jetfixer737

The last time I had my truck in service at the selling dealership I had a conversation with both the lead trans tech, and my favorite service writer. They both agreed with all the problems they've seen with the 8L90, clearly GM didn't take the time to fully sort this transmission out and instead rushed it into production to "let the consumers test it for them. " I had mistakenly assumed GM adapted the Corvette 8 speed to bolt up to the engine at one end and accept a transfer case at the other, but the trans tech informed me that actually it has the same internals as the Vette 8 speed, but it's an entirely new case. As for the Hardware vs Software debate, they told me despite the MANY service visits they've had for the 8L90, so far only ONE transmission has been replaced. (At that dealership) Over time they've discovered the mechanicals are actually pretty robust. It's the software side of the house that dropped the ball on this one. Oh, and by the way, in my first entry in this topic I said my 1-2 clunk had improved... Disregard. It's getting worse again.

My first high school car (mom's car) was a 1969 Chevy Concours (Chevelle) station wagon with the 250/powerglide. Seemed like it would go as fast in reverse (Scary fast) as it would in drive. My dad always thought something was wrong with it since it only shifted once. That is, of course, until somebody explained to him what a powerglide was. He was used to Turbo-hydro 350's. In later years, on the weekends my buddies would insist I leave my Camaro at home and bring out the "party wagon" since it was inconspicuous. Wow, a flood of memories just hit me. Digressing must be contagious...

...And yet "FERDS" 10 speed WILL be in GM trucks, probably beginning with the 2018 model year. (Called the 10Lxx) But that's not all, some may recall Ford/GM also went in together on a 6 speed front drive transmission (6T70/6T75) and at first it was dreadful. The GM version was blowing up left & right. I had one in a 2008 Saturn (Malibu) and it was SO bad GM finally had to step up and give the early ones a 10 year/120,000 mile warranty. After they corrected the known weak link (called a 3,5 reverse wave plate) the 6 speed was excellent, and yet they've now re-engineered that transmission into the 9T40 nine speed, and it's already out in some GM products. (The 2018 Terrain gets it) We'll see...

Mine has been to 2 different dealerships in 2 different states 6+ times and has received at least 13 software updates. Like most others it suffered from hard 1-2 up shifts (Clunks) and occasional HARD 2-1 down shifts. At present the 1-2 shift issue seems to be better (softer) and some days perfect. The 2-1 down shift issue seems to be cured. However... Nowadays at slow speeds such as on tight neighborhood streets, and in shopping center parking lots it now clunks, slips, & flares in totally random combinations, gears and times. Drive this thing "like ya stole it" and it's wonderful, but if I drive it like a civilized human being and try to save a few drops of gas it punishes me for trying. I plan on being rid of it by the end of the year. FYI: Obviously this is a known issue, but apparently more of an issue in the 6.2/8 speed combination. In fact during my last visit to the local Chevy dealer I spoke to the general manager who told me "We won't stock the 6.2 powered Silverados here. Only the 5.3's. If somebody really wants one, we'll get them one, but because of all the transmission issues we do not, and will not keep any 6.2 1500's in our inventory."

Since I got mine back yesterday, its actually worse than it was before I dropped it off, but after re-reading the paperwork I discovered the tech put the computer into "Relearn" so now its starting from scratch. OH AND YOU'LL LOVE THIS! During my demo ride with the trans tech at the dealer I went to, I told the guy I do a lot of research in the forums here. His response was... "Most of the guys on those sites are automotive hypochondriacs."

Got my truck back this afternoon... Radio: Fixed. Vibrating safety seat: Fixed. 8 speed transmission: According to the dealer, STILL not broken. I give up...

Dropped mine off at the Dealer Saturday afternoon so it could sit and be as it typically is when it malfunctions. I showed up at the dealer at 8 this morning, jumped in with the lead trans tech and the dang thing worked perfectly. Just my luck... So they're gonna keep it for a couple days and the trans tech is gonna try it once in the morning and once in the afternoon to see if it acts up, but I'll bet folding cash it won't. So I'm just gonna fall back on the service managers advice. "You have a 5 year/100,000 mile warranty. If it blows up give us a call." The heck with it...

Mine goes in this Saturday for the radio acting up and to have them look at the 8 speed for, I think, the fourth time. Mine has always had the harsh 1-2 up-shift, but it only does it the first up-shift of the day, then not again until it sits for a long period of at least 5-6 hours. Because I drive it down there, they can never duplicate the problem, but this time I'm dropping it off Saturday afternoon, and coming back at 8AM Monday and going out with the trans tech to show him.

I had a capacitor link problem at first, which required TRS to send me a new one, but since then everything has been working the same as before all the upgrades. BTW, I always run the headlight knob in "auto" with no issues.

My TRS kit is about 3 weeks old and my ballasts hum too. It IS louder at first, then fades as the bulbs warm up. Bear in mind that these things initially pump something like 20,000+ volts to the bulbs to get the initial arc, then fall to a steady 85 volts or so in continuous operation, so it seems logical they'd be noisier at first, then quiet down.

Here's something that caught me by surprise this morning. As with most of us subscribing to OnStar I got my monthly vehicle condition report via email today. As usual it said everything is working normally EXCEPT for one unexpected message: "Additional Maintenance Items" "One or more items on this vehicle may require immediate service." "Passenger Side Headlamp" "Driver Side Headlamp " "Please service soon." Is this just a nuisance message or is it a real problem, and are the rest of you guys getting the message too? (My HID's are working perfectly...I think)

I'm sure this has been discussed here before, but when installing the capacitor link, not only is a good ground important, but also when connecting it into the harness, make sure the wire colors (red to red and black to black) are correct. I have a feeling I may have fried my first capacitor link because I "assumed" plugging everything together so that the plugs locked together was correct. With my new link first I looked at wire colors, then the orientation of the plug locks. I ended up swapping wires on 2 different plugs to get the polarities correct and the plugs locked together. I had read in several different places that "you may have to reverse polarity" but I didn't fully understand what that meant. Now with my new cap link installed with wire colors matched, and plug locks engaged, everything works correctly.

I went ahead and sanded the top of the riv-nut on the forward end of that 45 degree rod. When I did it I carefully taped around the riv-nut so when sanding I only removed paint from the riv-nut surface itself. With everything grounded there, my lights work perfectly. Well almost perfectly. The TRS D2S setup I installed (With new FX-R projectors) only works without the capacitor link installed. No matter which way, polarity, ground location/ground quality I attempt to connect the capacitor link, the lights refuse to function. I work at an aviation school and had one of our avionics instructors test the link and he found an apparent bad capacitor. One phone call to TRS and another link is on the way. I'd be tempted to just go without the capacitor link, but from everything I've been hearing even if I don't need it now, eventually I will.

Like I said in my last post, from what I've read on here I'm just not completely sold on the long term reliability of the aftermarket HID systems. Yes, I've heard good things from guys like T.R.S. but it seems like all too often here somebody has some sort of malfunction. I'm probably overreacting, but I have recurring nightmares of my headlights going dark in the middle of nowhere on a cross country road trip. I completely agree though that it would be a big waste of time/effort to tear the front end of my brand new truck apart to retrofit the projectors only to do it all over again to install a HID system...

I came up with kind of an off the wall idea that I wanted to run past you folks. I'm sure I'm gonna get shot down, but I have to ask. With so much of the Sierra headlight system being considered as...substandard, obviously there are a lot of ideas here to improve the system. What I'm wondering is if anyone has ever considered retrofitting the projectors, but staying with the halogen bulbs. (If this is even possible) When I picked up my new Denali 1500 I was bracing myself for the headlights to be horrible, and although they could certainly be better, they aren't as bad as I expected. My reason for asking is because although factory installed HID lights have been around for quite awhile, and are very good, from what I've read on here I'm still not entirely convinced of the long term reliability of the aftermarket systems. Considering the GM factory projector is, to say the least, DE-tuned I'm curious as to how much improvement can be had just from better projectors...