Jump to content
SAU Community

Safc 2 + Auto Gear Box

Mayuri Krab
 Share

Recommended Posts

Mayuri Krab Grand Master

Mayuri Krab

Posted
Posted

Hey guys,

I recently got my SAFC II installed & tuned for my auto R33 GTS-T with the following support mods:

-3" turbo back exhaust with high flow CAT

-Apexi POD

-R34 GTT SMIC

-Turbosmart boost controller set at 10PSI

Car made ~240rwhp

On the way back yesterday & driving to uni today I noticed that the auto box's "shift points" have moved lower compared to b4 & its behavior have changed compared to b4.

B4 the "min speed" at which gear changes occur were at ~25, 50 & 70km/h, now the gear changes will happen at 20, 40 & 60km/h & the box also seems to be much "willing" to move up to overdrive as soon as possible compared to b4.

For example, before hand, as long as I apply a constant throttle (even if its a small one) the car will hold onto 2nd gear until 70km/h, to get it to change at the "min speed" of 50km/h I need to reach 50km/h, back off the throttle & let it change. I have to do the same thing for it to go from 3rd to overdrive.

But now, if I still apply a small constant throttle, it will change from 1st to 2nd to 3rd to OD all by itself without me having to do any of the above (lifting off throttle to let it change).

Also the speed at which the gear changes seem to have being moved down lower, as now gear changes occur at 20, 40 & 60 instead of the old 25, '50' & '70'.

As a result, b4 if I were driving at 60km/h the car would stay in 3rd gear at ~2500rpm, but now it would change into OD ~<2000rpm.

Also the gearbox also seem to be much more sensitive to throttle & load compared to b4 & will happily drop down gears compared to b4, where it would just act lazy & stay in the same gear unless I'm really flooring it.

Finally the gear changes seem to be faster compared to b4; it like to hang there for a sec or so b4 changing but now its just jumping through them at rapid rate.

Basically I would like to know is how is this even possible? Can a SAFC alter the gear box logic? My understanding was the all it does is change fuel mixtures at different rpm points to avoid the car running rich due to the extra boost & stock ECU. Or is this caused by something else?

I got the SMIC & boost controller installed at the same time as the SAFC, but I doubt they got anything to do with the change of behavior of the auto box.

Any info would be appreciated

Cheers.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/290134-safc-2-auto-gear-box/
Share on other sites
The Dan Grand Master

The Dan

Posted
Posted

Sounds like before it was shit and now it is working properly. The shop who tuned it probably noticed it was shit and then noticed the oil level in the biz was low so topped it up.

Have you tried contacting the shop who tuned it?

iseekool Veteran

iseekool

Posted
Posted

Possibly with the increased torque you are getting the auto will tend to upshift earlier.

Does the car feel sluggish/flatspot in anyway during the early upshifts?

Having upshift earlier with no side effects is not such a bad thing you save a little on fuel.

Mayuri Krab Grand Master

Mayuri Krab

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Sounds like before it was shit and now it is working properly. The shop who tuned it probably noticed it was shit and then noticed the oil level in the biz was low so topped it up.

Have you tried contacting the shop who tuned it?

LOL, this was one of the idea that came to mind while I was looking at the subject, compared to b4 the box does indeed feels & act like all the other auto box cars I have driven (91 VN commodore & 02 Camry) in that it doesn't hold onto each gear for a long time unless I'm flooring it or have power mode on.

Haven't contacted the shop yet, might do that on SAT, damm too much uni work going on.

Maybe they cut the TPS wire (the one on the plug the transmission uses) instead of splicing into it.

I'm guessing thats a bad thing? Sorry don't really know much about all the electronic stuff.

Possibly with the increased torque you are getting the auto will tend to upshift earlier.

Does the car feel sluggish/flatspot in anyway during the early upshifts?

Having upshift earlier with no side effects is not such a bad thing you save a little on fuel.

I didn't notice any sluggish/flatspot during the shifts, the gear shifts are actually better than before, before, the gear change from 1st to 2nd were like a big 'jerk', & now the 1st gear change is more like a soft 'click' simlilar with the other gear changes. The gear changes are still not as smooth as the 02 Camry, but I take that is due to the old condition of the auto box.

Seems all good so far, the only thing I don't like atm is that, since it will change into final gear at 60km/h & now its much more sensitive to throttle it will happliy downshift to 3rd if my foot was even slightly down too much on the gas & go into 4th again when I ease of the throttle.

Atm I'm getting around this problem by just turning Overdrive off on normal roads & only turning it on, on roads with speed limit of 70km/h or higher.

Lastly its kinda hard to maintain the speed limit with this increase in power, torque & throttle response. I need to work on upgrading my regular granny driving style to super granny style to get it under control. :thumbsup:

  • 3 weeks later...
Mayuri Krab Grand Master

Mayuri Krab

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Happy to report that my fuel usage went down from ~13.5l/100km down to the 11s range :)

Its now on par with my mum's Camry but with much more P-O-W-E-R!!! <screams out in Jermy Clarkson tone>

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • Duncan
      7 Speed Auto transmission fluid change (Skyline, Q50, Q60, Fuga, Q70, A62 Titan and probably heaps of others including Navara...)

      By Duncan · Posted

      So, that is it! It is a pretty expensive process with the ATF costing 50-100 per 5 litres, and a mechanic will probably charge plenty because they don't want to do it. Still, considering how dirty my fluid was at 120,000klm I think it would be worth doing more like every 80,000 to keep the trans happy, they are very expensive to replace. The job is not that hard if you have the specialist tools so you can save a bit of money and do it yourself!
    • Duncan
      7 Speed Auto transmission fluid change (Skyline, Q50, Q60, Fuga, Q70, A62 Titan and probably heaps of others including Navara...)

      By Duncan · Posted

      OK, onto filling. So I don't really have any pics, but will describe the process as best I can. The USDM workshop manual also covers it from TM-285 onwards. First, make sure the drain plug (17mm) is snug. Not too tight yet because it is coming off again. Note it does have a copper washer that you could replace or anneal (heat up with a blow torch) to seal nicely. Remove the fill plug, which has an inhex (I think it was 6mm but didn't check). Then, screw in the fill fitting, making sure it has a suitable o-ring (mine came without but I think it is meant to be supplied). It is important that you only screw it in hand tight. I didn't get a good pic of it, but the fill plug leads to a tube about 70mm long inside the transmission. This sets the factory level for fluid in the trans (above the join line for the pan!) and will take about 3l to fill. You then need to connect your fluid pump to the fitting via a hose, and pump in whatever amount of fluid you removed (maybe 3 litres, in my case 7 litres). If you put in more than 3l, it will spill out when you remove the fitting, so do quickly and with a drain pan underneath. Once you have pumped in the required amount of clean ATF, you start the engine and run it for 3 minutes to let the fluid circulate. Don't run it longer and if possible check the fluid temp is under 40oC (Ecutek shows Auto Trans Fluid temp now, or you could use an infrared temp gun on the bottom of the pan). The manual stresses the bit about fluid temperature because it expands when hot an might result in an underfil. So from here, the factory manual says to do the "spill and fill" again, and I did. That is, put an oil pan under the drain plug and undo it with a 17mm spanner, then watch your expensive fluid fall back out again, you should get about 3 litres.  Then, put the drain plug back in, pump 3 litres back in through the fill plug with the fitting and pump, disconnect the fill fitting and replace the fill plug, start the car and run for another 3 minutes (making sure the temp is still under 40oC). The manual then asks for a 3rd "spill and fill" just like above. I also did that and so had put 13l in by now.  This time they want you to keep the engine running and run the transmission through R and D (I hope the wheels are still off the ground!) for a while, and allow the trans temp to get to 40oC, then engine off. Finally, back under the car and undo the fill plug to let the overfill drain out; it will stop running when fluid is at the top of the levelling tube. According to the factory, that is job done! Post that, I reconnected the fill fitting and pumped in an extra 0.5l. AMS says 1.5l overfill is safe, but I started with less to see how it goes, I will add another 1.0 litres later if I'm still not happy with the hot shifts.
    • Duncan
      7 Speed Auto transmission fluid change (Skyline, Q50, Q60, Fuga, Q70, A62 Titan and probably heaps of others including Navara...)

      By Duncan · Posted

      OK, so regardless of whether you did Step 1 - Spill Step 2 - Trans pan removal Step 3 - TCM removal we are on to the clean and refill. First, have a good look at the oil pan. While you might see dirty oil and some carbony build up (I did), what you don't want to see is any metal particles on the magnets, or sparkles in the oil (thankfully not). Give it all a good clean, particularly the magnets, and put the new gasket on if you have one (or, just cross your fingers) Replacement of the Valve body (if you removed it) is the "reverse of assembly". Thread the electrical socket back up through the trans case, hold the valve body up and put in the bolts you removed, with the correct lengths in the correct locations Torque for the bolts in 8Nm only so I hope you have that torque wrench handy (it feels really loose). Plug the output speed sensor back in and clip the wiring into the 2 clips, replace the spring clip on the TCM socket and plug it back into the car loom. For the pan, the workshop manual states the following order: Again, the torque is 8Nm only.
    • Duncan
      7 Speed Auto transmission fluid change (Skyline, Q50, Q60, Fuga, Q70, A62 Titan and probably heaps of others including Navara...)

      By Duncan · Posted

      One other thing to mention from my car before we reassemble and refill. Per that earlier diagram,   There should be 2x B length (40mm) and 6x C length (54mm). So I had incorrectly removed one extra bolt, which I assume was 40mm, but even so I have 4x B and 5x C.  Either, the factory made an assembly error (very unlikely), or someone had been in there before me. I vote for the latter because the TCM part number doesn't match my build date, I suspect the TCM was changed under warranty. This indeed led to much unbolting, rebolting, checking, measuring and swearing under the car.... In the end I left out 1x B bolt and put in a 54mm M6 bolt I already had to make sure it was all correct
    • Duncan
      7 Speed Auto transmission fluid change (Skyline, Q50, Q60, Fuga, Q70, A62 Titan and probably heaps of others including Navara...)

      By Duncan · Posted

      A couple of notes about the TCM. Firstly, it is integrated into the valve body. If you need to replace the TCM for any reason you are following the procedure above The seppos say these fail all the time. I haven't seen or heard of one on here or locally, but that doesn't mean it can't happen. Finally, Ecutek are now offering tuning for the 7 speed TCM. It is basically like ECU tuning in that you have to buy a license for the computer, and then known parameters can be reset. This is all very new and at the moment they are focussing on more aggressive gear holding in sports or sports+ mode, 2 gear launches for drag racing etc. It doesn't seem to affect shift speed like you can on some transmissions. Importantly for me, by having controllable shift points you can now raise the shift point as well as the ECU rev limit, together allowing it to rev a little higher when that is useful. In manual mode, my car shifts up automatically regardless of what I do which is good (because I don't have to worry about it) but bad (because I can't choose to rev a little higher when convenient).  TCMs can only be tuned from late 2016 onwards, and mine is apparently not one of those although the car build date was August 2016 (presumably a batch of ADM cars were done together, so this will probably be the situation for most ADM cars). No idea about JDM cars, and I'm looking into importing a later model valve body I can swap in. This is the top of my TCM A couple of numbers but no part number. Amayama can't find my specific car but it does say the following for Asia-RHD (interestingly, all out of stock....): So it looks like programable TCM are probably post September 2018 for "Asia RHD". When I read my part number out from Ecutek it was 31705-75X6D which did not match Amayama for my build date (Aug-2016)
×
×
  • Create New...