Lubegard green bottle

[hisilver]

Recently acquired a 91 taurus gl, 3.0L V6 from a friend for free. The trans was rebuilt or replaced several months ago. The trans sometimes upshifts too quick, downshifts to too low a gear, studders, jutters and just does not feel right. It also takes a long time to engage D from P, R, or N.
As this is just an old beater, I added some lubegard green bottle to see if it had any effect on the shudder. Drove it for about twenty minutes after adding and I dont really feel any difference. The parts store guy said the Lucas anti shudder additive would be the best, but I went for the lubegard. I dont know what fluid is in there now, but after the lubegard I now have a Merc V equivalent.
Is there any quick fix additive that may work better, or should I give Lubegard some more time?

 

[Boss302fan]

Originally Posted By: hisilver
Recently acquired a 91 taurus gl, 3.0L V6 from a friend for free. The trans was rebuilt or replaced several months ago. The trans sometimes upshifts too quick, downshifts to too low a gear, studders, jutters and just does not feel right. It also takes a long time to engage D from P, R, or N.
As this is just an old beater, I added some lubegard green bottle to see if it had any effect on the shudder. Drove it for about twenty minutes after adding and I dont really feel any difference. The parts store guy said the Lucas anti shudder additive would be the best, but I went for the lubegard. I dont know what fluid is in there now, but after the lubegard I now have a Merc V equivalent.
Is there any quick fix additive that may work better, or should I give Lubegard some more time?


Sounds like you have other things going on beyond the ATF. You could change out the ATF for Maxlife, etc but it may not improve your issues.

 

[sciphi]

Should have changed the ATF first IMO. Then added Lubegard if necessary.

In my book there's almost no reason why not to change the ATF on a vehicle that's new to you. If nothing else, it gives a baseline for where the vehicle is at.

 

[kcfx4]

Originally Posted By: sciphi
Should have changed the ATF first IMO. Then added Lubegard if necessary.

In my book there's almost no reason why not to change the ATF on a vehicle that's new to you. If nothing else, it gives a baseline for where the vehicle is at.

+1

 

[wallyuwl]

Do a complete flush with MaxLife ATF, or three drain and fills each a week apart. With the last drain and fill, if you go that route, add a bottle of lubeguard red. Otherwise add it on your own after the flush (make sure to suction out the appropriate level of ATF first as to not overfill).

 

[hisilver]

Originally Posted By: sciphi
Should have changed the ATF first IMO. Then added Lubegard if necessary.

In my book there's almost no reason why not to change the ATF on a vehicle that's new to you. If nothing else, it gives a baseline for where the vehicle is at.


The fluid is about 6 months old with about 1000 miles on it! I believe the shop just did a poor job of rebuilding, they are now out of business....

 

[wrcsixeight]

Since you doubt the ability of the shop who did the rebuild, you should assume they did not use the specified transmission fluid but instead used their bulk universal profit maximizing fluid.

Whether it is worth it to drop the pan and get half the wrong fluid out is up for debate.

Not familiar with Ford at all, but do they not have some sort of throttle cable leading to the transmission to tell it how much throttle is applied?

I know if my throttle rod is out of adjustment, mine shifts poorly.

 

[sciphi]

Originally Posted By: hisilver
Originally Posted By: sciphi
Should have changed the ATF first IMO. Then added Lubegard if necessary.

In my book there's almost no reason why not to change the ATF on a vehicle that's new to you. If nothing else, it gives a baseline for where the vehicle is at.


The fluid is about 6 months old with about 1000 miles on it! I believe the shop just did a poor job of rebuilding, they are now out of business....


Sounds like they did a bad rebuild. Sorry to hear that you're stuck with their presumably shoddy work.

Still, some new Mercon V is a cheap enough diagnostic to figure out if it's fluid-related or hard-part-related. Plus it gets the rebuild gunk out of there.

I don't know anything other than computer controlled transmissions, but is there a shift kit or something else to diddle with the shifts to help the transmission shift better? I put a shift kit into my Buick to help with a failing solenoid, and it made the transmission shift faster/smoother.