OnCloudIX

I just got a few more questions...

1. How did the servicing go down for your transmission before it failed? Meaning at what mileage did you get it serviced and what exactly was done to it. In fact I wasn't even aware that our transmission had to be serviced since I did not find it anywhere in the maintenance manual.

2.Who did you go to to get it serviced.

3.Was the oil replaced? If so, was the recommended oil used or did you use a higher performance oil to accompany your mods?

Arxylis

iTrader: (4)

Well, I got the car with about 50K miles on it and the fluid was fine when I checked it. I had it flushed at about 80K this past June by a local lube center. At that point the fluid looked and smelled a little burnt... It was replaced with SP-III which is the Mitsu approved automatic trans oil. It didn't start slipping at all until about November, and finally crapped out the end of December. The fluid was in great shape even after the clutch pack seized up, which I found kinda interesting. I think what finally made it kick the bucket was all the tire spinning caused by the snow and ice from the last snowstorm we had here. It was a pain digging out and trying to get out of the driveway. But I'm definitely getting a tranny cooler to help keep temps down.

OnCloudIX

Ah, I see. So you only had your fluid changed once? Is 80k the certain mileage it has to be flushed at? If not then do you think if you had flushed it earlier you would not have run into the problem?

Arxylis

iTrader: (4)

I'm not sure what the service interval is for the transmission. But the fluid probably should have been changed before I had it done. I'm sure I could have prolonged the life of the tranny a bit longer by doing that. But with the way I drive it a rebuild was inevitable, especially since I never did anything to the tranny to help it cope with the extra power. So it's my fault really, seeing how I beat on it without doing the proper supporting mods and such. But even with the extra precautions taken, part of the price paid for making an engine perform beyond its factory specifications is increased stress and decreased lifespan of the drivetrain as a whole. Look at top fuel drag cars, those things only run a few quarter mile lengths before something either blows up or needs rebuilt...

floating doc

Other than changing the fluid regularly, are there upgrades available for these automatics? We used to do valve body modifications ("shift kit"), but I'm a long way from the turbo 350 and C4 transmissions that I grew up with.

Anyone have suggestions for a specific cooler?

Arxylis

iTrader: (4)

I spoke with Hackish a bit about an electronic "shift kit" of sorts, but he hasn't had much time to work with the auto transmission part of the ECU programming. Other than that the only thing I know of as far as any modifications would be a tranny fluid cooler. I'm getting one installed in my Ralliart with the rebuild and should have it back in the next few days. I'm not sure what brand the shop is using, but I'll give a review in a week or two of seeing how it performs.

OnCloudIX

Who's rebuilding your tranny?

Arxylis

iTrader: (4)

It's a small shop in town called Accurate Transmissions. They had the best price quote when I called around to find a place to fix it.

OnCloudIX

Is it like a rebuild back to factory specification or something along the lines of what level10 does, like bulletproofing?

Arxylis

iTrader: (4)

It's a rebuild back to factory specs. I had checked out the Level10 website, and it was a bit cost prohibitive. If my Ralliart wasn't my daily driver I wouldn't mind not getting the car back on the road until I got the 3 grand or so required to get the tranny bulletproofed. But since it's my primary means of transportation I needed to get it fixed as soon as possible.
Hopefully the ATF cooler will be all I need to keep it running smooth.

OnCloudIX

I'm sure your tranny is gonna last for much longer now than it did before since you will have the tranny cooler as well as having learned from bad driving habits which you could prevent in the future. It wont last as long as a bulletproof but it gets the job done and I can tell you'll be more than satisfied with it. Anyways thanks for the cautionary tale and good luck to you in the future.

joshisjamesbond

Hmm. My brother drove his AT Lancer pretty hard after he got it around 50K miles and he changed the fluid with Amsoil....so far he is at around 112K miles with no noticeable problems.

I would say that as long as you change your fluid more frequently than the book asks and that you use a quality fluid you should be okay. From the OP we don't know how the car was driven before he got it, don't know the maintenance history on the tranny, and using OEM fluid may sound great but I have serious doubts about anything other than fully synthetic fluid.

I have an AT Lancer that I bought around 13K miles and I have changed the tranny fluid probably 3-4 times since I had it, I'm now at 45K miles. All I did was drain it and that's why I changed it so many times because just draining it you can't get all the fluid out. Changed it with Amsoil ATF and this last time I added a bottle of Lubegard in just because we had it lying around. Amsoil and Lubegard are two of the best companies when dealing with fluids. Tranny rebuild shops use Lubegard a lot of the time as an additive because it's really a great product.

If you think I change my tranny fluid too much just consider the price to drain the fluid versus the price of rebuilding a transmission. Although now that I have the perfect mix I'm gonna just keep monitoring it. Last time I checked the fluid is still cherry pink and smells like candy.

About the tranny cooler. It can't hurt having that added on but you honestly need to use a better tranny fluid. Amsoil is proven to last twice as long as the OEM fluid.

Arxylis

iTrader: (4)

Thanks for all the help, advice, and questions I've gotten from everyone the past month or so. I'm going to be picking the car up this afternoon and I may or may not have a little something extra in the transmission waiting for me. The guy at the shop said he's pretty sure that he can get a hold of a shift kit for this tranny. I'm not holding my breath though because I haven't been able to find anything online about it. But if he does, I'll get the part number and post my impressions of it in the next couple days or so.