A4LD weirdness

[stangman92gt]

Hey guys:

I recently picked up a clean'93 Calypso hatch that has been sitting several years.

I got it running after repairing the starter and the trans has some issues:

It goes in gear fine and doesn't slip in any gear. But, it shifts to 2nd very quickly, then downshifts back to first, then back to second. Then, when it shifts to 3rd, it flares badly, then goes in. 4th is fine.All the shifts other than 3-4 are early and soft.

If I shift up manually from low, it shifts ok but flares bad enough on 2-3 to go into the rev limiter.

The fluid looks good and the car only has 91k...so what you guys feel is going on?

Thanks.

 

[ethangsmith]

I really hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I think you are due for a rebuild. The A4LD is known as a bad transmission (do some searches on here and you will see many stories about failures). It sounds like you may have a failing valve body and a stretched 2-3 band. With the fluid being a good color, that indicates it is not too late to have some work done to it. To everyone that has an A4LD issue, I always HIGHLY recommend a stacked-plate type heavy duty aftermarket transmission cooler (about $50-$100) and a refill with synthetic ATF. The A4LD fails because it creates excessive amounts of heat and will quickly overheat itself using only the in-tank transmission cooler in the radiator- and that is when the troubles will begin. If you don't want to spend the $$ on a rebuild or reman, you can always put a T5 5 speed in it.