Faster Transmission Gear Changes

[Pauljay]

Hey Guys, I had some bad news recently, my fan for cooling the radiator died in heavy traffic and my car overheated badly to the point I thought I had cracked a cylinder head! Luckily I got away with it but my gearbox developed a bad leak and I needed a new pan. So I thought, while the gearbox is open why not do a mod I've thought about for a while. I did some research as to how to modify or map the transmission for faster shifts. The solution I found was switch to Blue Solenoids to replace the brown topped ones in there. This has a downside though which is firmer shifts like a manual transmission making the gear change jerk a bit when cruising. The payback to me was greater than the loss of comfort so I went ahead and ordered 2 Blue solenoids (part number 240-270-0089) to replace the Brown topped ones in my car. They cost £175 each (don't know in Dollars) and had to be ordered from Germany as the Dealer doesn't stock them. This is actually a Maybach part which has a larger opening for the gearbox fluids to travel through enabling faster shifting with no other mods applied! I can report back that my car has been transformed! Gear changes are TWICE as fast and my car pulls like a train! The whole demeanor of how it used to feel and drive has gone up two fold. I am very happy as the car seems to have gained more power! Maybe because the gear changes are instant? I don't know, but she flies faster! A warning though to those that like smooth gear shifts when cruising, this is not the mod for you. I've noticed that when changing up or down at town speeds the transmission has a tendency to jerk slightly especially when coming to a slow stop. It's not too bad, but you definately feel the gear change. Some people have posted that the quality is OK, others say that after 1000mi or so it gets better. Foot hard on the pedal and you don't feel the shifts, just seemless power. Hard braking or breaking slightly firmly produces the same effect, so the shift smoothness is speed dependent. Manual shifts are the same as before except just faster. I've read that a TCU Tune will smooth the shifts when cruising. I may try that at a later date to see if I can benift from anything else. One thing though, this mod only works on Tiptronic Transmissions from 2000-2004 as from 2005 the gearbox solenoids were switched out to the blue ones! For those handy with tools here's a paste of how to do it yourself. http://www.cherokeesrt8.com/forums/s...ad.php?t=57949

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[VIPclk320]

NICE! so you have the speed shift like the newer AMG transmissions. just add paddle shift to it and you are good to go. I some what figured out the paddle shifter retro so i will be trying iyt when i dput in my 55 setup, but now with this upgrade those paddle shifts will actually work as a paddle shifter and wont have a few second delay from action to reaction. are these blue solinoids direct plug and play? ther are absolutly no need for any retro work?

[Pauljay]

Hi Ash,

I'd love to do a paddle shift conversion but they run a bit rich for me at the moment ($900 plus trade in of your old steering wheel). I'm saving for a cool headlight mod!

If you've figured out a cheaper way post it when you're done.

The solenoids require no other mods just a speed-shift transmission. If you don't have one retro-fitting one gets quite expensive.

As I've said the shifts are fast all the time which makes shifting at a town speeds or in traffic a bit jerky. A small fix is to use Winter mode when in stop/start traffic below 30mph as this cuts out 1st gear which you feel the most.

[UncleSlam]

Very good info! I would love to try a drive in your car to see how it feels. My biggest gripe with my tranny is how dumb it is in the lower gears. It seems like it either shifts into second (and third) way to soon, or you have to put your foot down and lay some rubber to get it to carry first gear to a higher RPM. Their is no comparison to our BMW X3 (2006) auto trans, which seems to sense very well where you want it to shift in the rev range. Plus, the BMW is nice because if you put it in sport mode, it will automatically shift at redline. Though I baby my AMG too much to be shifting at redline very often.

So, I think your mod would be a good compromise. I've always wondered why they don't let the driver simply choose at what RPM they want the car to shift into a higher gear.

[Pauljay]

UncleSlam

Loving the Avatar!

The transmission doesn't change it's settings, unfortunately the learning programme is still there. The changes are just faster. When I'm driving I could get up to 40mph and I'm in 3rd gear already. When driving fast the transmission will hold on to gears longer unless I manually change up.

At speed the changes are really slick. Because the changes are quicker you hold on to the power more and my car feels so much faster for it!


Janexiong

I use a Sprint booster and love it!

My friends think it makes the car too sensitive at slow speed but I'm used to just tickling the throttle and riding the torque wave.

[UncleSlam]

Hold on a second, I just read in another post that "Blue tops are shift solenoids that are used in the AMG's", so does that mean my AMG already has these?

[Pauljay]

No!

Blue Solenoids only came into effect on later AMG cars from '05 onwards.

Most Speed Shift transmissions have Brown tops.

[slowsky]

hey pauljay:

how are you liking it so far? is the shifting too harsh? have you thought about doing a tcu tune?

[Pauljay]

Hi Slowsky.

I'm loving it still.

The transmission only jerks when going up or down betwwen 1st and 2nd gear when moving slowly. A bit like engaging drive from neutral without your foot on the brake. When in traffic I use Winter mode to do away with 1st gear.

Normal driving is smooth and acceleration is great!

If anyone can stump up the oil for the trans twice, I would recommend that they try this mod and if they don't like it put the Brown tops back in.

I've now done 700mi and I'm sure the trans has done all the adapting it's going to do (if any) as I haven't noticed a change.

I will try the TCU mod just got to save for it!

[slowsky]

im curious if the tcu can mimic the same effect or will having the blue tops along with the tcu make it snap faster without the jerkiness...

[Pauljay]

That's what I want to find out. If it gets quicker or smoothes the jerk from 1st to 2nd. Hopefully both!

[big_mike1979]

Gonna look into it and thank u

[VIPclk320]

Originally Posted by Pauljay

That's what I want to find out. If it gets quicker or smoothes the jerk from 1st to 2nd. Hopefully both!

Pauljay, i figured out the Paddle shifter situation that we talked about. I'll send you some links and pics. Also can you tell me if these solinoids would be a direct replacement for the 55 transmission too? because since mine is a 320 i'm changing the transmission, diff and the drice shaft too since they are all the 4 point contact with the flex discs.

[slowsky]

i talked to jerry and he said he can tune the solenoids for smoother shift...the thing we don't know is if its a physical issue why our transmission can't shift fast or a coding issue.

vipclk320 hats off again to you for researching paddle shifting for our age old platform....really admire what you have done with all your projects......is it a hard conversion?
the blue tops are for the 55 transmissions 2003 and older....

[VIPclk320]

did you mean 2003 and newer? because from my understanding they come on the maybach and sls. also i know that the 55s even on the w208 use the 600 trans which is oof of the v12s.

[slowsky]

you are right, i meant we have the brown tops, and blue tops came from 2003 and newer...

[Pauljay]

Hi Ash.

Nice one for the paddle shifter!

Please pass on the details.

All Speed-shift transmissions before 2003 had brown tops. After that were cross over years, you had to check your chassis number to find out which you had, then from '05 onwards AMG transmissions had them.

They are a direct replacement for Speed-shift Brown solenoids.


Slowsky

I think it's both!

Once I have the mod done I hope to confirm this.