shift would happen. After warming up about a 1/4 of the way on the temperature gauge it would begin to shift better, but still with a bit of first gear slippage.

Took it right to the tranny shop after the 2nd day of this. First the vaccum modulator was replaced....no change; then they removed and cleaned the valve assembly..... finally seemed to work right.

Now, this weekend, with the colder weather,....you guessed it!! Very, very slow upshift, and first gear slipping. Today, back to the tranny shop....they tell me the governor on the transmission was not working correctly (never knew the tranny has a governor). They will keep it over night and drive it when it's cold in the morning...guess we'll see what happens.

By the way after the last rebuild it ran better than I ever recall. Really felt strong acceleration from a dead stop or entering the freeway, it was huge difference. I can only guess it had been slipping for a long time.

 

[zavetsky]

Geez! What a pain!

Man, I guessI am luckier than I thought.......at least I don't SEEM to have any other shift issues...just the wierd shift into passing gear..........

My warranty is a 3 year 50k .........seems as though it needs to have a major problem thoughm, before they get too concerned about it......."It's going to shift different" is their reply.......Sure, I buy that...but it should also shift PROPERLY in my opinion......I have never felt another Explorer or vehcile shift this way while easing on the gas.........

AGain, maybe I ma being way too picky...I dunno. I would like to drive other similar explorers to see if maybe they ALL do this.........

What say you all join me at my house for beers! You drink, I'll go out and test yours...... any takers??