So I give the white ED classic to someone for a day. And it comes back with some sort of a knocking in the front left and it appears to be applying the brakes itself (car has ABS).

Upon driving further it is found that although the car is "applying the brakes" itself, if you hoof it the "brakes" will disengage and you're off. Until such time as you lift your foot and re-apply some throttle. The "brakes" come on again and you have to fight the thing to maintain speed until they clunk off again.

Funnily enough - Fuel consumption has gone up dramatically.


But then, after this happening for a few KM's, bright old Fiend decides to try manual shifting the crappy old auto. And hey, boy. It works in all the gears, other than D for DRIVE. Drive seems to "apply the brakes" when going from coasting along to putting a light touch on gas to maintain speeds.

Checked fluid levels (love the old cars which actually allow this!) and coolants. Car is not running hot, but has given the odd light smell of "burning rubber" in the past.


Am thinking that the guy who drove it yesterday may have put it into Reverse a few times whilst still rolling forward or into drive whilst rolling backwards... Or something.

Seems like when the box tries to slide into overdrive it is engaging two gears at the same time which results in a feeling that the brakes have been applied... Or something.

Am asking if the above diagnosis could be correct and what could have caused it... Or something.



And yes, have tried searching. My search terms are somewhat hard to fathom.

Have a few hundred KM's to drive each day and this is not enjoyable. If driving is my religion, I can see why all those Toyota owners are atheist.

Unfortunately your auto is toast or very close to it. If you pull the dip stick for the auto the oil will smell burnt and be quite dark. Sounds similar to what my EF v8 has done twice. At a guess I think the following is happening:

When you decelerate and the auto engages either the C4 or C3 clutch packs for engine braking. when the crappy cast alloy pistons get a hairline crack in them the clutch packs engage and chew themselves up when you accelerate. If you drive it a bit more when you decelerate the car will just coast along with no engine braking as there will be no lining left on the clutch packs. The car may also develop a shudder at certain speeds and it will still drive forwards and backwards but hard to say how long for.

I don't know what they have done to cause it as my car had the blown auto before I got it. The first time I rebuilt the box I didn't see the hairline crack in the piston so it ate itself as soon as the car was driven again.

Time for a second hand auto or to put the car into retirement.

Yeahp. Figure I will be swapping auto boxes sometime in the near future. Suckypoopoo.

The good news is the car still moves forwards and the hard shifting between second and third is cured.

The bad news is that "R" now means "N" and "N" now means sweet stuff all. This is really unfortunate. Thankfully my car park outside my flat is on a slight slope, so will just park nose in. In morning it will mean climbing in. Waiting for thirty seconds as car rolls backwards (with aid of a boot out the drivers door) and complete a three point turn that way.

When discovering this new phenomenon the car was parked nose into curb at Bunnings. Put it in R, put foot down and the car flew forward into the curb. WTF?

Looked again. Nope, definitely in R. But R now goes forwards. Hang about, so does nuetral (discovered purely by accident as I got out the car and foot came off brake... AAARGGGGGGGGG, trying to stop a six cylinder in third from embedding itself into Bunnings wheelbarrow display whilst only half in vehicle was tricky.

For the record - I now prefer the EF handbrake position at the centre console. I am no longer looking at moving the handbrake on the wagon to be up near the steering wheel.


So, first, second and third are all good at this point. The rest are somewhat interchangeable. Am fairly convinced that the slide from third to overdrive was engaging reverse. It still does. It's just that reverse now has moved out and left behind its dirty dishes and used G-strings on the towel rail.


You could almost cut and paste the story about my first T5 into this space.

And the Subaru twin turbo auto (twice) and manual (once)....

At least I have moved on from blowing up every big end and subsequently top end. Although well acquainted with V-twin bottom ends, it does get tiresome.

And Hondas old 248cc single engine was a superb thing. We found a crack through the head large enough to poke a steak knife through and touch the piston. And it still got from A to B.

(Ahem)

You're all class fiend, no question

the auto in my bush basher did this a few days ago and wouldn't start the next day, would wind and wind but wouldn't fire, figured it was to do with the auto s**t itself completely cause i was diriving it and it cut out and wouldn't restart

Bush bashers deserve that kind of treatment though!


I poured a litre of old T5 box ATFiii with lubrizol 7096 into the thing. I now have reverse (after a day of letting the new oil soak into it's old bones) and even neutral is 99% nuetral. Car still wants to move forwards a little in neutral, but nothing like shooting forward into the side of Bunnings.

In the meantime Pick-A-Part has reduced their prices. Managed to get an EF auto and torque converter for the awesome sum of $60.

They all have a hole punched in the sump as they drain the oil mind you. Am think of just welding a nut over the hole and putting a bolt into it!

Got the EF tranny WITH torque converter as have heard the torque verter changes between ..ED / EF..

Was a ****b**ch**** of a job trying to stop the crank from turning whilst cracking the bolts holding the torquey on. Bloody hell, anyone else who has ever done this SOLO whilst laying under a car in mud care to share any techniques? Am still nursing a few fingers with what appear to be torture wounds.

Got to love the facts that the btrs are almost worthless ae fiend, wreckers wouldn't even take mine, got a grand total of 35 for mine at the scrappy along with some other miscellaneous items.

Just enough for millers and kamels

(Which is about what I needed to hide the fact the auto was eating itself going up large inclines. My eight year old noticed something was amiss. Just like her Dad, she's observant of objects and machines. However, just like her Mum she's a worrier. So rather than explain a little of what the car was doing I just said there was some oil in the engine bay (explains smell) and that I had to adjust the handbrake (explained sluggish response).

Happy daughter means happy 250km journey. Best she didn't know we could slow to a BTR driven stop at any moment.