MSR Tuning - 2007 GT Auto

[peadya100]

Hey Peter.
When Michael did your tune, did he alter the shift times for the automatic gearbox? Im definitely not a mechanic so dont know if its even possible, but i presumed that the fact it can hold gears longer in sport and sport sharp must mean there is some sort of electronic input going on there??
Id love to improve the shift time when using the paddles.. its soooooooo slow!! Its slower than the car changes gears in drive which seems very odd to me. And if thats the case, surely they can speed it up if only a little improvement. I am fully aware however that its never going to change like a DSG VW or Audi, but surely it can be better than it is now.

[PoidaGT]

Hey Adam
I hear you, the liberty auto box is a bit of dog.
I've driven an R35 GTR, Ferrari California, 911 turbo PDK and those twin clutch autos are incredible.
Even an XR6 turbo 6 speed auto leaves the Lib auto for dead.

I asked MSR about tuning the auto box and he said he couldn't.
I know they can tune VW DSGs etc but not Subaru autos.
I have seen a thread here on the forum for an auto upgrade which improved shift times etc but it wasn't cheap.
Unfortunately we just have to live with it.

[peadya100]

Yeah i feared as much. Oh well, i think ill be leaving it in drive.. am i imagining it or is it a much slower change when you use the paddles?

How have you driven such amazing cars?!?!?! I want your life!!

[dr20t]

Yeah i feared as much. Oh well, i think ill be leaving it in drive.. am i imagining it or is it a much slower change when you use the paddles?

How have you driven such amazing cars?!?!?! I want your life!!

The 5 speed auto can be made to shift just as smooth as any other top end auto with the right tune

My 5 speed shifts well and locks up all the way to redline

[bass_straitener]

Yeah i feared as much. Oh well, i think ill be leaving it in drive.. am i imagining it or is it a much slower change when you use the paddles?

How have you driven such amazing cars?!?!?! I want your life!!

The 5 speed auto can be made to shift just as smooth as any other top end auto with the right tune

My 5 speed shifts well and locks up all the way to redline

Pity they come with the added features of free pinging for H6 tunes if the weather's warm and free boost spikes for turbo tunes.

[alexeiwoody]

The manual mode only appears to shift slower. It's actually pretty decent once you get used to it. Kido tune is not any different shift speed to stock tune, although I do like his drive mode over stock. Could be just placebo though. Some claim the tune will improve shift speed. Not really. The car will feel better overall. Shift speed remains the same. Can do a valve bypass mod - will cost around the 1k mark and it still wont be a dsg.

Btw with your power I just dont see why you'd need faster gear changes? If you want fast acceleration in a straight line - put it into manual mode and floor it. Dont touch the paddles. You'll beat any manual running similar power. It will shift itself at red line.

[dr20t]

I see your point, Alexei, and I don't wanna derail this thread but I can tell you first hand that the reality is the complete opposite of what you just stated, in my experience that is.

The auto in stock form was not too bad - shifted relatively well for the stock power levels, but still grandpa spec in comparison to other auto / dsg performance based cars

After stage 1 (tbe, air filter and tune) the auto was sloppy for what it was, based on shifting and torque Convertor lock up

After turbo upgrade, fmic, injectors, etc etc (basically owen's current setup), it made almost 200atw with severe slippage and extremely poor shifting. It was worse than stock. And slipped in second after 5500rpm wot and 5000rpm in 3rd and 4th.

No variation of driving mode would fix this, including reducing boost, manually shifting, auto shifting in sport mode, auto shifting in drive normal mode. All of these would induce slip and worse still, the shift from 1st to 2nd was horrendous (sloppy and bounced off the limiter several times before shifting)

The above seems like a pretty harsh description - and it is. But I must say I only really realized how bad it was in hindsight when comparing to Matt's dbw maps which corrected the bulk of these matters. At the time and before I had Matt's auto dbw tune I thought it was ok, maybe because I got used to it who knows. But one sure thing is the difference before and after was night and day. A huge difference (just to be clear lol )

With more power and torque, even earlier on in the rev range (which intuitively should induce slip earlier in the piece), the same exact auto was shifting firmly but not neck breaking firm; shifting responsively and seamlessly, and most importantly for me (due to increased power), the Convertor was locking up all the way to redline. The only problem I still had was the shift from 1st to 2nd. In manual mode was bouncing off the limiter two or three times before shifting, but in normal drive mode or sport mode with auto shifting (ie no touching of the tiptronic), it was ridiculous - may as well not have taken off in first because you literally have to pull your foot off the accelerator for a second or so to allow rev to drop to 3000rpm before it would shift.

The last issue (first to second gear change) is primarily related to boost control (I'm using an evc which previously could not be tapered back but since I now have the hks ezy writer this will fix the issue). The ecu was not allowing a shift until boost and load were at a certain level. With boost climbing so quickly in first (it used to rev out SUPER quick), there was not enough boost reversion to allow the tcu to do its thing and change gears.

I should maybe state that my box is the older style prefacelift 03-06 5eat so maybe the 07's shift better (and from what I've seen they do), with the only downside being inability to hold a gear even in sport mode as the tcu overrides it and changes up a gear.

Just my feedback on the matter. But a gun can definitely fix the auto shifting which is plagued with bad press due to lack of demand for anything different.

Mick

[alexeiwoody]

Haha thanks for the good write up mick! But I believe peadya was asking about shift speed not transmission slip.

Peadya has 130atw and is looking at doing up his exhaust. I'm at that stage and the libs been tuned by kido and now by torqued performance. No difference in shifting speed. The torqued performance tune is very stock when it comes to the tcu and the shifting and if anything it feels lighter and easier to shift now compared to kido. If there's any difference at all.

And since your gearbox is different and I've never experienced any slip, and my auto still doesn't shift like a dsg like was promised by kido matt - and msr and many other gun tuners say the speed cant be bettered....and I doubt yours matches a dsg either....and poida gt having 200atw has no transmission slip....i dont think peadya has anything to worry about. If anything can be done msr will do it, he's in good hands. As for shift speed - may as well get used to it

[peadya100]

Wow.. hot topic!!

It looks like theres not much that can be done about the gear change speed whilst getting my tune.. I figured that would be the case. Its a shame that theyve produced such a sloppy paddle shift gearbox on a car thats intended to be a bit sporty. Although my car wont be a rocket ship after the tune, 170-180kW is no slouch and it would be so great to have a quick shift with the paddles... this is why i was after a manual originally. But i must say for all of the autos downfalls when driving hard... it rocks around town in sydney traffic!!

[dr20t]

Call me one of the lucky ones or whatever but I assure you mine shifts alot faster than stock and its not a placebo effect

[<GB>]

Call me one of the lucky ones or whatever but I assure you mine shifts alot faster than stock and its not a placebo effect

i think your tune was a good lucky one compared to others...

[chook]

I have to agree with Mick on this, having had my auto tuned by Matt three weeks ago I have seen a significant increase in shift speed, not to mention the elimination of the downshift hesitation when flooring it in auto mode (5th gear), picks 3rd straight away and takes off like a cat shot in the arse, has also smoothed out shifting to the point where if you have the music up and looking at the road its hard to know when it's shifting (up and down).

All in all I'm extremely happy with the end result and I really enjoy my auto now, especially with my morning coffee!

[peadya100]

I have to agree with Mick on this, having had my auto tuned by Matt three weeks ago I have seen a significant increase in shift speed, not to mention the elimination of the downshift hesitation when flooring it in auto mode (5th gear), picks 3rd straight away and takes off like a cat shot in the arse, has also smoothed out shifting to the point where if you have the music up and looking at the road its hard to know when it's shifting (up and down).

All in all I'm extremely happy with the end result and I really enjoy my auto now, especially with my morning coffee!

Well that sounds promising!!
What exactly needs to be done for this? Is it simply done with a tune, or does it need a change of parts?

[chook]

Nope no change of parts just Matt and his laptop and a couple hours of your time, just to clarify I have had a valve body mod to increase the line pressure of the trans around 12 months ago, this eliminated slipping but did not increase shift speeds and actually made gear shifts more clunky if that makes sense!

[<GB>]

Nope no change of parts just Matt and his laptop and a couple hours of your time, just to clarify I have had a valve body mod to increase the line pressure of the trans around 12 months ago, this eliminated slipping but did not increase shift speeds and actually made gear shifts more clunky if that makes sense!

maybe his tune doesnt work as well with the vavle body mods but better with stock auto