Holden Cruze Gearbox Limits ? :)
Posted: Sat Dec 09, 2017 10:50 am
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!
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.
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.
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!!
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!
its interesting to see how compact a FWD 6 speed auto is, but i guess obviously at the cost of reqduced strength....
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!
- 20171206_210932.jpg (506.03 KiB) Viewed 6400 times
- 20171206_210913.jpg (400.62 KiB) Viewed 6400 times
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!
- 20171208_182803.jpg (328.78 KiB) Viewed 6400 times
that's a shit job on a hoist let alone on the driveway.
