Holden Cruze Gearbox Limits ? :)

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Holden202T
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Holden Cruze Gearbox Limits ? :)

Post by Holden202T »

So as you probably know I have a Holden Cruze as a daily driver, but what you might not know is that pretty much from day 1 I modified the tune to bring on boost earlier, and remove some of the torque management stuff for quicker firmer gear shifts.

the car is a 1.6L petrol turbo, 6 speed automatic.

now its been handling this improved tune for just over 150,000kms, so in all fairness its done ok lol!

last weekend I had a bit of an issue where it was a bit jerky pulling up and also taking off, and sometimes in reverse did similar, but when it got to the point where it didn't take off I knew something was wrong (did this approx. 3kms from home), but being a tiptronic you can select 2nd from a stand still so I did that an managed to get it back home .... so did a short video in the driveway of the noise it started making more so I could hear it outside the car than anything....

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS-wGYsFi4k[/youtube]

I had a look at an exploded view of the box and there was a reaction carrier which is splined to the low/reverse clutch pack so I had a fair idea the issue was in that area somwhere ...

so the mammoth task began of pulling the gearbox out, which for anyone that's worked on a FWD car might know you have to remove the whole engine and gearbox plus the cradle it sits on to get the two apart! ... not so easy in a driveway, and the pain was increased by the fact its a turbo with all intercooler piling and such to remove aswell .... but we got there!
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So once the box was out and split in half it was pretty clear that there was some damage done somewhere but nothing was obvious at that point.
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So with a bit more pulling down we got to the area we needed, and as it turns out the reaction carrier itself was the issue, and it looks like whats happened is it hasn't been able to handle the extra power and has just flogged out the pin that holds it in place, then in turn sending needle rollers through everything.
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I hammered out one of the pins to confirm there should in fact be needle rollers around the pin as there wasn't a single one left in the flogged out one lol!!
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So this gearbox is a 6T45 ... the 6 being forward gears, T for transverse and 45 being some form of designation of how much torque it can handle, there is also a 6T80 which is put behind the 3.6L twin turbo Cadillac or something like that .... anyways

6T45
Maximum engine power:
215 hp (160 kW)
Maximum engine torque
232 lb-ft (315 Nm)
Maximum gearbox torque:
314 lb-ft (425 Nm) – All gears

and the 6T80
Maximum engine torque
369 lb-ft (500 Nm)
Maximum gearbox torque (all gears):
380 lb-ft (515 Nm)

I did do some searching and the higher rated boxes have a reaction carrier with 5 gears and also 4 tabs on the back to spline into the clutch pack .... so maybe it could be made to be stronger, but for me I will just turn the power down and be done with it.

on that note, I have found a gearbox at a wreckers with 12,000kms on it and its delivered to my door for $1600 with 3yr warranty so I can't beat that I don't think.

all that was left to do then was to re-assemble this mess and add it to the metal recycling pile!
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its interesting to see how compact a FWD 6 speed auto is, but i guess obviously at the cost of reqduced strength....
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Gareth
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Re: Holden Cruze Gearbox Limits ? :)

Post by Gareth »

Great write up there 202 :thumbup: that's a shit job on a hoist let alone on the driveway.
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Re: Holden Cruze Gearbox Limits ? :)

Post by Charlescrown »

How the hell did you do that! Not trying to do burnouts I hope. When I bought my MUX I was happy I got the last of the older model with the 5 speed Asian Warner and not the 6 speed that came next. I figure the extra design for the extra gear in the same space meant smaller weaker gears. That's my logic anyway.
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Holden202T
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Re: Holden Cruze Gearbox Limits ? :)

Post by Holden202T »

yeah I never did skids or anything in it, but after tuning it I gained almost 2 secs 0-100km and it certainly had no issues spinning the wheels in first, never did before, so I've obviously added a bit more load in first lol

and yeah it would be much nicer on a hoist ... we work with what we have :)

GM has made a new version too, 9T .... transverse 9 speed ....... try and comprehend that many gears in a front wheel drive gearbox space!

check out the gearboxes on here.... http://gmauthority.com/blog/gm/gm-transmissions/
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Re: Holden Cruze Gearbox Limits ? :)

Post by antus »

Thanks for documenting that! Still a reasonably new car on the scale of things and im that detail will help a lot of people.
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The1
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Re: Holden Cruze Gearbox Limits ? :)

Post by The1 »

i hated FWD before, even more now lol that's a huge effort, well done. :thumbup:
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Re: Holden Cruze Gearbox Limits ? :)

Post by vlad01 »

yeah, they are shite.

Might as well do a RWD conversion while its all out, got to be easier than working on a FWD car in general right?
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Holden202T
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Re: Holden Cruze Gearbox Limits ? :)

Post by Holden202T »

yeah, nah!

a RWD conversion on this would be trading it in for a commodore!
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Re: Holden Cruze Gearbox Limits ? :)

Post by firebug »

Needs a nice solid trimatic! Might also need some wheel flares to get it all in there... :D
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Re: Holden Cruze Gearbox Limits ? :)

Post by vlt304 »

fwd yucky haha
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