T4Revan

Just as I thought my car was pretty stable I ran into a new issue. After starting the car, I go to shift into drive and there's a delay, usually 5-10 secs, before drive will actually engage. It doesn't have any other issues after it gets into gear.Tranny fluid is dark red and it and the filter were replaced around 30k, and it now has 108k.

Anyone have any ideas that don't include finally saving for a v8?

paulo57509

You checked the fluid condition so I'm going to assume you checked the fluid level at the same time.

Does this delay occur when the trans is cold? At operating temp?

Is gear engagement immediate in other ranges?

I usually service my auto transmissions every 15k-30k miles. But I'm old school so that might be overkill.

It might be time for you to drop the pan and do a fluid and filter change to see if that helps.

ed o

as the 700r4 gets old the rubber on the low/reverse piston starts to get hard. There are three square pieces of rubber and when they are cold they aren't as soft. These clutches apply for forwards and reverse-they are the same set not two sets. If this is the case let the transmission warm up some before driving it or the clutches will slip easier and start to go bad. The only way to know if they got hard is with a trans tear down as the piston is the first thing in and the last thing out of the case. NOTE:I wouldn't recommend using seal softeners to cure this problem-just warm it up properly.

T4Revan

Yep, checked the fluid level. Delay is long when the car is cold, roughly 5-10 secs. At operating temp it's around 2-3 secs. You can hear a click from under the car when put in gear, but in R it's a louder clanking noise. Anything to be super concerned about? I noticed this when parking just now after driving for around 10 mins.

ed o

the clank is probably just the driveline direction change. the backlash of the diff tends to be what makes the clank-nothing to be concerned unless it is the reaction shell inside the trans as that is known for getting sloppy-if and when you rebuild a trans for that i'd invest in a better reaction shell known as the "BEAST". The shell is metal that likes to break or strip(not the pole dancing type) and the beast metal is thicker in all the right places(like the pole dancing type).