about a month ago, I was pulling out from a stop light and heard a nasty grinding sound and ever since, my automatic transmission makes noises while in 'second' gear...kind of a grinding/vibration sound both on accelleration and decelleration. I just had the car in for repairs to get it to pass EU tech. inspections and spent a fortune on that, and the mechanic more or less told me that 'yes, the sound is coming from the transmittion, but no, I shouldn't spend money trying to fix it unless it gives out'.....any idea what it could be that is wrong? Seems to just be in the lower gear. Have had linkage adjusted, trans. fluid is relatively new,universal joint checked and so on.....

Jeanne

 

Sorry to hear another trans go bad.
I did an adjustment on mine yesterday. Adjusted both bands. Today I got the excactly same noise as you described, a grinding noise on both accel. and de-accel. and in D or lower gears.
I might have done a sloppy job torque-ing the bands and I will check both again tomorrow.
Two bolts on trans, driver's side, front is OverDrive, back is "the rest".
Unfasten locknuts, torque to 10 lb/ft, then back up excactly 2 turns and fasten locknut.
There might be other reasons for the trouble, though. These things DO wear, they say.
Trans. shops in Norway don't like the A4LD tranny.- They don't even bother to open it if it's bad in any way. They advised me to get a replacement case when my front seal went out... but my garage changed it for $350, (NOK 2500,-).
I'll do a search here on the Forum now and check for similar problems and possible solutions. Then post them if I find any.

Good luck from Bergen, Norway

 

Do you have an earlier model Aerostar with a 4.0L engine? If so, the overdrive band is double-wrapped and the procedure for adjusting it is different. Later models use the same single-wrapped band for both Overdrive and Intermediate, so they are both adjusted the same way (10 ft-lbf, back-off two turns). The double-wrapped band must be backed off more than two turns, but for the life of me, I can't remember how many. Sorry

 

The mechanics here seem positively frightened of automatic transmissions. I had a hard time convincing them to adjust the linkage as an american friend who was visiting suggested! The sound has slowly declined or I've just gotten used to it, but the mechanic told me not to put any money into it unless it actuall goes, and then to go for a used transmission as opposed to having it rebuilt...they said because of price, but I suspect because they didn't want to deal with it.

Unfortunately, while I can understand mechanical concepts, I have no experience working on cars, or I'd try to fix it myself.

Jeanne in Kristiansand

 

I read a thread saying noises like these are due to "something broken, obstructing a valve".
Today I have re-adjusted my bands, (intermediate band WAS a little loose; about 1/8 turn), and I have pinpointed the time and conditions when the noise occurs:
-When 1.st gear is engaged, gear shifter in "1".
-At low speeds when 1.st gear is active, gear shifter in any position.
-Also, I've had hesitation in "R", 2-3 seconds, then jumping hard.

Next move is to tighten intermediate band even more, 1/8 turn at a time just to see if any difference.

Does anyone have an opinion as to wether these are signs of VERY sick and dying tranny?
Thanks, anyway!

 

check the self adjusting breaks in the back....or perhaps it was emergency break, I don't know...mind did the same thing and it was a wire involved in the breaks....something 'self adjusting' that snapped. I would try to back up and get resistance and then pop backwards. Was afraid to try to parallel park until I got it fixed. Not an expensive part btw.

Jeanne in Kristiansand
Forresten, har din hatt noe problemmer med EU kontrollen? Måtte ut med over kr 10.000 i reparasjoner for å få det godkjent.

 

I will check the self-adjusting brake theory asap.
"Takk for tipset" / Thanks for the tip.
As for your question reg EUro Test, mine is due come March. I just did the tranny front seal fix and I had another shop change brake disks and pads.
The rest is pure maintenance, tune-up, changed a few sensors (TPS, O2 aso.). I have spent close to $200 on repairs and odd jobs though. (NOK 15.000,- ca).

Just for the record: The moderators at this forum don't appreciate too much "Lutefisk-language", you'll expect to get edited. So stick to the "American English". Then everybody can understand there are no secret codes. And You seem to handle the spelling as good as any....
Sometimes I wonder what they teach for "hovedmål" over there!

Regards
"son of a teacher"

 

Yeah we dont know if you are calling the rest of us bad names or what
hehe