If I am slowing down for a light and the light turns green and I step on the gas, it will sometimes clunk down to the next gear. It acts like it doesnt want to shift until I hit the gas again. I dont think this is how it should do that. When if does downshift, it sounds kinda sloppy and has a clunk. Otherwise the car shifts fine. Oh yeah, its an A4 tranny in a 1995 Z.

 

Check your tranny mount, it's probably broken

-Shannon

 

Could be your universal joints on your driveshaft

 

mine does the same. Its not my ES Tranny mount. I did noticed some play in the linkage. I need to find out where from.

Marvin

 

Its not gonna be the tranny mount because I have the same problem too
and I have a Poly tranny mount and when i floor the car it does not make that
loud banging underneath the shifter...

 

I get the same thing, I put a new Prothane trans mount on mine and a new 1LE driveshaft w/ new u joints and I still get it, I was almost thinking its in the rear, it seems to happen the most for me when I slow down to make a turn and then step on the gas again.

 

Hey supercharger, thats exactly when mine does it. If I slow down to turn or start slowing for a light and then hit the gas again it clunks. Do you guys think if could be wear on the ring and pinion gear?? I thought maybe they are wearing and there is some play in there. My U-joints seem to be pretty solid.

 

I had her rear end wide open a few weeks ago And I did notice some play BUT then while helping a friend with another car I also noticed she had some serios play and yet her car does not make any clunking sounds. (she drives an SUV)

The play in mine is "believe it or not" very small in comparison. Right now I can only think of the trany releasing the gear as soon as you touch the gas pedal, since the car is moving forward the gears hit on one side before the engine catches up with the RPMs. Once the engine catches speed in RPMs the the gears make contact on the other side of the teeth....

Am I making any sense?? Like going 20mph and trany holding that speed and engine matching it in RPMs (for lack of better words) then you touch the gas pedal and the tranny Shifts!! but the engine does not go up in RPMs quick enough and since you dont have the stinker deep into the gas the gears teeth hit on the "other side" due to the play in there and it happens to sound clunky and nasty.

Imagine a little play in the grooves and teeth... and the teeth hitting back and forth... but the tranny shifting so abruptly makes it loud due to the engines load that hits on side of the groove and abruptly the other side of the groove. Do I make sense??


Marvin

 

This problem has nothing to do with the mount or the rearend, its in the tranny itself and a shift kit is the only way I know of to correct it.
I don,t know exactly why the stock transmissions do this but after I had the shift kit installed it was totally gone.
Maybe someone who knows will chime in and tell us exactly whats happening.

 

I have heard shift kits are no good for the trans though, is that true????

 

By looking over at my tech write up. "This nosie is most common on cars with auto trans. It usually occurs at downshift points where the rear gears disengage. Some people claim that changing the rear differential fuild and adding limited slip help it. In most cases it's a problem with the pcm downshift program. A tech service bulletin (#477124) addresses this in 93-94 LT1 cars. The tbs describes a 3rd to 2nd downshift clunk and calls for the pcm to be updated on all 93-94 LT1 with pontiac vin sequence lower than 239227, and chevy vin sequence lower than 194422. All later cars should have the updated program.

Edit: I just notice your car is a 95 so you dont fall into that area with the pcm problem. As for the shift kit, just run with a tranny cooler and it will be just fine.

 

A tranny cooler with a shift kit is excellent advise. Mine would do that till I put in the TransGo kit. Most shift kits have different levels of performance you can choose while installing. I went pretty aggresive and lost a few teeth off my ring gear on 1-2 shift pulling out of a gas station, less than half throttle ( Note: this was primarily caused by poor setup by shop that installed original Eaton and 3.73 gears ). A mild shift kit and cooler will increase the life of the tranny because the quicker shift reduces the wear on the bands and this also reduces heat buildup. I play at the drag strip with aired down 315 drag radials and the tranny has not had a prob yet.

Edit: Just get a quality shift kit, not one of the cheap ones. The TransGo kit had a video and good instructions. The stock in-the-radiator cooler is inadequate for any kind of performance driving so you definitely want to upgrade that as well.

 

Well you can't tell well that's what it is. Just by a person's description. I would personally jack up the vehicle and check it. First use a small screw driver or pry bar to see if you can move the transmission or engine. Also inspect the rubber for cracks or missing pieces. Push up on the Cardan joint (U- joint) and see if it has over an 1/8 inch of play or clunks. Check the bolts to make sure they are tight also you may notice that the input shaft to the rearend. It could be excessive end play in your rearend. Could be a bad linkage alignment or bad valve body. Also could be a bad ball joint. I am not telling you what it is but giving you several possibilities for the cause and ways to check for them.

 

Yea you can't tell by just saying it's a clunk. How loud is it? Do you get any noice when putting it in drive from reverse--if so u-joint.

I would check the following.
1. trans mount....it will be a loud cluck when it shifts.....will happen in the
1-2. shift hardest--apon acceleration---go from a dead stop.
2. U-joints
3. could be the differential
4. and if those seem to check out then i'd say it's in the trans itself....i haven't heard of these cars making clunking noises though....at least not loud ones inside the trans if everything is okay.

A shift kit and cooler are good idea, but if you trans is weak it might ruin your ovverun clutchesif it's an old tranny or high milage, like it did mine (my trans was weak to begin with though).......Trans go installed.....would chirp 1-2 shift reall good. for like two weeks, but slowly got worse untill i have no ovverun clutches. They really don't do anything other than trans brake....my rpms drop to neutral when i let off the gas now, unless i'm in OD. I say put the kit in....if she goes out, then it was going to go out anyway. Cause my tranny i am sure was getting weak anyway. It still drives perfect, but shifts are loose again and that neutral feeling in other gears.

 

Of course its hard to diagnose over the net but from the way he describes it it sounds like the downshift tranny clunk to me.

It is however a good idea to check out the tranny mount and the U joints, you can never be too safe.