Thread: slight shudder from auto trans

At Auto trax for eight days. Then at dealers for only another three days to have the transmission swapped out but only because the manager (who has now left) approved a renconditioned swap. Call centre wanted to take it out and send for repair.

I would be ringing ZF to see who reconditions in WA. But Allianz may want to send it east. A&B are good with ZFs and know what they are doing.

From talking to Doug at Automac, he seems to think (without having looked at it yet) that it may well be the 'converter', whatever that is. I didn't specifically ask him at the time, but got the impression that if it was indeed the converter then it is a simple fix, no idea of time of fix though.

If that is the case then hopefully I can avoid the reconditioning because the D3 is my only car and I am not looking forward to telling SWMBO that she will be on shanks pony for a few days/weeks...

I'm now waiting for her to get home from work to try and pick a good day to get it up to Automac...


Cheers,


Norm

Originally Posted by CaverD3

At Auto trax for eight days. Then at dealers for only another three days to have the transmission swapped out but only because the manager (who has now left) approved a renconditioned swap. Call centre wanted to take it out and send for repair.

I would be ringing ZF to see who reconditions in WA. But Allianz may want to send it east. A&B are good with ZFs and know what they are doing.

There are apparently two causes for shuddering in these trannys; torque converter failure and ATF starvation causing bushing wear and gradual increse in vibration and eventual failure.
Make sure he says failure of................ to Allianz.

You are entitled to (I think) $570 of car hire per claim. Just don't expect them top pay quickly.
I would not give the vehicle to them until he has all the parts though.

I would also have alook at the centre driveshaft bush (could be wprn or soft, check for black powder on suface) but the symptoms of this are usually vibration rather than shudder under load only at speeds over 100kph.

Hi Norm,
The convertor is the big chunky bit that connects the engine to the gearbox, (crankshaft to input shaft in the gearbox) full name is a torque convertor which is what it does, converts torque. The gearbox has to come out to get access to the torque convertor. From my dealings with them, torque convertors aren't usually the component that breaks. It'll be interesting to see where you get to, my experiences with AutoMac have been good, albiet limited. They seem to know what they are doing and they usually have high end vehicles in the workshops which to me is a good indicator.
Keep us in the loop so we find out what the problem is, I'll be surprised if it actually is the torque convertor.

They do sound pretty good. They are ZF specialists.
The torque converter is the bit on the front of the box, yes.
FYI the torque converter on the ZF 6 is a lock up type which means when the gear changes it goes from second to second locked to third to third locked etc. It has a clutch which is used to lock it up and if this slips it will shudder when it goes fro unlocked to locked. So it will appear to shudder on changing gears.
With old ATF the contamiants cause this clutch which is why a flush sometimes fixes the issue.
The other issue has similar symptoms but more of a vibration than a shudder.

Hope this helps.

BE WARNED...

a flush can also kill the tranny....

if the old oil has lost enough lubricity when you replace it with new stuff you can occasionally have worse problems as the new oil is slipperier than the old stuff so packs/bands that were previously only just hanging on and doing their job no longer will.

fair enough the tranny is already technically dead prior to doing the change but a lot of people like to try and blame the mechanic when this happens.

I havent had it happen on a one of the new electronic style 22's but I have had a couple of the mechanical ones do it and they were fairly high K units.

I hope this isnt the case with yours but just in case......

Hi all, if anyone is interested, I've just had a big service done on my 05 TDV6 with 110000kms at Ritters in melb. Cost was just shy of $3000 as I'm a LROC member and get a discount. Had the auto done, new pan and flush and new fluid. I'm happy to say, it's now smooth as silk. Also after having a good look myself, found the front left axle was worn, now replaced, with new rubber boots and grease, which apparently there wasn't much left. There was some vibration under load at speeds over 100km/h. The car feels like new, tight as a drum. No front end clunks, no clunks in the drive train. As there was prior, it's interesting, all the forum discussion on the front end don't seem to mention axles or axle joints(CV's), there's a new discussion. Also new brake pads and a new wiper blade on the rear to boot. Was expecting a big bill, but not such an improvement in the car. So credit to Ritters very pleased in the outcome. Hope you have the same success.
Cheers Andrew.
PS the loan car was a Ford Taurus, my god this was the ugliest car I've ever driven, couldn't wait to get back into my D3 and wasn't I happy.

Right, to finish off this saga...

Got the D3 back today after a transmission rebuild to the tune of $6700 odd dollars, paid for by Allianz and their extended warranty extension. Another important lesson to those out there thinking about buying a 2nd hand D3...$3k buys peace of mind.

Reco in this case is new torque converter and clutches on a reco valve body.

It didn't go exactly according to the plan though as the ZF specialist plugged his computer in and got screwy info so talked Allianz into letting him handball it to another transmission place, who did the actual rebuild. I'm not sure why the ZF approved repairer didn't do it, but whatever.

The vehicle now drives like a new one, its really amazing to note the difference.

For those in WA, I can recommend Cameron at Auto Transmissions R Us in Osborne Park, they do heaps of work for Barbagello and he knows how to write the report, if you know what I mean. They had the job done in 6 days and provided a loan car free of charge.

Interestingly, he recommended that the ATF get replaced every 50k or thereabouts, as opposed to the 80-100k I have read here or the 150-180k as told directly to me by the dealer.

Thanks to all who added their opinions, cheers guys, I appreciate it.



Norm