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Adventra Transmission Change

ShaneD

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I have a V6 Adventra and I am contemplating changing it to a 6 speed manual (preferred) or 6 speed auto. Besides the fact that the piece of junk they put into it died after 135,000 km, and sounds like it is not far off dying again at 210,000, whoever designed the gear spacing need taking out the back and beaten senseless.

So given the extra difficulty of the AWD config, I've seen a few posts regarding computer input mismatches etc. Can anyone enlighten me to the actually dependencies between the gerabox and the engine/car computers, has anyone done this, can I just put a VZ manual wagon computer in? Can I fool the input, or does it just not matter?

Any advice would be helpful, appreciated before this thing dies again. Other than the transmission, I love the cat\r and don't want to have to get rid of it, but I'm not replacing bad for bad.

Thanks
 

jeepyrocks

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Unless you have some amazing engineering brains, there is no six speed manual or auto that will fit the adventra even slightly easily, as it has the AWD transfer case hanging off the back of the gearbox and the crosstrac system is fairly well integrated with everything- ABS, Stability Control, AWD control etc.

you could possibly lose the AWD, throw in a six speed man from a RWD, but you would also need ECU, new tailshaft, mounts, pedal box, etc etc.
 

XUV

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I have a V6 Adventra and I am contemplating changing it to a 6 speed manual (preferred) or 6 speed auto. Besides the fact that the piece of junk they put into it died after 135,000 km, and sounds like it is not far off dying again at 210,000, whoever designed the gear spacing need taking out the back and beaten senseless.

So given the extra difficulty of the AWD config, I've seen a few posts regarding computer input mismatches etc. Can anyone enlighten me to the actually dependencies between the gerabox and the engine/car computers, has anyone done this, can I just put a VZ manual wagon computer in? Can I fool the input, or does it just not matter?

Any advice would be helpful, appreciated before this thing dies again. Other than the transmission, I love the cat\r and don't want to have to get rid of it, but I'm not replacing bad for bad.

Thanks

Stick the v8 box in it or get the tranny tuned,

I did, got the tranny tuned in my XUV and it changed it from a 'should i be in 2nd, no 3rd, no 2nd, no 3rd's better' skitzo , to a smooth beast
 

ozNick

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I have a V6 Adventra and I am contemplating changing it to a 6 speed manual (preferred) or 6 speed auto. Besides the fact that the piece of junk they put into it died after 135,000 km, and sounds like it is not far off dying again at 210,000, whoever designed the gear spacing need taking out the back and beaten senseless.

Mine is 200,000km and still going strong. The main issue I found is heat as the 5L40e transmission as it is driving a 2 tonne car. If you read the BMW forums they also complain about heat in the 5L40e and the way it cooks solenoids in the box. When I first changed my transmission oil it was black, so now I have an auxiliary cooler on the car and the transmission oil is bright red every time I check it now.

I also drive the car in 4 when it is under load (also often around town) because it tends to go to 5th too easily and, as the v6 has torque management turned on, it tends to hunt which is not good for the transmission


So given the extra difficulty of the AWD config, I've seen a few posts regarding computer input mismatches etc. Can anyone enlighten me to the actually dependencies between the gerabox and the engine/car computers, has anyone done this, can I just put a VZ manual wagon computer in? Can I fool the input, or does it just not matter?

You could put a manual tranny in the car. The Adventra computer is integrated with Crosstrack but the reality is if you are not doing serious offroading the Crosstrack is over kill. If you went with a VZ manual wagon computer, you would only need to add an LSD to the rear diff, where most of the torque goes.
BUT building the adapters for the gearbox to the transfer case would be a serious effort - see http://forums.justcommodores.com.au/projects/250978-adventra-lx8-manual-conversion.html#post2799304 by AdventraLX8

You could look at putting in a 4 speed, 4L60e/4L65e, out of the LX8 (as XUV said) but you would need to play computer games, although that transmission was mated to the v6 in the VZ so may be possible.


Any advice would be helpful, appreciated before this thing dies again. Other than the transmission, I love the cat\r and don't want to have to get rid of it, but I'm not replacing bad for bad.

What is the issue with the transmission at the moment? Has it been serviced?

If you love the car then get the 5L40e transmission fixed or replaced and add an auxiliary cooler.

Cheers, Nick
 
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