Anyone have any transmission problems? Everything I've read before says these transmissions are better than gm Allison's and they can handle up to 600 horse before you gotta worry about beefing them up but mines starting to act funny.

How important is the transmission tune? My truck it's tuned with the spe hot tune and trans tune. Didn't like the way it clunk bang hard shifts though so I ran factory trans tune for a while but it felt very soft like it was slipping when I got after it on the performance setting of spe hot so I went back to spe trans file.

I get a little twang sound that sounds like it's coming from the trans between 3-4 gear shifts, initially only heard it after getting on it hard in performance but it's getting worse and happens on stock power level under light acceleration now sometimes. Also I lost all gears briefly and it wouldn't shift into manual at all when I stopped to turn around the other day. Working fine in drive but when I shifted out to reverse it had nothing in any gear and manual wouldn't light up on the display. I shut it off and restarted the engine and it came back and worked fine after that but not sure what happened there, don't think it's good though.

Did using the stock transmission file with the hot engine tune or the hard clunk bang custom trans file **** up my trans, freak malfunction, or what do you guys think?

 

How important are the trans tunes? If the tune is off by just a little bit and it slips the clutch for an extra 0.10 seconsd the clutch can be destroyed in less than 10 shifts. So yes, swapping around engine and trans tunes at random will cause you to buy a new transmission.

 

There is a difference between handling 600+ horsepower and altering the tranny's programming. Doesn't matter if it's a torqueshift or Allison.

 

thats not what i wanted to hear, ha. Whats the prefered tuning method then? is the bang clunk shift preferred over adding power to the stock trans tuning? stock just felt like it was much weaker/softer/slipping but the bang clunk didnt feel like it would be very good for it either.

why would it completely disable and then work fine after a restart? it feels strong and pulls trailers with no issues, just the twang and that freak zero movement incident has me worried. Dont know much about how they work, thought i read somewhere they self protected? but maybe the tuning removes that feature? anyone else running a tune on one and if so what did you do about the trans tune?

 

There is a slippage chirp shifting 4-5 on all SD power strokes I've ever driven. My brand new 2015 did it from day 1. It only happens when I'm towing, in M shift mode, hard acceleration, and timely shift at just the right time when boost/torque are maxed out. My 2011 did it at 3-4 also. Interesting note, the 2015 has a huge hesitation from 5-6 now in M shift. I dislike it....

 

mines a 13 and problem is 3-4, its not a chip, its a TWANG, lol. hard to explain but its def not normal and wasnt present before i tuned it and rodded on it for a while. maybe a spring or band or something in the transmission, not really sure, dont know that much about transmissions other then they arent cheap to replace.

I just dont know if the too much power with the stock trans files or the hard shifting clunk bang of the tuned transmission file was what caused it. i didnt run the stock with the power much cause it felt like it was slipping but Mark is correct then thats what im guessing did it in.

 

No transmission techs in here? need more info please. Thanks.

 

This guy up here^^^is a retired Ford transmission engineer, says it right in his signature; he might be a good one to listen to.

 

X2.........

 

i use mobile device to view this forum and as such i dont see signatures, thanks for the heads up!

However he didnt really answer my questions, perhaps he could please elaborate a bit for a novice?

I didnt really change at random and i wasnt messing with the actual file settings, i only used the stock file and the file that came with my tune, I just tried them each a couple times cause I didnt really like the way either of them shifted when running the engine tune with my H&S mini max on either stock power or performance power settings. The stock one felt kinda mushy especially on performance so i switched back to the tuned clunk/bang file but i dont know which one is causing/caused the damage.

Is the stock file not able to handle the extra power of an engine tune?

Is the hard shifting clunk bang i get from the tune file normal? acceptable? cause any damage? or perfectly fine to use?

What is causing the TWANG shift between 3-4? is the trans ****ed? could it more easily be fixed now before it gets worse? Will it get worse? or should i keep driving it till it stops moving cause its gonna need a complete rebuild anyway or what?

Why did the trans completely stop working when shifting from drive to reverse once and then resume working just fine after a engine shutdown and restart?

Right now other than the twang from the 3-4 shift it feels fine in every gear, strong, even pulls a 9000 pound trailer with no problems, no slipping. I am just leaving the power level on stock and using the clunk/bang tune that doesnt clunk/bang too bad unless its on performance setting for now until i figure out WTF is going on with it as i dont want to potentially make it worse or take it out completely if its not already FUBARED.

More information is desperately needed and greatly appreciated, thanks!

 

I think you're asking too much from an internet forum based on a simple written description. You can't diagnose this kind of thing based on a description, no matter how well you write it.

Just like you're asking too much from your transmission by giving it 200+ horsepower more than it was ever designed for. There's no life expectancy in this realm, and there certainly isn't any warranty. Most have been lucky, but you may not have been. Part of the deal, you pay to play.

Sounds to me like you need to revert to stock tune and see how things work. If any abnormal shifting you need to see a transmission shop.

 

What device are you using to tune? I would get in touch with Matt @ Gearhead and get him to write you better tunes. He will get you fixed up.

 

I'll try.

I developed transmission tunes at Ford. That was my career for many years. I know how to do that, but what I don't know is how the aftermarket does it. I can guess, but that's all it is, guessing.

I would expect that a "race" transmission tune would be matched to a "race" engine tune. If the engine makes more torque the transmission has to have more pressure of the clutches are going to slip. If they slip for even a small fraction of a second longer than they should, they burn and fail. A tenth of a second per shift extra slip is plenty to destroy a clutch.

If you're running a "race" engine tune with a stock transmission tune, the trans doesn't have any extra pressure. I'd expect the "race" trans tune to have the extra pressure that is required.

So I expect that running the higher powered engine tune with a stock transmission tune has done permanent damage to your transmission. That's not to say that if you ran the "race" trans tune it wouldn't also be damaged. The transmission was not designed for the added power.

 

If it were me, I'd return the truck entirely back to stock status. No tunes at all, at least until you have this sorted out. As mark mentioned, it may already be too late.

 

Mr Hammer - meet Mr. Nail.....