Transmission Shift Issues with Predator Maybe

lowellb · Post by **lowellb** » Wed Sep 09, 2009 4:41 pm

Well.... I don't have to mess with the Predator any more for a while. Car got nailed by a high schooler on 9/4. So for right now, am trying to find a body shop that I trust.

One of the body shops that I'm considering is a Dodge dealership, so if I pick them, I'll do the PCM/TCM updates there along with the couple of TSB issues the car was exhibiting.

I had driven the car several weeks with the 91 CAI tune and the MDS. While that was much better than with the MDS on, it still is not right. Heck, my wife's 09 Avalon responds pretty quickly to any throttle changes. The Avalon has a six speed auto and it doesn't take much of a throttle change and its tranny goes down a gear. Sometimes with the Challenger, ya wanna go a little faster, press the go pedal...press some more...press some more - than all at once it drops two or three gears, tach jumps 3k, and it hauls on out.

So it will be a month or so before I have the Challenger back. Still really P.O'd. Nearly new car got whacked, the at fault driver's insurance company is dragging their feet, had to file the claim under my insurance to get things moving, driving an abused rental Charger... But hey, they tell me things could have been worse.

MIKEP300C · Post by **MIKEP300C** » Thu Sep 17, 2009 12:46 am

lowellb wrote:I don't mind stiffer shifts and sharper MDS transitions. But the tranny controller gets really screwed up. I went back to stock for a couple days to remind myself how nicely the car behaved in traffic. Yesterday, 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. A couple years ago the GPS in my plane got weird at power up and couldn't find satellites for a while, then the displayed date was sometime in 2098. The box finally did manage to navigate accurately with the screwed up date. Turns out the folks who designed the firmware coded a limit for the week rollover and when that majic date was reached many of the boxes just stopped navigating. I'm one of the lucky ones and my box still navigates. As far as I can tell Garmin never proposed a fix (they want me to buy a new box). 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?

why not turn mds off it only saves you 2mpg whats the big deal turn it off sorry for being plunt

300cdreams · Post by **300cdreams** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 9:12 pm

My car is having the same problems (Transmission Shift Issues) mentioned in this thread:

7135U, latest revision, 2006 300c 5.7L
FlowMaster super 44 mufflers
Pro-Flo twisters as resonators
AirAid PowerAid Throttle Body Spacer
Fujita SR1505 intake
Running 93CAI Tune

What exactly should i adjust to optimize performance?

300cdreams · Post by **300cdreams** » Sun Sep 20, 2009 4:37 pm

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.

I need the custom tune mentioned here

06 300c 5.7

300cboy2005 · Post by **300cboy2005** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 9:10 pm

Having the same problem and I can't seem to fix it I put it back on stick tune and it's doing the same thing I think my tranny is messed up