1991 Ford Thunderbird AOD transmission is not doing so well

Tiny
JAMESCCOSTELLO
  • MEMBER
  • 1991 FORD THUNDERBIRD
  • 6 CYL
  • 2WD
  • AUTOMATIC
  • 50,000 MILES
I recently (about 7k miles ago) had my transmission and differential rebuilt due to an incident which completely trashed it, and the company who rebuilt it gave me a 3 year 30,000 mile warranty on it, but their service is absolutely terrible.

The problem I am having right now is that if I accelerate quickly from a stop, but release power while I am still in first gear, the car makes a loud thud as it stops accelerating. They claim that this is an engine related issue, and they want to sell me an overpriced tune up (spark plugs, inspect/replace wireset, clean throttle bore, inspect/replace distributor cap & rotor, inspect/replace air filter, fluid top-off and a bottle of fuel injector treatment) for $180 to fix this but I know for a fact that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the engine, and a minor tune up would do nothing to fix my problem. The problem only occurs in first gear, and only when I quickly release the gas pedal.

Also, the transmission fluid is very far above the full mark(it always has been since the day my transmission was rebuilt) the guys at the service center claim that this is acceptable, but I suspect otherwise.

I am a poor college student. I am very meticulous, and consider myself at least slightly more car-educated than the average person, so I would much rather take the time to try to fix this myself the right way, instead of paying someone to fix a car they don't really care about.
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Monday, April 20th, 2009 AT 3:00 AM

2 Replies

Tiny
BLUELIGHTNIN6
  • MECHANIC
  • 16,542 POSTS
Hello
Thanks for the donation

I would first like to apologize for the slow response as we have been busy here at 2CarPros over the past couple weeks.

From what you have stated I would not be surprised if the repair shop did not tighted the tranny mount(s) properly. Inspect the tranny mount(s) as well as the motor mounts to ensure they are all holding properly and are not damaged. Also you should NEVER overfill the tranny so I advise you drain it until it is at the proper level to prevent any damage occuring.

Thanks for using 2CarPros. Com!
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Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 AT 12:05 PM
Tiny
JAMESCCOSTELLO
  • MEMBER
  • 5 POSTS
One of the transmission mounts is incredibly loose, and the rubber is sort of rotting away, they told me that their warranty doesn't cover this (it should, because they installed the transmission after it was rebuilt), so I'll go somewhere else, rather than waste my money with them again.

I had to drain the transmission myself because these dirtbags wanted to charge me $50 to open up the transmission and do it, all that needed to happen was for me to siphon out the excess with a narrow tube from the hardware store. The transmission fluid is now fine again.
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Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 AT 3:52 PM

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