A4LD acting up in the cold, need advice.

[Mosinguy]

Just in the past week my A4LD has been doing something weird on the first start of the morning. Keep in mind the rest of the day it's golden and shifts fine. I'll back out of the driveway just fine, but throw her in drive and I'll get nothing. A little rev and it shifts.

The rest of the day: she shifts fine, shift points never change, no slipping, weird shifting ever, nothing. Fluid is a very nice light pink and at proper level. I do know my rear seal is wet, only dripped once. After it dripped a quarter sized amount after very spirited driving the seal remains damp but doesn't leak. I highly doubt the seal is letting that much pressure out.

What could be my issue? Will be pulling the modulator vacuum line soon. This transmission has 107k miles on it with fluid and filter changes religiously done to it so there shouldn't be a major issue...I hope. This was driven by my uncle and he kept up on it almost "too much". He'd work on it sometimes just because he was bored.

 

[Mosinguy]

This issue is also very intermittent. It's not a daily occurrence.

 

[kimcrwbr1]

Add about 1/2 quart oil and see if the problem disappeares for a while. Mine did that for about four years until I fixed the oil pump seal by pulling the tranny. It is probably leaking slow only when driving no big deal just add 1/2 quart write down the mileage when it happens again you will know how bad it is leaking.

 

[Mosinguy]

What fluid does this transmission prefer?

 

[RavoHimself]

Chances are you have a bad gasket in the shift plate section. Went through the same thing. If I backed in the drive overnight , leaving was no problem. Its when you back out and then go forward. Try backing out, putting it in neutral , then slap the lever into drive. If that fixes it , it will be the shift cable. When you have this issue and it moves , does the first to second shift feel a little slow ? (rise in RPM) Then shift second ? That will be the shift plate gasket, they have an upgraded - one piece gasket to eliminate this issue. It looses pressure at the shift point because its leaking past the bad gasket.

 

[Mosinguy]

There doesn't seem to be an RPM issue, but I never have noticed either. It's only happened three times in about two weeks.

Say it is this gasket, how involved of a job is it to replace it? Would topping off on fluids like the previous poster mentioned "fix" the issue?

I also have never tried the neutral to drive technique you mentioned but will try it next time I have this issue. It seems like if I rev it a little it'll shift, however last time it happened I shifted to reverse again and then drive and it worked without having me need to rev the engine.