Transmission Shift Issues with Predator Maybe

Raven3416 · Post by **Raven3416** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 9:37 pm

lowellb wrote: the 91 CAI tune was back in it and things were fine. MDS transitions were a bit sharper, and the car responded well to moderate throttle inputs. Today, I once again experience the need for large throttle inputs to get the car to downshift and accelerate(I only wanted mild acceleration!). MDS was dropping in and out with the engine at constant load and the trans was doing odd things. But no pinging so far - I'm sure that will come in the next couple of days. So what could have changed between day 1 and day 2? Same route, same time of day, same temperatures. The trans controller is adaptive and for some reason it is learning something bad. I think that is what DS needs to address. So this trans problem makes me wonder if DS is writing something improper which results in the the tranny controller going out into the weeds after a couple update cycles?

Lowellb are you driving my car at night. LOL. Your car is the twin of mine. Quick I didn't really think about it last night when I wrote it, but you maybe right. Then again I would think that lowellb has a good point to. At this point turning the MDS off fixes the issue, but it seems to me that it should work without having to do that. Without DS wanting to address this issue there's nothing really we can do. I am going to try one more thing. Snake gave me a TSB earlier in this post. I dropped the car off at Dodge after work for some warranty repairs, and Im going to have the service department flash the PCM with the update while its there. Maybe that will fix it. If so I'll let you know. lowellb have you tried to turn MDS off. From what I've read here and the amount of driving I've done it doen't hurt the gas milage. Iâ€™m not sure, but I'm going to Tallahassee on the 15th and I will most defiantly let you know what the results are to that when I get back.

lowellb · Post by **lowellb** » Thu Jul 30, 2009 7:58 pm

I've been watching the real time data during the commutes home in the afternoon. Unfortunately, the Predator doesn't access such things as MDS status, gear value or torque converter lock up, so I can't see first hand what the transmission is doing, I have to infer from the feel of the car. The last couple of days I've been monitoring spark advance since before with the 91 CAI tune I was getting severe pinging. I don't know if what I've observed is real or not. Sometimes when the trans is in auto, the spark advance goes nuts - jumping all over the place - some of the numbers are just plain unbelievable - makes me think the Predator is not downloading the data correctly. But so far, when I put the trans in autostick mode, the spark advance is reasonable. At idle and low power I see about 15 degrees, coasting off throttle it goes up to 45 degrees, accelerating hard it drops below 5 - seems reasonable to me. Today I got severe pinging episodes but was never looking at the Predator's display to see the advance values. This weekend I'll look at some more data with the MDS off.

Hey Raven3416, didn't your first posting have as an attachment a datalog file. I had referenced it to Vas, but when I went back one day to take a look at it, it was gone.

fordomatic69 · Post by **fordomatic69** » Thu Jul 30, 2009 10:44 pm

I dunno what the heck is going on with these Chally's but my 06 5.7L Magnum is running the 93 CAI tune AND I have advanced the timing one extra degree and I get almost no KR. The Sunoco Gold 94 I am running must be pretty awesome stuff!! I am also testing a few tunes from johan and again no KR measured. My 0-60 time is down to 5.6 seconds which is extraordinary for an AWD WAGON that weighs close to 5,000lbs.

I run a DrewTech DashDaq which monitors MDS status, Current Gear, Transmission Temperature, stuff that the Trinity is not yet supporting (I have over 500 PID's to choose from on the DashDaq).

I got used to the MDS "Bump" so it no longer bothers me. I have JBA cat-back exhaust and the MDS Bump is very pronounced, not to mention the 4-cylinder drone while MDS is engaged. Oh well, it's the cost of performance tuning a station wagon...

My wife hates the MDS Bump so I keep it

06 Dodge Magnum R/T AWD, JBA Cat-back, aFe Stage-II CAI, BT Catch Can, Iridium Plugs, Diablosport Trinity Beta Tester, 93 CAI tune and a few test tunes from johan (no cruise control though hahaha).

ALEXRT222 · Post by **ALEXRT222** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 1:43 am

Hi there i have a dodge charger rt 5.7 2008 with the 93 octane tune with cai and borla exhaust y adjusted shift firmnes put it on mode 3 and adjusted the tire size and and reset tcm adaptation the car is running great no problem whatsoever.The car is running very fast is like a new animal.Im even getting more mpg ,the only rare thing i noticed es the cars temperature is running colder.

lowellb · Post by **lowellb** » Fri Aug 07, 2009 8:29 pm

I've got a sort of an update. Vas forwarded a custom tune that I think Johan built. I've been running it for 4 days now. On the positive side(for me at least), the drivability is back. I think what they did was to return the torque management back to stock. I asked what the other if any take backs from the 91 CAI was and I haven't gotten a response back yet. But there are some down sides also. I had a CEL come on during tonite's commute. And I've had two episodes of severe pinging in the 1-2 and 2-3 shifts when in autostick. Doesn't happen all of the time. And then one time in 1st (autostick), the car just dogged out. It was accelerating, but poorly - next time it was ok. I also went back through my gas receipts and found that when I had the DS 91 CAI tune loaded I dropped down to 13 mpg - with the custom tune looks like I'm back to 15-16 which is where the car was at stock.

It's just my opinion, but I think the DS guys had the tunes correct for the 08 and earlier 5.7 autos, but something changed with the 09. When I look through the forums, seems like most folks with the 08 and earlier are happy, and the ones with the 09s are complaining. I get the impression that DS is looking into it, but I don't know how hard. Next tank of gas, I'm gonna reload the DS 91 CAI and turn off MDS and see what the mileage and performance does and then go from there. I may just end up putting the stock load back in, putting the Predator up for sale and take a loss.

fordomatic69 · Post by **fordomatic69** » Fri Aug 07, 2009 11:37 pm

The 09's are different for sure. I heard that an 09 with a CAI showed absolutely no performance improvement over stock airbox. Where the 05-08's were very measurable. I think the 09's are running much leaner due to tougher emission regulations. The 09's have more power too I hear.

Raven3416 · Post by **Raven3416** » Sat Aug 08, 2009 10:44 am

lowellb wrote:I've got a sort of an update. Vas forwarded a custom tune that I think Johan built. I've been running it for 4 days now. On the positive side(for me at least), the drivability is back. I think what they did was to return the torque management back to stock. I asked what the other if any take backs from the 91 CAI was and I haven't gotten a response back yet. But there are some down sides also. I had a CEL come on during tonite's commute. And I've had two episodes of severe pinging in the 1-2 and 2-3 shifts when in autostick. Doesn't happen all of the time. And then one time in 1st (autostick), the car just dogged out. It was accelerating, but poorly - next time it was ok. I also went back through my gas receipts and found that when I had the DS 91 CAI tune loaded I dropped down to 13 mpg - with the custom tune looks like I'm back to 15-16 which is where the car was at stock.

It's just my opinion, but I think the DS guys had the tunes correct for the 08 and earlier 5.7 autos, but something changed with the 09. When I look through the forums, seems like most folks with the 08 and earlier are happy, and the ones with the 09s are complaining. I get the impression that DS is looking into it, but I don't know how hard. Next tank of gas, I'm gonna reload the DS 91 CAI and turn off MDS and see what the mileage and performance does and then go from there. I may just end up putting the stock load back in, putting the Predator up for sale and take a loss.

lowellb Sry I've been away for awhile but I wanted to bring you up to speed on my car. I had it in for service last tuesday week. They found three updates for my PCM and one of them was for the TCM. When I got it back the first thing I had to do was download a calibration from DS, then I went to the 93 CAI tune and turned the fuel up to 20% at WOT. There was to much knock retard, so I went to the 91 CAI with fuel at 16% across the board at WOT. The knock retard is gone except for a little st right at shift, and from what I hear this is normal. The car is driving great and until now I haven't had any issues. I went to Dodge and told them everything that my car was doing with the tune in it, and they said wow let us take a look. LOL. They pulled it up by VIN and found the updates. I don't know if that was the right thing to do but it seemed to fix the issues that I was having for now.

Raven3416 · Post by **Raven3416** » Sat Aug 08, 2009 10:50 am

lowellb wrote:I've been watching the real time data during the commutes home in the afternoon. Unfortunately, the Predator doesn't access such things as MDS status, gear value or torque converter lock up, so I can't see first hand what the transmission is doing, I have to infer from the feel of the car. The last couple of days I've been monitoring spark advance since before with the 91 CAI tune I was getting severe pinging. I don't know if what I've observed is real or not. Sometimes when the trans is in auto, the spark advance goes nuts - jumping all over the place - some of the numbers are just plain unbelievable - makes me think the Predator is not downloading the data correctly. But so far, when I put the trans in autostick mode, the spark advance is reasonable. At idle and low power I see about 15 degrees, coasting off throttle it goes up to 45 degrees, accelerating hard it drops below 5 - seems reasonable to me. Today I got severe pinging episodes but was never looking at the Predator's display to see the advance values. This weekend I'll look at some more data with the MDS off.

Hey Raven3416, didn't your first posting have as an attachment a datalog file. I had referenced it to Vas, but when I went back one day to take a look at it, it was gone.

I must have removed them the last time I revised the post. Here is the 93 tune and my latest 91 tune.

fordomatic69 · Post by **fordomatic69** » Sat Aug 08, 2009 10:07 pm

Man, you told them that it was acting funny with a tune in it? Wow, you got balls man! Most dealers will VOID the warranty as soon as they hear that you have done this.

Raven3416 · Post by **Raven3416** » Sun Aug 09, 2009 7:46 am

fordomatic69 wrote:Man, you told them that it was acting funny with a tune in it? Wow, you got balls man! Most dealers will VOID the warranty as soon as they hear that you have done this.

Lmao No dude I didn't tell them about the tune, just everything it was doing with it in there.

Raven3416 · Post by **Raven3416** » Sun Aug 09, 2009 7:48 am

fordomatic69 wrote:Man, you told them that it was acting funny with a tune in it? Wow, you got balls man! Most dealers will VOID the warranty as soon as they hear that you have done this.

Lmao No dude I didn't tell them about the tune, just everything it was doing with it in there.

fordomatic69 · Post by **fordomatic69** » Sun Aug 09, 2009 8:50 am

I get it

lowellb · Post by **lowellb** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 9:13 pm

Ok, finally back with another update. For lack of any other rational option, I'm gonna try Raven3416's route. Mine has a 12/08 manufacture date, so no doubt there are updates for mine also that may cause the car to behave better. I need to take the car to the dealer to have some body issues taken care of anyway. After running a week with the 91 CAI but with MDS off, the car behaved well for about 99% of the time. But twice, I got heavy pinging at a shift (like throwing a handful of 1/2 inch ball bearings up against a metal plate) and once it wouldn't accelerate until I was at about 3/4 throttle, then it finally downshifted with some pinging. The rest of the time, it behaved like I expected it to. Why does it get weird occasionally? DS has never gotten back to me on the custom tune that really didn't work. After I get it back from the dealer, I'll try richening it up and go from there.

Quick · Post by **Quick** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 12:05 am

Don't think it will be a problem but you might want to call the dealer first and ask them what the latest calid is for your car. Then you could check with DS to make sure it's supported already. Just in case.

lowellb · Post by **lowellb** » Wed Aug 19, 2009 7:22 pm

Will do Quick. In a previous post Raven3416 indicated he had to get an updated cal id from DS after the dealer updated his car.