[fortythirtyfive]

Noticed I'm having some hesitation / almost holding back and jerking between 5th-6th sometimes, generally though it's 6th gear.

I presumed I had some bad torque settings on xHP as you can set it to shift faster or reduce turbo lag. Set these back to 0 and reflashed, I also tried the adaptation thing where you turn the car on, pedal to the floor for 5 seconds and then shut the car down.

I still get it though. It's not always there, probably happens 1 in every 5 times but it's super jarring and a little worrying. Cold starts are also pretty terrible, car feels like it's kangaroo'ing through 1st to 3rd at super low rpms, that disappears after a minute of driving though.

Any ideas what could be causing it? Excessive trans or clutch wear?

FTR I'm a 8AT running MHD Stage 2+ with the 3/6 power fix enabled. I also did a gearbox oil change around 8k miles ago.

[chinniciF32]

Originally Posted by fortythirtyfive

Noticed I'm having some hesitation / almost holding back and jerking between 5th-6th sometimes, generally though it's 6th gear.

I presumed I had some bad torque settings on xHP as you can set it to shift faster or reduce turbo lag. Set these back to 0 and reflashed, I also tried the adaptation thing where you turn the car on, pedal to the floor for 5 seconds and then shut the car down.

I still get it though. It's not always there, probably happens 1 in every 5 times but it's super jarring and a little worrying. Cold starts are also pretty terrible, car feels like it's kangaroo'ing through 1st to 3rd at super low rpms, that disappears after a minute of driving though.

Any ideas what could be causing it? Excessive trans or clutch wear?

FTR I'm a 8AT running MHD Stage 2+ with the 3/6 power fix enabled. I also did a gearbox oil change around 8k miles ago.

just out of curiosity how many miles/Kilometers are you at? and what fluid did you use for the transmission drain and refill?

[fortythirtyfive]

Originally Posted by chinniciF32

just out of curiosity how many miles/Kilometers are you at? and what fluid did you use for the transmission drain and refill?

Roughly 133,000 km / 83k miles.

I used a genuine kit from ZF which included the pan and fluids.

[thejeremyman9]

Originally Posted by fortythirtyfive

Noticed I'm having some hesitation / almost holding back and jerking between 5th-6th sometimes, generally though it's 6th gear.

I presumed I had some bad torque settings on xHP as you can set it to shift faster or reduce turbo lag. Set these back to 0 and reflashed, I also tried the adaptation thing where you turn the car on, pedal to the floor for 5 seconds and then shut the car down.

I still get it though. It's not always there, probably happens 1 in every 5 times but it's super jarring and a little worrying. Cold starts are also pretty terrible, car feels like it's kangaroo'ing through 1st to 3rd at super low rpms, that disappears after a minute of driving though.

Any ideas what could be causing it? Excessive trans or clutch wear?

FTR I'm a 8AT running MHD Stage 2+ with the 3/6 power fix enabled. I also did a gearbox oil change around 8k miles ago.

You arent supposed to run the 3/6 power fix flash option in MHD when you have XHP enabled. That's only for when you don't have XHP. There was discussion when that first came out that it could increase trans wear because it is effectively tricking the trans into thinking it has less torque than it actually does. Once you have XHP installed you dont need that option and you select the third option (forget what its called) for having torque limits removed.

You can check your adaptation values in XHP and see if they seem out of the ordinary. 6th gear is the weakest one.

Also are you 100% sure the trans fluid is filled correctly per procedures?

[fortythirtyfive]

Originally Posted by thejeremyman9

You arent supposed to run the 3/6 power fix flash option in MHD when you have XHP enabled. That's only for when you don't have XHP. There was discussion when that first came out that it could increase trans wear because it is effectively tricking the trans into thinking it has less torque than it actually does. Once you have XHP installed you dont need that option and you select the third option (forget what its called) for having torque limits removed.

You can check your adaptation values in XHP and see if they seem out of the ordinary. 6th gear is the weakest one.

Also are you 100% sure the trans fluid is filled correctly per procedures?

I'll go back and uncheck that option - I'm fairly sure MHD used to have an option you could check if you had xHP too but that appears to have gone.. unless I'm being blind lol.

Today I got back under the trans and tried filling it with more fluid but it wouldn't take anymore without gushing the old stuff out. This was after getting it up to temp, I also tried shifting through drive modes. I took liberty of flushing out any "sort of" old fluid with new and was surprised to see there's still a lot of metallic shimmer in the fluid that came out. This was something I noticed the magnets had collected a lot of when I did the original fluid change last year.

2 different garages who offer the ZF fluid changes said this was nothing to be worried about when I checked (last year) but it still seems a little excessive.

What I did do though was reflash an older xHP version, one prior to them adding the M hard shifts where it gives you a kick when upshifting.. I had zero lag. I tried it on several occasions and it was back to being normal, so I flashed back to the latest version (3.8) and boom, I had one instance of lag between the gears.

Maybe it was bad luck and just didn't "happen" whilst on the older version, just seems a little odd to me, the kick feature is cool but if it's actually causing these inconsistencies then I'll stick with the older versions.

[thejeremyman9]

Originally Posted by fortythirtyfive

I'll go back and uncheck that option - I'm fairly sure MHD used to have an option you could check if you had xHP too but that appears to have gone.. unless I'm being blind lol.

Today I got back under the trans and tried filling it with more fluid but it wouldn't take anymore without gushing the old stuff out. This was after getting it up to temp, I also tried shifting through drive modes. I took liberty of flushing out any "sort of" old fluid with new and was surprised to see there's still a lot of metallic shimmer in the fluid that came out. This was something I noticed the magnets had collected a lot of when I did the original fluid change last year.

2 different garages who offer the ZF fluid changes said this was nothing to be worried about when I checked (last year) but it still seems a little excessive.

What I did do though was reflash an older xHP version, one prior to them adding the M hard shifts where it gives you a kick when upshifting.. I had zero lag. I tried it on several occasions and it was back to being normal, so I flashed back to the latest version (3.8) and boom, I had one instance of lag between the gears.

Maybe it was bad luck and just didn't "happen" whilst on the older version, just seems a little odd to me, the kick feature is cool but if it's actually causing these inconsistencies then I'll stick with the older versions.

I havent reflashed MHD in 2.5 years, ive been on the E20 2+ map and never touched it, so not sure if their options have changed.

What stage XHP tune are you running? I went down from stage 3 to stage 2 a while back when the whole discussion around Pure Drivetrain's post came up. Stage 2 honestly feels good, but the maps are updated far less frequently. Which i guess in this case maybe isnt a bad thing.

[fortythirtyfive]

Originally Posted by thejeremyman9

I havent reflashed MHD in 2.5 years, ive been on the E20 2+ map and never touched it, so not sure if their options have changed.

What stage XHP tune are you running? I went down from stage 3 to stage 2 a while back when the whole discussion around Pure Drivetrain's post came up. Stage 2 honestly feels good, but the maps are updated far less frequently. Which i guess in this case maybe isnt a bad thing.

Interesting read, just looked through his thread.

Maybe it's time I stepped down to stage 2 - I was always told xHP wasn't to be a concern as it doesn't hurt the trans, I was always skeptical of that though haha.

I guess if it ain't broken then it doesn't need touching.. unless there's a good advantage to do so say with MHD.

Adaptation values below:

[thejeremyman9]

Originally Posted by fortythirtyfive

Interesting read, just looked through his thread.

Maybe it's time I stepped down to stage 2 - I was always told xHP wasn't to be a concern as it doesn't hurt the trans, I was always skeptical of that though haha.

I guess if it ain't broken then it doesn't need touching.. unless there's a good advantage to do so say with MHD.

Adaptation values below:

Maybe just go to the latest version of stage 2 and see if your issue ever comes back. I noticed zero difference in performance between stage 2 and 3. I was worried stage 2 sport/S shifts would feel slower or weaker, but they do not. When I originally flashed long ago i went straight from stock to stage 3, been on stage 2 for at least 6 months now

[hukke11]

I am experencing the same thing. 5 to 6 is the problem. I have stage 1 tune and xhp stage 2. Tried reflashing to newer version today with no luck. Funny thing is, if i shift manually it feels noticeably better

[fortythirtyfive]

Originally Posted by hukke11

I am experencing the same thing. 5 to 6 is the problem. I have stage 1 tune and xhp stage 2. Tried reflashing to newer version today with no luck. Funny thing is, if i shift manually it feels noticeably better

Mine was only happening in manual weirdly, then again I'm never in auto so I probably don't know if auto does it ha.

-

So I flashed down to stage 2, it is noticeably smoother but also slower in-between shifts which I have sort of balanced out with the torque reduction settings, it's helped me dial in faster shifts and much louder shift blips too.

Overall I think I'll stick with stage 2 over 3, not only for less strain but overall it feels much more refined.

Something I did however notice was the line pressure bump option was enabled, that's something I ALWAYS avoid. Not sure when this got enabled but I'm hoping it's not been required to activate too much, I have read several posts about this ruining seals and slowly destroying 8AT's.

Also I'm not sure if there's an app bug too, after flashing my new settings I happened to double check everything and noticed certain settings hadn't changed even though others had. One in particular again was the line pressure bump being re-enabled.. it took 2 flashes to get this option fully disabled.

[LA1Z24]

PDS has stated XHP stage 3 is not good for the transmission.

Considering 6th gear is a known weak clutch pack, I bet your trans is slipping.

Mine was noticeable on a hard downshift into 6th.

Use an actual scanner and graph the turbine speed sensor to the output speed sensor. If you see a 50rpm difference between the 2, on the hard shift into 6th, it's time for a transmission.

[thejeremyman9]

Originally Posted by fortythirtyfive

Mine was only happening in manual weirdly, then again I'm never in auto so I probably don't know if auto does it ha.

-

So I flashed down to stage 2, it is noticeably smoother but also slower in-between shifts which I have sort of balanced out with the torque reduction settings, it's helped me dial in faster shifts and much louder shift blips too.

Overall I think I'll stick with stage 2 over 3, not only for less strain but overall it feels much more refined.

Something I did however notice was the line pressure bump option was enabled, that's something I ALWAYS avoid. Not sure when this got enabled but I'm hoping it's not been required to activate too much, I have read several posts about this ruining seals and slowly destroying 8AT's.

Also I'm not sure if there's an app bug too, after flashing my new settings I happened to double check everything and noticed certain settings hadn't changed even though others had. One in particular again was the line pressure bump being re-enabled.. it took 2 flashes to get this option fully disabled.

I didnt notice stage 2 being slower. Are you talking about manual or auto? To get the fastest speed you need sport+ drivetrain and S transmission. One or the other and the shifts can be slow

[fortythirtyfive]

Originally Posted by thejeremyman9

I didnt notice stage 2 being slower. Are you talking about manual or auto? To get the fastest speed you need sport+ drivetrain and S transmission. One or the other and the shifts can be slow

Manual shifting - maybe it's just in my head, it just didn't seem as snappy to flick between gears but adjusting the torque reduction values helped a little.