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V8 autotran problems
Hello out there. I just got back from a long vacation driving 10018
miles in my 1990 V8 Quattro, visiting people and places. The V8 sure
is a nice car, except for its lousy automatic transmission. I
experienced the following two problems and wonder if anyone has an
idea of what the problem(s) is(are).
On about 4 or 5 occasions, I noticed from the tach that I was staying
in 3rd gear. Moving the gearshift between the "D" and "3" positions
caused the car to shift from 3rd ... back into 3rd. The only way to
get it into 4th was to shift into 2nd (making sure I was doing less
than 80), at which point moving the shift lever to "D" allowed it to
shift past 3rd and into 4th.
Problem number two is more serious. On one occasion, I attempted to
pull out in front of an oncoming car and tromped hard on the gas. The
car abruptly shifted into 4th and accellerated (if you could call it
that) very, very, very, ..., very slowly. Fortunately, it was a four
lane road, and the car I cut off switched lanes. The dashboard
gearshift indicator lights were all on, as if the car thought it was
simultaneously in P, R, N, D, 3, 2, 1. Shutting off the ignition and
restarting the car restored it to normal function. It did this a 2nd
time this morning, this time on only moderately aggressive
acceleration. Moving the gearshift lever or mode switch does nothing.
Only shutting off the ignition and restarting restores the
transmission to normal function. The first time the function switch
was in sport mode, today it was in economy mode, so it's not function
switch related. Both times the gearshift lever was in Drive.
Any clues as to what the problems are? Are they related? How much is
a 5-speed conversion? The car was otherwise 100% problem-free on the
trip (as well as before and since) and is a joy.
Jack Rich