well against my better judgement i decided you all should know...
 

The DSM is dead, well not entirely dead, but a parapalegic (sp?)
Tonight my tranny gave in so my car will not be moving.
I am sad. someone shoot me.
But tomarrow I may be picking up a new car, a 98 GST, MANUAL TRANSMISSION!! its got some decent mods like act 2100 clutch, DSMLink, 16G, fidenza flywheel, type s, a built 6 bolt by RRE, stage 2 ported head, and some other stuff. It may be my new car tomarrow but we shall see.

Re: well against my better judgement i decided you all should know...
 

Holy Crap!

So that TCUGO and your lead foot tourched that Tranny in just less than 2 weeks???

WTF!!!

I JUST bought one and now I'm scared to even put that TCUGO in my car?

I need much more details, please man!

What's the REAL and WHOLE story behind this failure?

How hard have you been beating on it? When is the last time you change the tranny fluid and filter? Has it been real hot out down there or wtf?

Re: well against my better judgement i decided you all should know...
 

Who knows, maybe the tranny was on the verge and this just sent it over. This does suck though, I know it will all work out in the end and you'll be happy with the GST if you're able to get it! I'll even teach you how to change tranny fluid ;)

Re: well against my better judgement i decided you all should know...
 

Yeah, this scares me as well. Do you know what broke on the transmission?

Re: well against my better judgement i decided you all should know...
 

From EVERYTHING I've read A/T's are suppose to be tough as nails, but I guess if you neglect std maintenance on anything you run, I'd also guess you can also you can expect it to fail.

I'd be most grateful for the straight dope here, from the horses mouth one way or the other?

What happened Tom?

Re: well against my better judgement i decided you all should know...
 

Basically what happened, is i had the tcugo off and when it was shifting from 2nd to 3rd it was slipping out of gear but then it would eventually get into 3rd. but then it was getting worse and worse, until it wouldnt go into to any of the gears. so in order to limp it home i had to turn off the car, then turn it on and it would move for about 10 seconds then would slip and wouldnt go back into gear. so im not exactly sure what broke on the tranny.
ok yes i have had the TCUGo for only like 2 weeks, but i really havent been hitting it that hard, ive had it on stage three, never even had it on stage 5. Im not sure but i think the tranny fluid and filter were changed when i had the motor replaced under warrenty. which was about 30,000 miles ago.

Re: well against my better judgement i decided you all should know...
 

I really dont think that the TCUGO is a bad mod, as long as:
a) you add a tranny cooler, or do something else to the tranny to strengthen it or cool it.
b) use it for only racing

If i could go back and do it all over again i would have still done the TCUGO but i would have done the supporting mods and changed the trans fluid and added a cooler.

Re: well against my better judgement i decided you all should know...
 

That totaly sucks man, what a royal f@*kin pain!

What are you doing with the old car now?

My TCUGO will be here anyday now, BUT I'm gonna get all the tranny work done before it even goes in, and in your honor am getting a bigger tranny cooler!

Thanks for all the good and Honest feedback Tom, it may have saved my or some elses tranny! <or maybe not? We'll see?>

A moment of silence is in order here for Toms Red 2G with the tire flys and bad side skirts, that he loved and cherished.....

Seriously, I'm sorry to hear this bad news for you man.....:-<

Re: well against my better judgement i decided you all should know...
 

the red lady will sit in the garage, and some of the mods will come off of her, but one day she will be alive again, the engine is still strong.

Re: well against my better judgement i decided you all should know...
 

Bet you can fine a smashed A/T car in the boneyard with low miles and get another A/t for cheap?

Or IPT could repair and or rebuild your present tranny?

Re: well against my better judgement i decided you all should know...
 

gimme dem rims!

Re: well against my better judgement i decided you all should know...
 

Fuck that. Sell it!! You have that GST coming to ya, why don't you just sell your GSX, drive the GST for a bit, then sell that too and buy a GSX with a manual instead of an auto! IDK if the TCUGO is sellable or not, but maybe that could go to?

Re: well against my better judgement i decided you all should know...
 

How much is a dead non-running 99 GSK worth?

I say fix it and run it or fix it and sell it, or you'll just loose your ass otherwise!

Re: well against my better judgement i decided you all should know...
 

Sorry to hear Tom. Yeah, if you want to do any racing in an A/T, I would highly recommend doing work to the tranny. I didn't even race my car that much, and by the time I was selling mine, the tranny was starting to have some issues.

Re: well against my better judgement i decided you all should know...
 

Check out below what "Hugo" the ower of TCUGO says about this situation:

Hugo,


Did you see this thread yet man?

Tom already toasted his tranny out in 2 weeks using your TCUGO system?

Making us a bit nervous here man!

http://www.dsmstyle.com/forums/showt...d=1#post131824


Any ideas?


Thanks....


Howie





"He doesn't have anything to do with the TCUGO for severals reasons:

I mimic the pressure signal EXACTLY like the stock TCU. So when you're shifting, it's like the stock TCU. Also he did mention he was using stage 3 which is putting MORE pressure during shift, so preventing clutch slippage, so more pressure mean less wear. That is for the shifting which happen not that often when you're driving around. As for gear control, it's just a 12 volts solenoid beeing controlled with a + or GND depending which gear is selected, again, like the stock TCU. People around here in Canada have been running the TCUGO for a long time in their car, so I'm not worried about that. And to be honest, it's not a 2 week usage of the TCUGO that will toasted it's tranny. For sure there was something before that.

I hope that will clear out some of your concern"

Hugo

Re: well against my better judgement i decided you all should know...
 

The tranny went bad so sell the car?? Replace the damn tranny! It is nothing any of us manual transmission guys have had to do :rollseyes:

Re: well against my better judgement i decided you all should know...
 

Yea, no doubt. Quit crying and fix/replace the tranny & get it rolling again!

Re: well against my better judgement i decided you all should know...
 

Well i have no choice but to change out the tranny, but the simple fact is its a complete annoyance because that car was my primary vehical. So now ill get the GST and eventually fix the GSX and either sell the GSX or just keep it and pay it off, i still owe like 9-10k on it so thats what really hurts.

Re: well against my better judgement i decided you all should know...
 

This makes me think twice about modding a car I have a loan out on. Sucks to hear about the tranny, just switch it out and learn more about your car. Theres always a postive to come with a negative.

Hope it all works out in the long run.

-Colin

Re: well against my better judgement i decided you all should know...
 

you paid 19 for it didn't you?

Re: well against my better judgement i decided you all should know...
 

Wow, I thought this would happen but not that quick! Im the one who asked in the other thread if there were any longetivity issues with the TCUGO ;) I knew it would push the tranny too hard. Just build the tranny up stronger than stock and then maybe the TCUGO will be a good mod.

Sucks to hear though, I would say sell the car after you replace the tranny and get something else ;) Non-DSM hehe.

Re: well against my better judgement i decided you all should know...
 

You probably just burnt out the torque converter. That should be pretty damn easy to swap.

Re: well against my better judgement i decided you all should know...
 

Bought my 98 Tsi for $11K with 55k miles, I'm down to <$5K left now @ 80K miles!

Add another ~$3-4K in mods and I'll have an easy $15k into her total.

Bet even after "I'm done" with modding her <like never> I won't be able to get even that $5K out of her if I could sell it at all!

DSM's NOT the Best investment!

Re: well against my better judgement i decided you all should know...
 

I agree about the torque converter comment. However, some people will have different opinions on weather it is an easy swap. In my opinion I would say it is easy but time consuming and requires tools and space.

Re: well against my better judgement i decided you all should know...
 

I'd be REAL interested into what happened to the internals of that TCUGO-to the junkyard's crusher managed Tranny one way or the other!

Re: well against my better judgement i decided you all should know...
 

I heard you should still replace the tranny even if it is just to torque converter though. I talked to a mechanic about my friends car that had the cell on for the torque converter. He said he would replace the whole thing as he has had problems with just replacing the torque converter in cars.

Re: well against my better judgement i decided you all should know...
 

Ok I just talked with th guys over IPT and they basically said beating on any stock tranny is a crap shoot, but there are things you can do that can improve your odds against premature failure.

always use some Good Fresh Fluid <Ams oil>, a fresh fliter <OEM>, a good <aftermarket cooler>, a reworked valve body/shiftkit <Will help slow clutch ware> , and new stall IPT <For better launches>.

I just finished ordering the valvebody/shift kit combo from IPT, and also locked LSE in for the install in early May.

After all of this gets setup right, then I MAY install the TCUGO, but then again I might not really need to with that new shiftkit!

14 seconds here I come!

I can't wait!

Re: well against my better judgement i decided you all should know...
 

Well after talking to hugo im going to go home and run the TCUGO as a standalone without the stock TCU even hooked up, Put the tcugo on stage 5 and try it to see if it will go, and how long it will go for. We want to make sure that it is not an electrical problem.
From the sound the tranny was making this morning i am thinking that it is the tranny. but we will see.
Hugo has been very helpful in this i must say. He emailed me this morning after he had heard what happened, as i hadnt even emailed him yet.