sleeperstyle

iTrader: (4)

ok- i've had this converter (tci ssf3500)in the car for about 7k miles.

during lockup- it never really locked up hard but it locked up and held there- .

driving home tonight on the highway i notice my rpms are abnormally high for the speed im going. then i start to notice my lockup clutch is not really holding. it'll slip up to about 2500 rpms, then catch and hold pretty well. if i let off the gas and ease into the gas again it will slip up to around 2500 and then catch again. if i let it slip it will never catch and stay around 2000k rpms. ** this happens in 3rd or overdrive so i know it is the converter.

now- i have hp tuners, i tried first going up 30% on the pos. force motor settings, no change. i then upped the tcc dc base and offset to somebody's reccomended settings- again no dice.

did the lockup clutch just fry or what? has anybody ever heard of this happening all of a sudden and can i adjust anything in the hptuners program to fix this?

if it did fry im gonna be pissed, 7k miles is not alot of miles on a converter. i know tci is a sponsor on this site, i hope maybe somebody from there can chime in since i have a feeling that the lockup clutch is gone. there would be no reason that it would all of a sudden start slipping when i didn't change any settings. the only thing that happened is that it got cold outside.

btw i did numerous searches on this and found nobody that had it happen all of a sudden- most people with the "tcc not holding" problem had it from the time they put the converter in. if it did happen all of a sudden the clutch was shot.

sleeperstyle

iTrader: (4)

also- no misfire codes or any codes for that matter, fluid is full.

i just took the car for another short ride. it is not too bad above 2k rpms, it slips alot when locked up under 2k (2.73 gears so im usually under 2k if im going the speed limit).

would it be stupid to take the car to the track tomorrow. i was planning on going to the track- then this **** came up. im thinking i'll let it cool between runs and maybe i won't smoke the trans .

jimmyblue

iTrader: (11)

I have been fighting this on my TCI SF3000 since near new
(plus B&M Trick Shift abuse). Here's a couple of things I
have found out:

- TCC pressure is a knockdown of a knockdown of the
main line - main*force motor duty*tcc duty more or less.
This means the TCC gets starved at low load because
the main PWM is very light. You can mess with the TCC
duty and ensure that it's like 98% but that only goes so
far.

- Force motor table fades the line pressure badly with
elevated trans temps. It blows off more as temp rises
and this is ***-backwards. You want to -not- slip as
things get hotter, because slip makes heat, and besides
this the thinner fluid needs less blow-off "effective orifice"
when hotter. I posted my current force motor table on
the HPTuners site in that stick thread. Key is to get the
line pressure to come up a lot more, at light loads, than
it does.

Maximum trans cooler would help keep you out if the high
temperatures presuming you have the airflow. Which is
not an assumption to make, parked. A pair of 12V muffins
on a brick style cooler that run thermostatically might be
worth cobbling up (probably $20 for 2 surplus 12V fans and
$10 for a new Selco thermostatic switch).

sleeperstyle

iTrader: (4)

ok- on the way to and from the track today (couldn't run, there was an event). i got the converter to lock up good and nice! i was in the scanner portion of hptuners and went into the trans diagnostic screen. i selected tcc lockup selenoid "on" and put the "force motor" on. then i put the tcc dc to 100%. im not sure which one of these things did it but for a while it was locked up HARD, normal unlocking and everything was GREAT!. then i disabledd this stuff and the car was awesome for a little while.

then all of the slipping and stuff came back- probably like 30 min. of highway driving later. i messed with the settings in the scanner again and somehow it became fine again- then got shitty a little while later.

could my tcc solenoid be bad or faulty? or could it be the trans pump .>? im getting more and more frustrated since after ******* with the scanner stuff it was PERFECT for a little while then acted up again.

the trans fluid is not burnt to my knowledge, it seemed allright to me at least. also it was always fine so i don't think the gears all of a sudden had this detrimental effect on the ****, then it would be fine again and then return to being shitty. i think it is a malfunctioning part.

jimmyblue

iTrader: (11)

I did the same kind of thing when I discovered the slip
was getting really heinous (July road trip into Georgia).
I also saw slip get markedly better immediately, then
back off into slippage.

I am suspicious that there is some kind of TCC slip
adaptation that goes on, a target value and feedback.
But I have never seen anything describing this let alone
providing access to editing it.

sleeperstyle

iTrader: (4)

ok- im not going to jump to any conclusions but i semi duplicated jimmyblue's force motor table off of the hptuners site (it is close to jimmy's table but to get it exact i'd still be editing values). i took it for a ride and it SEEMS really good, like the problem is fixed and then some, converter holds really well, the car feels somewhat better between shifts also.

i have 3.42's going in (replacing my 2.73's) in a week or so, if that is the problem then hopefully it helps w/ the new gears

if jimmy's force motor tables fixed it- then jimmyblue is the ******* man! hell, you (jimmy) are the man anyways. thanks very much for the help everybody. i almost broke my labtop today i was soo pissed. now i have some answers to what i might be and how to fix it.

tune in later though- with my luck it'll come back but i can always hope that it is fixed.

## can you log trans-temp in hptuners? if so where and how, i couldn't find it. i have the b&m 2400gvw cooler so i would hope it doesn't get all that hot but i could make sense.

- ladyredhawk, my fluid is 1/2-1 quart overfull (to promote good line pressure and/ or help the 2-3 shift i've read numerous places that it can help some fo have a little over full but not too much obviously) i have always ran the trans with a little too much fluid with no problems, but it is definetly not low.

Lady Redhawk

iTrader: (6)

Good, hope you find the fix and let us know what it was. BTW, the C5 I was talking about also had a B&B tranny cooler. The transmission man told the owner of the C5 the 3.73 gear was the lowest he would good with...thought I would share that. Of course I ran my converter for quite a while with stock 3.23 gears before changing to 3.73s. Tuning made up the difference.
One more things, I am sure you already tried this...but did you raise the part throttle shift points? This should help as well if you haven't done that yet.

sleeperstyle

iTrader: (4)

i had 1-2 shift @ 20mph and no lockup in OD till 50mph, 40mph in D3, but i'll try messing around with the shift points when i get the gears in.

i drove it for an hour or 2 today (running errands) and it seems really good. the part throttle shifts are really crisp and wot shifts are not affected. i reccomend jimmyblue's tq management tables to everybody. they kick ***. i can actually accelerate with the converter locked up and it holds really nice- i could NEVER do this before.

sleeperstyle

iTrader: (4)

ok- after about a week of no problems- im cruizing on the highway 2 nights ago and the converter starts acting up again. it seemed like it unlocked and wouldn't lock up again. eventually it did lock up again but it was slipping right out of lockup if i gave it gas. i drive some more- get pissed, then it slowly cures itself and starts to lockup and hold again. eventually it was back to a nice strong lockup...

now coming home tonight- 1 & 1/2 hour highway ride. im almost home and the tcc starts to act up again. it is being a complete bitch and refusing to lock up. im driving up a steady incline in D3 gear @ like 50-60mph. all of a sudden it is almost fine again! it starts to lockup again like normal but isn't holding like it should.

i went out for another quick ride and it is perfectly fine again. this **** is frustrating- i HOPE TO GOD that putting 3.42's in the car solves this problem. i also have been driving around in D3 alot lately if im going under 55mph (like around town).

my misfire detection enable/disable are @ 141* (de-activated) so it isn't the misfire crap not allowing lockup.- what else could i try besides a sledge hammer...

sleeperstyle

iTrader: (4)

.....

sleeperstyle

iTrader: (4)

.....

Lady Redhawk

iTrader: (6)

Wow, sorry to hear you are having trouble again! Maybe the TC has gone bad??? Have you tried to get in touch with TCI and ask them about this?

Update on the C5: After driving it with no trouble after the 3.73 gear swap...the trouble came back The C5 has a temp gauge for the tranny so he can keep an eye on it. Keeping it in 3rd gear still helps, but it just isn't right. We are getting him a Yank 3600 and sending the TCI back!!

sleeperstyle

iTrader: (4)

yeah- im ready to get in touch with tci really soon but it is a big PITA to get the converter out, send it out, then wait a while to see if that is even the problem.

i took it out to the store today, the lockup was fine and all, then getting on the highway (highway on-ramp) i accelerated from 1st gear well into 2nd gear. then again from 2nd gear to pass somebody. BAM! just like that no- lockup anymore AT ALL. like it just won't even activate the lockup clutch.

i now have the misfire completly de-activated, all tables at 32767 and min/max temp @ 141*.

i was out logging and i COULD NOT get the converter to lockup at all. i was selecting the "tcc selenoid on" button in the scanner and it just wouldn't lockup. nothing could make it lock up.

my question is could the tcc selenoid be bad? that would explain ALOT of things with my/ that person's problem... it only makes sense to me since i can turn that selenoid on/off and it has no effect wheras that button used to lock the converter up and it would just slip out of lockup.

## where is the tcc selenoid, are they expensive (from gm i would guess unless there is a better aftermarket one), and is it worth ripping the trans apart to get to it...? this **** ******* sucks- .

DEFINETLY update me on the c5 and if the yank solves the problem. it has to be mechanical, i don't see how my car wouldn't throw any codes if it wasn't mechanical.

jay_99z

iTrader: (5)

How is your A/F ratio? I was having all kinds of problems with mine locking up (I have 3.73's). Also had some pinging at WOT......suspected bad MAF. Swapped MAFs with a friend and I hav had 0 problems with it since. Prior to the swap I would hook up my MAFT and richn the crap out of it and converter would lock instantly.


BTW I never threw a code during any of this.

sleeperstyle

iTrader: (4)

the car does get wot- kr sometimes. i usually get like 3* if i get on it sometimes, but sometimes it is none or 1*. right now it is right around 13.0/1 (i tuned it on the wideband to 13.5-1 at the tailpipe and i have cats so i was told by numerous tuners that you are about .5 off through the cats.)

i have since given up on the wot knock situation since im 90% sure it is phantom knock- doesn't matter how rich i make the car it will still sometimes pick up the kr- it is very inconsistent kr. my ltft's are all negative- the leanest being -1 and obviously 0 at wot and high load cells. o2 mv's right around 870- 890.

thanks for the advice though, i guess it wouldn't hurt to try tomorrow.

Spydum

your problem sounds EXACTLY like my past problem. I had a Vig3000 with about 30k miles on it. It worked well for a long time, until I noticed the TCC seemed to start slipping. Drove like that for nearly a year, then my 1-2 and 2-3 shifts started getting really slow. Took the tranny to shop to get upgraded clutches/etc the whole works, but left the converter alone. Car ran great after that, locked up hard, stayed locked up. I always assumed it was my solenoid failing, but it could be due to low line pressure. Found out my pump gears in my converter were trashed. My theory is it was causing low line pressure, which would cause not enough TCC pressure to engage. I now have TCI SF 3000, but am experiencing a small bit of slippage (150-450rpm around 50mph at part throttle, much less above 60mph). Not sure if any of this helps, but thats been my gremlin for the last few months. I have the stock 3.23 gears btw.

slow3hoe2

iTrader: (3)

sleeperstyle,
Im having the same exact problem with my tci converter. It has exactly 7000 trouble free miles on it until now. Ive always driven it like a baby 99% of the time...never put a lot of strain on it when locking up. Lock up was always super strong...never a problem. Then i started noticing that at high speeds it would sometimes just unlock for no reason. didnt really think much of it. then about 2 weeks after that...like an on/off switch...it would not lock up strong...it would chatter when going into lock up. its been like that ever since. i havent really driven the car that much since then...cuz i dont want to hurt anything. I was told that it is the converter...but id be real pissed to take that thing out and not have it solve the problem. I took it to my bro's shop...no codes...we suspected the solenoid...but then i was told it was the converter by someone else...that tci's have that problem and to send it in and they will fix it. I dunno, its winter so i havent worried about it too much...but it needs to get fixed. I dont have a tuner...so all that stuff youre talking about i dont understand. but this i do know...the converter worked perfect for 7k...and now it dont.

Can someone tell me a way to just shut the lock-up off completely? just for now...so i can at least drive the thing and not ruin anything.

sorry, i know this is no help...but just letting you know im having the same problem. Hope we find what it is...without too much hassle.

thanks

Spydum

with lockup off, I would think transmission temperatures would climb a bit..

I've got three guesses: low line pressure, or faulty TCC solenoid, or faulty TCC clutch. i cant imagine it could be a whole lot else

sleeperstyle

iTrader: (4)

yeah- man, i did exactly that, disabled lockup all-together (only drove it one night, it is still fine...) and raised shift points so it won't go into overdrive till 65mph (less slip = less heat).

im going to pull the valve body right now and have it inspected, if that isn't it im gonna send the converter out to tci.

kevin winstead @ tci was very helpful when i e-mailed him, completly backs up his products.

- if it was low line pressure, what could cause that?

Lady Redhawk

iTrader: (6)

They are replacing the TCI for the Yank converter this weekend in the C5. I will let you know how it works out.