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A quart of trans fluid vanished in thin air!?


t0x1k

Well-Known Member
V8 Engine Swap
Joined
Oct 11, 2009
Messages
610
Age
38
City
Somerdale, NJ
Vehicle Year
1994
Transmission
Automatic
Seriously. I was a little over a quart low today. She was slipping a bit this morning and check it at lunch after a drive to get food and it wasn't even on the dipstick. I added fluid about a month ago, but she doesn't leave any marks on the driveway. Only a quarter sized mark of oil from the drain plug.
The gasket around the trans pan is clean, the pan is dry and spotless so no oil being slung while driving. The coolant is clean and green. There's no fresh leaks around the trans cooler or lines.
I just can't figure where a quart of fluid goes?

Help me here! Where else could it possibly go!?

It's an A4LD on a 3.0
 
check out your coolant. what color is it? change the tranny fluid and check to make sure its not foamy/bright pinkish. the cooler part in the side of the radiator could be leaking and sharing fluid with the cooling system. you could lose it there.
 
But it's green. Plus the coolant level in the overflow hasn't changed since I got the truck so I doubt 2 quarts of fluid are sitting in the coolant system.
I'm kind of afraid to do a fluid change, the thing has 250K miles. The stories I've heard of old trannys being changed and then breaking later on scare me.
 
A possibility. I guess I'll just have to do a fluid change. I already have funds put away in case a new trans in order.
 
considering its probably an A4LD tranny, a rebuild is in the future no matter what lol. we just had an A4LD tranny come thru the shop for its second rebuild. the first one was done by jasper.
 
I actually pin pointed the problem. It's leaking from the bell housing, there was a dribble of trans fluid on the oil pan.

Guess I need a new torque converter. I hear this whining noise when cruising at low speeds(roughly 20-40) and sitting around 1500 rpms
 
I'm not an A4LD pro but before you buy a converter check the front seals. They were famous for leaking. That may possibly explain where the missing fluid went too.
 
I cleaned the housing. I added some leak stopper. I don't see any fresh fluid, haven't checked the level yet, it's been a few days since I added the leak stopper.

One thing I noticed after the leak stopper is it no longer smokes on start up. I'm wondering if it does have a vacuum modulator and I just couldn't find it and it was sucking in fluid every start up.
 
One thing I noticed after the leak stopper is it no longer smokes on start up. I'm wondering if it does have a vacuum modulator and I just couldn't find it and it was sucking in fluid every start up.

yes it has one and yes that is where your fluid went.

the wine you have also makes noise on a cold start up?

I recc. luacs trans fix, trans filter(screen type), fresh fliud for the pan only, and a new vacuum modulator.

the vac. mod. is located on the pasenger side, above the pan next to the cats.
 

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