aode needs another rebuild after 1year/10k miles

[ronstang94]

A little over a year ago and less than 10k miles ago I had to have the aode rebuilt. The shop is no longer in business. Now, I like to have fun in the car, alot! But I NEVER do any stupid **** like neutral dropping it. So now it is starting to slip and shudder. Did they just do a horrible job or what. Do I need to stop "enjoying" driving the car so much. I love my auto, but if it just cant handle basicly stock power, I might have to put a 5spd in it. I really dont want to though. I definately cant be paying for a rebuild every year either. Hopefully they just did a bad job, and nothing has to change, but what do you think?

 

[Mustangless]

Do you have a cooler on it?

 

[ronstang94]

Do you have a cooler on it?

No cooler. Been planning on getting one. Checked the trans fluid like a month before it started acting up, and it was fine. Never over heated the engine so I dont think I burned the oil.

 

[Adam95GT]

A little over a year ago and less than 10k miles ago I had to have the aode rebuilt. The shop is no longer in business. Now, I like to have fun in the car, alot! But I NEVER do any stupid **** like neutral dropping it. So now it is starting to slip and shudder. Did they just do a horrible job or what. Do I need to stop "enjoying" driving the car so much. I love my auto, but if it just cant handle basicly stock power, I might have to put a 5spd in it. I really dont want to though. I definately cant be paying for a rebuild every year either. Hopefully they just did a bad job, and nothing has to change, but what do you think?

Ive had a few friends have bad aode rebuilds... doesent seem uncommon...

 

[cbarr300]

An automatic can be made to hold wayyy more power than your average manual. If I were you I'd find someone who has a very reputable reputation for building trannies. The AODE's aren't really that bad to rebuild....not something I'd rec. doing yourself though.

Find someone that has proven results and I think you'll be happy with the auto. I'm thinking about building an auto for my car just for the sake of consistency.

Also, your next rebuild I'd recommend adding a tranny cooler to the front. Anytime I replace a transmission, that car gets a cooler. If the customer doesn't want it...too bad, he/she is getting it even if I have to eat the labor on it. I prefer the air coolers due to the simple fact that most transmissions like to be around 170* or so. Your coolant (on stock settings) can be as hot as 215* on a hot day (which registers "normal" on the stock gauge). So now the coolant that's supposed to be cooling the tranny fluid is actually heating it up and your tranny fluid is now cooling your coolant.

The main killer of transmissions is heat...keep it cooler and it'll last longer, end of story.

Also, I forgot to mention...make sure your fluid level is good. That's the number one cause of transmission problems...what exactly is the tranny doing?

 

[Chythar]

So, you say you have no tranny cooler. Does this mean you don't have the two hard lines hooked up to the driver's side of your radiator? If you do, then you have the stock "cooler" for our Mustangs.

Tranny temperatures can easily reach over 200* with normal driving, and that's WITH a cooler. While it is possible you got a bad tranny rebuild, if you don't have those two hard lines hooked up you likely cooked your tranny.

 

[ronstang94]

So, you say you have no tranny cooler. Does this mean you don't have the two hard lines hooked up to the driver's side of your radiator? If you do, then you have the stock "cooler" for our Mustangs.

Tranny temperatures can easily reach over 200* with normal driving, and that's WITH a cooler. While it is possible you got a bad tranny rebuild, if you don't have those two hard lines hooked up you likely cooked your tranny.

What you are talking about is the factory heat exchanger. Which I do have hooked up. It is not intended to cool the transmission. It is actually designed to heat up the transmission fluid after a cold start.

An automatic can be made to hold wayyy more power than your average manual. If I were you I'd find someone who has a very reputable reputation for building trannies. The AODE's aren't really that bad to rebuild....not something I'd rec. doing yourself though.

Find someone that has proven results and I think you'll be happy with the auto. I'm thinking about building an auto for my car just for the sake of consistency.

Also, your next rebuild I'd recommend adding a tranny cooler to the front. Anytime I replace a transmission, that car gets a cooler. If the customer doesn't want it...too bad, he/she is getting it even if I have to eat the labor on it. I prefer the air coolers due to the simple fact that most transmissions like to be around 170* or so. Your coolant (on stock settings) can be as hot as 215* on a hot day (which registers "normal" on the stock gauge). So now the coolant that's supposed to be cooling the tranny fluid is actually heating it up and your tranny fluid is now cooling your coolant.

The main killer of transmissions is heat...keep it cooler and it'll last longer, end of story.

Also, I forgot to mention...make sure your fluid level is good. That's the number one cause of transmission problems...what exactly is the tranny doing?

I planned on putting a cooler in this winter, but now the tranny is starting to crap out. Specifically, it wont go anywhere in Drive, when the tranny is cold, so i have to use 1,2,D and then it has enough heat to do what it is suppossed to. Also, it will start to shudder every now and then just cruising down the road.

I love my auto, but I have started to play with the idea of a T5 swap, it is tempting. quicker gear ratios, less parasitic power loss, but at the same time, a pain in the city traffic, and not as consistant.

Dont know what to do...

 

[94-302-vert]

I love my auto, but I have started to play with the idea of a T5 swap, it is tempting. quicker gear ratios, less parasitic power loss, but at the same time, a pain in the city traffic, and not as consistant.

Dont know what to do...

A T5 with gears (3.73's?) is not to bad in traffic. The gears let you crawl in first gear so it is also not too bad to get started either...

 

[Dino Dino Bambino]

I also needed to have my original AODE rebuilt last year just 4500 miles after I'd already had it upgraded with a Transgo HD2 shift kit and rebuilt with a complete kit. It still wasn't right after the rebuild and when it started making noises again, I went to a different tranny shop for help. They decided it wasn't worth rebuilding again and they replaced it with a remanufactured 4R70W from another '95 Ford 5.0 V8 model (not Mustang) that came with a 3-month warranty.
Since automatic trannies don't like heat and it's even worse when you live in a hot country, they strongly advised me to let them install a tranny cooler so I did. I have a Hayden heavy duty cooler mounted in front of the AC condenser and the tranny lines go directly to the cooler bypassing the heat exchanger in the radiator altogether. That way I don't have hot coolant heating up my tranny fluid in the summer.

 

[biglar]

do it right and get your self a Lentech Aode and be done with your problems. awesome tranny man!!

Big Lar

 

[revhead347]

I rebuilt one automatic tranny myself one time. It was actually a 700R4, but what a pain in the assss. Totally not worth the trouble if you don't have specialty tools. I remember swearing a lot.

Kurt

 

[inphiniti]

if u can spend the extra money, look into somethin from maybe PA(PerformanceAutomatic) they already come built with performance parts and the base model holds up to 450hp

 

[ronstang94]

Car is at the shop right now. The transmission needs to be completely rebuilt . I go back to school monday. No time to mess around with a T5 swap, or any other crap. I guess all I want to know now is, What happened? Is it possible that I was too rough on it? keep in mind that I never neutral drop it or anything like that. Just some burnouts, time at the track, and spinning my tires at every light just for fun. Did I do this?