nszotovich wrote:Those three speeds were not the most efficient trannys. The four speeds were continually tweaked until they became pretty reliable. Everyone had early troubles with their four speeds. My 87 Taurus went through two rebuilds before 100k.Chrysler addressed the problem quicker than Ford.
Turns out the A604's biggest problem was the fact that the Dexron ATF that was originally used wasn't sufficient and also didn't have enough friction modifiers in it to account for the amount of slip the TCM allowed the clutches, in turn burning them to pieces. That's when ATF+3 was released and helped, somewhat, along with TCM reprogramming, tweaks, etc. Then along came ATF+4 and the 41TE (A604)'s after around 1998 and up had very few failures when the fluid and filter were changed occasionally.
I've never actually seen a Taurus that didn't have a slipping or shuddering transmission. They were real junk in the 1st and 2nd gen Taurus'. I have been told that ATF+4 does help with the shudder in those Ford tranny's. Not sure though.