Hi everyone! New member here and first time post. I figured this would be the best place to ask a question about my new to me 04 a4 coupe, because there’s a lot of knowledgeable folks on here!

So here goes...I bought this car about a year and a half ago and the guy I bought it from didn’t know much about it. According to carfax it’s had like 6 previous owners. It already had a vararam, some kind of tune (not sure what kind) and a 3.42 diff. The transmission looks nice and clean so I assume it’s been rebuilt and figured that’s probably when the 3.42 was added. The car had 112k miles when I bought it.

My question is; how do I know if the torque converter was upgraded with a higher stall at the same time as the diff and trans? From what I gathered reading other posts on here, power braking the car might give some idea, so I tried that and I can hold the brakes and the rpm will go up to about 2500 before the car wants to move. When normally driving around town the rpm seems to stay around 2000 as it shifts through the gears (just driving it easy). Lock up is around 45mph.

The car does not have an aux trans cooler but I can add one if it’s something that should be done.

I sure appreciate and opinions you all might have to help me out. Obviously I don’t want to buy a converter then find out it already has one. Thanks in advance everyone!

 

I've ran my yank/3.42 combo for 10+ years no external cooler it's fine. If you live somewhere really hot then I could see it being more of an issue.

 

You definitely don't need an external cooler. Honestly, unless you really want one, you probably don't need a higher stall converter with the mods you've described. I have an '04 A4 That is supercharged (500WHP), and has a level 5 Transmission from RPM. I talked to RPM about what I wanted to do with the car, and what my goals were, and we both decided that as a canyon carving street car, I would actually be better off with the stock converter. I hope that helps.

 

The question I’m asking is...how do I know if someone has already put in a higher stall converter? As mentioned I can stand on the brakes and the rpms get to about 2500 before the car starts to push forward. Would the rpms go that high on a stock stall? I appreciate your replies

 

If you can stand on the brakes and rev the engine to 2500rpm before the car starts to move forward it appears you do have a higher rpm stall converter than stock. Although it appears your converter has a higher stall speed than stock, you cannot determine from this simple test that you have a 2500rpm stall speed converter. Multiple factors will affect a foot-brake stall speed test, and in many/most instances the true stall speed will be higher than the foot-brake stall speed.
It is unfortunate that whoever made these changes did not save the information for future owners. Many car enthusiasts will keep a file or record of all changes made to their car (as well as records of simple, routine maintenance such as oil changes), to pass on.
Any chance the owner you purchased your car from has info about the owner before him (assuming he/she is the one who made the changes)?

 

Thanks Route99. That answer helps in that I can be reasonably sure the converter was replaced with something other than stock. I realize I’ll never know what brand or other specifics about the converter, it will just be a guess unless I take the trans out which I don’t want to do anytime soon lol. The person I bought the car from didn’t own it long and didn’t know much about it but it was a good deal so....I’m think the stall is probably 2800-3200 somewhere in that range. I’m not super concerned about the exact number but if I put a cam I can maybe go a bit bigger than if I assumed a stock stall.

 

Thanks for the heads up Walter. Still thinking about the trans cooler because I live in Las Vegas and it get pretty freakin hot here lol.