A4LD to flush or not to flush?

[fiveohlxhatch]

Just looking for everyone insight. Just purchased an '88 Notch 5.0 with the infamous A4LD in it from the original owner who was an elderly man. The car is a score and a half with 90K Miles on it and it needs only a small amount of maintenance which brings us to my question: The tranny fluid doesn't appear to have been serviced in quite awhile and is a medium brown. My immediate thought was to flush and change the filter but i've read some people saying that they've run into problems right after doing the flush on trannies who haven't been serviced in a long time due to the large amount of detergents in Dexron "loosening up gunk". The car drives fine as is and shifts nice and firm otherwise but I can't confirm from my paperwork when it was last done. I'm tempted to leave it but as a commuter car i'm definetely planning on putting some miles on it in the near future driving to work etc. Can anyone tell me if this is a myth or provide some guidance? Thanks in advance.

 

[ronburgundy]

no such thing as an a4ld in a 5.0. it must be an aod. and out of 1000 trannies serviced one might be affected badly. clean fluid is NEVER a bad thing.

 

[rockytoohot]

I agree, a flush with clean fluid will do nothing but be good for a trans. I recommend rather than pulling the pan and changing the filter, going to a service center and having it flushed with a machine. The benefit to this is they add a cleaner before flushing the fluid to help flush out all the "gunk". Also, by using a flush machine it flushes all the fluid in the trans including the torque converter which doesn't get drained when you pull the pan.

 

[fiveohlxhatch]

Thanks ronburgundy / rockytoohot for clearing up which trans and which route to go.

 

[SVT32VDOHC]

I second a flush at a service facility. They get it all out. It saves you time and saves you a mess in your garage and clothes!! I would just use conventional ATF, no synthetics.

 

[fiveohlxhatch]

I second a flush at a service facility. They get it all out. It saves you time and saves you a mess in your garage and clothes!! I would just use conventional ATF, no synthetics.

I was going to change the filter then bring it down for a flush. I'm concerned since I don't know the history of the trans from the receipts I got with the car that the filter could be extremely dirty or even original. The car shows no sign of being driven hard anywhere so i'm just being overly precocious in maintenance. Thanks again everyone who chimed in!

 

[ronburgundy]

best thing for flushing is fresh fluid. personally i would just drop the pan and the convertor drain plug, that way your basically getting all new fluid anyways. ( i do this for a living.) going to a flush machine is mostly beneficial only when you can't drain the convertor.

 

[fiveohlxhatch]

Great info from everybody. HUGE thanks!

 

[Freak Stang]

Flushes don't hurt if done regularly. Just keep in mind that if it has never been done before there is a higher risk of damaging the transmission. At the shop I manage, we explain to the customers that we don't know this up front. Especially the ones that come in with an issue and THINK a Flush will solve there problems. Anyone that requests a flush gets test driven before and after. Just don't want to have to buy them a trans when done.

The only time we will flush a unit with a problem is if it comes in with a Torque Converter shutter.