Transmission overhaul or replacement needed.

[Lakehope7]

Hello, i am new to this forum and now have a problem with our transmission. We have a '93 with the A4LD with 96,000 miles. we just bought it in February, so we don't know the past maintenance history.

We were driving up an incline in the mountains, on vacation and towing a popup camper, when we started blowing lots of white smoke and lost all our transmission fluid. The mechanic simply put new fluid in and we made it back home, about 300 miles with no problems. But we no longer have reverse, it's completely gone. Stopping every so often to check the tranny I noticed it smelled burnt, but was still not leaking any. Now that we're home I noticed at times it's not wanting to shift correctly.

Any ideas if I'm looking at simple repais and a flush/fill, or a new tranny? If a new tranny, is there a heavier duty tranny I can get to replace the A4LD?

 

[Positive Vibes]

Sounds like your tranny is shot. Reverse seems to be the first gear to go.

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome to this forum! Besides not having reverse, do you also have a problem with low gear? There is a low/reverse servo in the rear of the transmission that engages the rear band. Have you removed the pan, and the cover on that servo? Do you have any metal shavings, or other fragments in your pan? Were you running low on coolant in your radiator when you overheated?

 

[CDW6212R]

The A4LD is a sensitive light duty trans, little choice. The valve body kits help a lot, having a very large trans cooler is the next best item. Don't drive it with problems, when you over do it with the A4LD having symptoms, the repair costs go up bitg time, $500-$1000 more. When burned up, major heat and hrqad parts failures typically mean that the trans will fail again, just when is the question. Good luck,

 

[Glacier991]

I'd venture you are in rebuild territory as well. It is difficult to find a shop that specializes in A4LD's as they are now 12 years old. They require special care and feeding in rebuilds... which they often do not get. You might peruse the A4LD Rebuild Diary to get some ideas.