I know I know, this is not a mustang forum but I trust you guys. My friend has a '93 with an automatic tranny. He says it downshifts out of the blue sometimes. If he's driving down the road and lets off of the gas, sometimes it'll downshift. Any ideas?

 

torque converter maybe, they are pretty sensitive. check your fluid if it hasnt been changed in a while and its brown i dont know what to tell you. you could change it. check for metal particles in the bottom of the pan. theres a magnet on the bottom of the pan thats supposed to catch that stuff.the guy across the road from me, his fluid in his a4ld was brown and i suggested to leave it alone that it could cause problems with a change. well he changed it and he couldnt even get it to move. he said the shop told him the valve body was damaged. not saying that changing the fluid was the problem. but if you do change it, better not to be able to move in your front yard than on the highway. a4ld trannys are pretty crappy imo, see if you can locate a t-5 and do a swap (or a c-4) if you want to stay automatic. are you running a 3.8 or a 5.0?

 

Could the a4ld be one of those that goes into "safe mode" if the voltage drops below a certain level? I've heard Chrysler has a box like that.....nothing like a downshift to 2nd at 70mph....


Just a random baseless thought...

 

Thanks guys, I'll see him tommorrow and ask him exactly what kind of tranny he has (if he knows). Are there any troubleshooting steps that we can take to try and narrow down the diagnosis? Do the early 90's mustangs have modulator valves?

 

I'd almost like that if it wasn't too harsh. I don't like how auto transmissions keep you moving along at the same speed when you take your foot off the gas.

 

Had a similar thing happen to my '92 E150 van. The trans shop said that water had leaked into the main wiring harness connector at the firewall, and had corroded some of the connections. They cleaned it up, and most of my problems have gone away. I think it needs a little more attention though, as I sometimes get a random downshift...nothing like it was however.

MR