MY TRANSMISSION REPAIR 8hp90

[WhipCat]

Sweet thread. I’m on my second A8. So anything new on these transmissions is good news

 

[Demoniccat]

One of the better threads I have seen on a topic not really covered in detail yet. especially in just a few short days. Good stuff, Hope the hard cores keep it going and develop it further.
IMO a lot of room here for R&D

 

[hellno]

As soon as parts arrive next week I will continue to give more information on the A8 rebuild also Monday I will know the solenoid test results, having the ability to have the solenoids tested could be a good option and be cost effective in these rebuilds even being a rebuilder my actual cost is already a1,000 and that isn’t including the demon converter and I’m only repairing mine without buying an overhaul kit which the kit runs 600-900+ depending on if you buy the pistons , even SHR KIT doesn’t come with pistons and it sells for almost 2200

 

[Speedy!]

 

[Hpindy]

Tick tock, tick tock. Tick tock

Sent from my BBF100-2 using Tapatalk

 

[Demoniccat]

I hear the jeopardy song playing. @Helllno delivers such an captivating thread and all of us can't get enough. And what do we all do, we pour on the pressure. aren't we all a bunch of selfish gear headed high octane in the blood sponges, and loving every moment of it. LOL. With all of the crickets chirping lately at Auburn Hills This is exactly what's needed to stimulate the soul. .02

 

[jgilj]

This is more fun than tearing apart a jet engine!

 

[hellno]

Sweet thread. I’m on my second A8. So anything new on these transmissions is good news

Can you tell what happened to your first transmission? Did you have it rebuilt or did you replace it? Also what went out on it

 

[Hickster]

Mr. Memphis, coming from past Mr Chattanooga, now Mr Clearwater. What the hell did happen?? My Gosh my Tenn friend. What a bad day?? I had a Canadian slow ass beach day, but a another tranny?? Too, two, bad news. Bad weather, bad car 2 days. Leave it along tomorrow. Watch football and drink beer, and sleep. Memphis today. Let lay low on Sat. Had a meeting from the ex yesterday, but great grouper dinner. Made up fer it. Tonight,, red tuner blackened steak and no visitor's. Moe Gold Rush and Foot ball tomorrow. Spend time on the car by my self. Great day. Day in the garage wit the heat on.

 

[Mean Cat]

Damn it hellno, that trans will never shift again,

 

[WhipCat]

Can you tell what happened to your first transmission? Did you have it rebuilt or did you replace it? Also what went out on it

I had put a decent amount of miles on the car. Probably had 100 plus drag passes. Maybe more. Lots of street driving, short and long distance. Lots of traffic and rain. Lots of hard pulls on the street. Lots and lots of fun. I street the car around 980-1000 whp.

I think I just wore it out. It started to miss the 2-3 shift at the track under hard launches and acceleration. I could force the shift when I would let out at the top of second and get back in it again. But if I stomped it at the track under high power it would miss.

I don’t have pics of the inside of trans, but the fluid from what my builder said had that burnt smell to it.

I even switched tuners to see if it was TCM tune. Tried commanding different shift points etc. even paid Curt to send me a bulletproof trans tune that he knew would shift. Even after letting him tune it with pcm and tcm tune it still wouldn’t shift at the track.
So I replaced it with a new trans and kept my original to get rebuilt as a spare trans. Now I can keep racing and not worry about it.

I would let out at the top of second and get back in it to make it shift. it was all I could do to get a clean pass.

I remember curt saying I should keep it in track mode all the time to keep the trans safe. The whole year and a half I had been running the car I never daily drove it in track mode always street and sometimes sport. My builder never really mentioned that it would be an issue in street. But Curt seemed to think so. Supposedly some say that is why it got work out so fast. I would say I was hard on the car and drive it allot. I figure with my power getting around 1.5-2 yrs outta the stock trans isn’t bad. I opted for another stock trans opposed to getting an SHR or some other built trans as I have seen them all have plenty of issues. The stock works great.

 

[Mean Cat]

Good info on the A8 , now we can maybe figure out if it's cheaper & if better to rebuild or just buy new or used A8 when needed ?

 

[WhipCat]

Good info on the A8 , now we can maybe figure out if it's cheaper & if better to rebuild or just buy new or used A8 when needed ?

I got a brand new trans for $4000 and I got to keep my old one. I thought that was a steal.
If I sent my trans in to be rebuilt I would been out like $2600-3500. Don’t forget freight charges.
I got lucky because the guy at dealership is a badass and I know him well. He used his employee discount and he bought it himself and I paid him cash for it in the side.

I’d recommend anyone that if they race often, and you come across a new or slightly used A8 for $4000 or less. Buy it and be done with it. Now you have 2 and no matter what happens your always racing and having fun.

 

[Hpindy]

I'm glad I put all the demon settings in my trans tune since day 1 . It might help . It's very rare I ever went WOT in street mode . When I'm going to "play" I always use sport mode for trans .

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[hellno]

I had put a decent amount of miles on the car. Probably had 100 plus drag passes. Maybe more. Lots of street driving, short and long distance. Lots of traffic and rain. Lots of hard pulls on the street. Lots and lots of fun. I street the car around 980-1000 whp.

I think I just wore it out. It started to miss the 2-3 shift at the track under hard launches and acceleration. I could force the shift when I would let out at the top of second and get back in it again. But if I stomped it at the track under high power it would miss.

I don’t have pics of the inside of trans, but the fluid from what my builder said had that burnt smell to it.

I even switched tuners to see if it was TCM tune. Tried commanding different shift points etc. even paid Curt to send me a bulletproof trans tune that he knew would shift. Even after letting him tune it with pcm and tcm tune it still wouldn’t shift at the track.
So I replaced it with a new trans and kept my original to get rebuilt as a spare trans. Now I can keep racing and not worry about it.

I would let out at the top of second and get back in it to make it shift. it was all I could do to get a clean pass.

I remember curt saying I should keep it in track mode all the time to keep the trans safe. The whole year and a half I had been running the car I never daily drove it in track mode always street and sometimes sport. My builder never really mentioned that it would be an issue in street. But Curt seemed to think so. Supposedly some say that is why it got work out so fast. I would say I was hard on the car and drive it allot. I figure with my power getting around 1.5-2 yrs outta the stock trans isn’t bad. I opted for another stock trans opposed to getting an SHR or some other built trans as I have seen them all have plenty of issues. The stock works great.

I’m in agreement with whip cat the direction he went being his car was skipping a gear unless the quote he got included the Valvebody the rebuild probably wouldn’t have worked and 2500-3500 wouldn’t have included the Valvebody I assume

 

[hellno]

Damn it hellno, that trans will never shift again,

@meancat it will purr like a kitten and roar like a lion and yes it will shift again at 6500 like it should and then at 6800 when I decide to move the shift points up 😂😂but my car has self adapting qualities at the demon event in Kentucky first pass on the 2.85 pulley it shifted at 6450 2nd pass on 2.75 pulley 6940 and 3rd and 4th pass on 2.65 pulley 7050 rpm rev limiter
Even the car wanted to go faster

 

[DGatzby]

Great thread and info guys! Keep it up.

Me? What do I learn after reading what all you guys have fun doing? Going to modify the hell out of just the suspension, get even bigger wheels and rubber and run the living crap out of it and not screw with the tuning. Believe it or not, IMO that can be even more expensive than drag racing. It is really interesting to read all that happens in these great machines and how well they hold up to our madness. Instead of drag racing, we take them out for 15-20 minutes and work them out, not just ten seconds at a time. I don't want to think about how quick something might break by stepping up the power and pounding on it a half dozen times a day for 15-20 minutes at a time. Probably better we don't use 1, 2 or third gear much!

 

[motorhead]

I had put a decent amount of miles on the car. Probably had 100 plus drag passes. Maybe more. Lots of street driving, short and long distance. Lots of traffic and rain. Lots of hard pulls on the street. Lots and lots of fun. I street the car around 980-1000 whp.

I think I just wore it out. It started to miss the 2-3 shift at the track under hard launches and acceleration. I could force the shift when I would let out at the top of second and get back in it again. But if I stomped it at the track under high power it would miss.

I don’t have pics of the inside of trans, but the fluid from what my builder said had that burnt smell to it.

I even switched tuners to see if it was TCM tune. Tried commanding different shift points etc. even paid Curt to send me a bulletproof trans tune that he knew would shift. Even after letting him tune it with pcm and tcm tune it still wouldn’t shift at the track.
So I replaced it with a new trans and kept my original to get rebuilt as a spare trans. Now I can keep racing and not worry about it.

I would let out at the top of second and get back in it to make it shift. it was all I could do to get a clean pass.

I remember curt saying I should keep it in track mode all the time to keep the trans safe. The whole year and a half I had been running the car I never daily drove it in track mode always street and sometimes sport. My builder never really mentioned that it would be an issue in street. But Curt seemed to think so. Supposedly some say that is why it got work out so fast. I would say I was hard on the car and drive it allot. I figure with my power getting around 1.5-2 yrs outta the stock trans isn’t bad. I opted for another stock trans opposed to getting an SHR or some other built trans as I have seen them all have plenty of issues. The stock works great.

There is so much wrong with tuners guessing on your dime at the expense of your car and using you as a beta tester. Conjecture and uncertainty, and no real appreciation for the limitations of the ZF8 are pretty apparent here. Granted these cars have been around for a scant 5 years and the learning curve reflects that. None the less there is a ceiling and some ZF8s are surviving and some are not - having to carry a $4000 spare transmission due to a lack of shared knowledge of what works and what doesn't is definitely a problem. Yay Capitalism!

I suggest looking into creating a tune database/repository. Time to start open source tuning these things.

 

[WhipCat]

There is so much wrong with tuners guessing on your dime at the expense of your car and using you as a beta tester. Conjecture and uncertainty, and no real appreciation for the limitations of the ZF8 are pretty apparent here. Granted these cars have been around for a scant 5 years and the learning curve reflects that. None the less there is a ceiling and some ZF8s are surviving and some are not - having to carry a $4000 spare transmission due to a lack of shared knowledge of what works and what doesn't is definitely a problem. Yay Capitalism!

I suggest looking into creating a tune database/repository. Time to start open source tuning these things.

I willingly beta test. My builder and the tuners I’ve used have never lied to me and I certainly am not naive to think that everything is supposed to be perfect. Would I want a perfect trans tune and everything to be super excellent every time I fire up the car? Sure. But let’s get real. The amount of variables at play on a high level build is crazy.
Don’t you watch these build videos of some fast cars and see what these guys go through to make them work successfully? Lots of blood and sweat to make these things work.

I would love for their to be a one and done solution for 1000+ HP hemi builds, but it’s gonna take more time. Right now swapping a trans every 2 years for what I’m doing is not a problem. Not trying to blow off the cost but $4000 is nothing for keeping my car running as healthy as it now. I’ve got a shit ton of money in my car, and considering the abuse I put on it, it’s running good!

im all for what you are saying in collaborating data so we can get these things perfect. But it’s gonna take more R&D.

 

[Mean Cat]

@meancat it will purr like a kitten and roar like a lion and yes it will shift again at 6500 like it should and then at 6800 when I decide to move the shift points up 😂😂but my car has self adapting qualities at the demon event in Kentucky first pass on the 2.85 pulley it shifted at 6450 2nd pass on 2.75 pulley 6940 and 3rd and 4th pass on 2.65 pulley 7050 rpm rev limiter
Even the car wanted to go faster

Yeah , I have no doubt that you got this , I'm gonna have to see what shipping cost is to your place , for the trans. weight , I guess it weights about 150 > 200 lbs. ?...… but hopefully I never have to pull the trans.