The tranny life was probably shortened by the increased line pressures in the tune. The tune did not cause the problem. The tranny was most likely on it's last legs before t5he tune.

Slipping is normal in auto trannys. The nice soft shift you get is due to this controlled slippage.

When you firm up the shift you are shortening the slippage time so that what give you a harder shift. This actually makes the clutches last longer because they are slipping less.

Now in your case when you increased the line pressure the clutches were worn to the point that they would not hold when the harder shift hit. So this immediately caused additional wear.

The thing that kills A4s is heat. Slipping causes heat and then in turn the heat causes more slipping etc.

When you get to the point of checking your tranny fluid you will most likely see that it show signs of being burned.

Changing the fluid and filter may buy you some time.

 

Having owned a transmission shop years ago, I can give you some generic answers to your questions. If the tranny is slipping it is done. Have a good shop drop the pan and look in the bottom. A bit of debris is normal. Any more than that, the transmission is cooked. If the fluid is dark and smelly, the transmission is done.
Changing the fluid may actually shorten the remaining life as the dirty fluid may actually help hold the clutches and steels together better than the new slick fluid. But changing the transmission fluid regularly (25,000 mi.) will extend it's life by keeping debris out of the valves.
Experience taught me that when I changed fliud and filter, and found any amount of debris, it was only a matter of time before an overhaul was needed.
Patching up, or doing less than a complete overhaul is a total waste of money.
You probably are looking at an overhaul. Electronic transmission overhaul is best left to specialists, not your local shop, or even a stealership.
RPM transmissions are mentioned a lot on the Horsepower type shows, but I had no experience with them myself when I had my shop.

 

Anybody have any recommendations for good shops in the San Antonio, TX area that could handle this job???

Thank you for all of your help guys!

 

Believe me you will need a new tranny. I am on my 4th and I hope the last. Find a good shop and get a RPM stage IV tranny. They run around $2000. Then you will need a new torque converter. I have the Vigilante 2600 stall, another $800. Then figure about $1000 in labor.
What ever you do, DO NOT CHANGE THE FLUID at this point. Like others have said in this thread it will start slipping real bad. I know, I have been down this road before.
My Vette still has the 2:73 rear end, but with the 2600 stall converter, she will smoke the rear tires. The RPM stage IV has a sift kit and sifts hard even with stock tunning. She will kick the back end around sifting to 2nd. And you can manually sift these trannys up sifts and down sifts.. Makes the auto a bit more fun to drive.
Good luck on your repairs.
Fred

 

Update again...

Checked my transmission fluid and everything looks great. Not low, doesn't smell burned etc. I honestly think that I can fix this by taking the transmission tune back to stock and possibly replacing the valve body??? Does this sound like a good first approach? I think I'm going to take it into GM this week and have them do this. I would love to fix this for $500 instead of spending around $3000 to fix the transmission. LMK if my plan sounds ok

Thanks for all your help guys

 

... Also problem hasn't occured in anyway whatsoever since the 1 time where it acted weird for about 2 minutes. I have to drive back to San Antonio from Dallas today so I will get to see if it acts up more when the transmission fluid is above 200 degrees F

 

Stay away from GM dealers. Once they drop the pan and find a problem you are then screwed. Also if they drop the pan they will replace the fluid,and it will slip then, I can guarantee it. Like I said I am on my 4th tranny. It is not going to fix itself. Once they start to slip it is just a matter of time. Just baby it and start looking for a good shop, not the stealership.
Good luck

 

Got my transmission fully checked out today and there were no problems. They said the DTC code was caused by improper calibration of the PCM. This was causing the TCC lockup to mess up and overheat the transmission fluid when I was on the highway. Then when I slowed down in traffic the shifting was hard because the lines had max pressure as a result of the TCC problems... So after all, the problem came as a direct result of the mail order tune I got from ECS and improper calibration. My PCM is currently getting reprogrammed back to stock. I think I'll dyno next time lol

Thanks for all the help guys

 

Glad to hear the good news.
Enjoy your car.

 

Mine was $625 here in Central Missouri from a independant not a dealer.

 

The "quality of mail order tunes"?? Do you realise that we do literally 100's and 100's of mail order tunes per year?? Let alone how many cars we tune at Carlisle and here?

Of all things that do not have any mail order consequences, its the transmission part of the tune. It's not something that can be off or needed "tweeking" like the engine could need. It is a "set it and forget" type of tune that we do exactly the same for every single stock C5 auto we have ever done.


That will not fix the basic problem that his trans is shot. He gets a new tune and romps on the car to feel it, the trans slips because it's shot and it's the tunes fault?

Fix the trans, and enjoy your car, putting it back to stock MAY lengthen the inevitable shortly, but shortly at best.

You would be putting a band aid on a stab wound.


That is 100% NOT true, I'll bet any amount of money that the person who said that does not do tuning, or could look at the tune to say that, am I correct??

You are getting the run around for a trans problem by people on this forum, and who told you the above, that simply do not know what they are talking about. If your trans has a problem after our tune, it's because your (the only car this forum has ever heard of this happening from our tune) has a problem, and you need to have it repaired.

We are sorry to hear about your trans trouble, if there is anything we can do to assist, just let us know.

 

Doug,

I do not know you but I do respect the reputation ECS has earned.

I also posted that the tune did not cause the problem and that the Tranny was "on it's last legs" before the tune.

That said. Yes or No!

Is a mail order tune as good as a Dyno Tune?

 

first try changing the trans fuild..it may be dirty..

 

Look in any of my posts regarding mail order tunes, we always state that a dyno tune is better when performed by a competent tuner! We have to leave more of a safety margin when we are not data logging the car, nor can we tell if there is an existing problem with the car.(hence this entire thread) It is also substantially more money, and in this case, not available to a college student at this time.

However, in this particular case NO!! It is not better because a transmission tune would make absolutely no difference to a dyno tune. You do not test, or in anyway, utilise a trans tune on the dyno. The car is locked in third gear and ran threw it, the car never shifts. Which is why we do both street and dyno tuning to every car that is tuned here.


Still just masking the problem, and often just takes the trans completely out. Save the money and put it towards the initial problem.

 

First off, when I started this thread it was in no way to bash ECS or the quality of mail order tunes, but to simply seek help on my car's issue. That being said, now that I have set my PCM to stock with the latest GM software and had the car's transmission looked at by 2 separate transmission shops and the dealer there are no problems with it whatsoever. I never felt slipping in the transmission even though the car displayed a P1870 code. All parties who looked at the car unanimously agreed that the code came from the Lockup being off and that's what triggered the CEL. Now that the tune is stock again the lockup is at 45ish instead of 65ish where it was before. All I know is the car runs perfect now and that I feel confident that if two trans shops and a dealer can't find something wrong then I'm sure I am fine.

Thanks to everyone for your input and help