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Level Ten Transmission

Über855R

By Über855R
in Performance Modifications

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Über855R Newbie

Über855R

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Hello VS,

Some of you may remember last year I blew up my transmission. I mean completely destroyed it. When Looking for a replacement level ten came on my list of places to look at. They seem to be they only company that will do a performance build on our auto transmissions. Since I drive with hand controls a manual swap didn't seem to be a realistic option so I decided to go with the level ten transmission.

I bought the level ten stage 3 transmission, with the hydro service and the torque converter service. Although my transmission was completely shot, and I did inform level ten of this, they told me to ship it as is and they would make it work. After recieving the trans they inspected it and said that it was irrepairable. Duh I thought to myself I told you before I shipped it that it was cracked and destroyed. So after some haggling they were able to find me a replacement casing and internals and charged me around 800 over the original price. I believe the original price was somewhere in the neighborhood of 4200$. After replacing the housing that puts me around 5K.

When They recieved the trans after 1.5 weeks, it took them another week to let me know that it was not repairable, another week to find the parts and quote a decent price, and another 3 weeks to do the build. Then one more week to ship back xcountry. That puts me at about 7 weeks without a transmission. When the transmission came back it was suprisingly nice, pulled much smoother and more evenly and burnouts seemed much more controllable and even on the tire pull. The torque steer was greeatly reduced as well. From the very first days I had it the tranny seemed to hit the rev limiter between 2-3 and 3-4 gears at WOT. Since it did it right from the beginning I thought that was how the trans was intended to work. It was not.

After a few months of driving on the new trans and loving it BTW, It started to feel really weird one night. I was on the freeway, driving hard, racing with a lotus, when the trans started to slip so badly that I had to exit immediately. It felt as if the motor was winding out but not engaging the trans. Needless to say that it worried me since I already had so much money into my transmission. After a couple of weeks and a fluid change the problem seemed to just get worse and worse. As the car would heat up the trans would start to slip again.

After exhausting every possible option with out removing we spoke with level ten and organized sending the trans back to be repaired. When they recieved it they said that the cylinoids that control the trans fluid had melted or something. I am no transmission expert so I just had to take their word for it. When they recieved the trans it was a similar story to before. Took them weeks to figure out what to do and contact me, even longer to fix it and send it back. All in all it was another 5-7 weeks to get my trans back again. They didn't charge me to ship it back and they didn't charge me labor to fix it, they only charged me for the parts to repair and that was it. The cost for the parts was about 500$. Now the trans is back and working perfectly. They attributed the problems, both with the original trans and the rebuilt one to a failed cooling system. My radiator seemed to work fine but they insisted that we replace it with the new transmission. Of course I had no problem with that since I really don't want to go through this again.

Now the thing seems to shift perfectly between gears and no rev limiter anymore. Between the trans and the repairs and the new radiator and installs and removals and everything this process cost in the neighborhood of about 7k by my estimates. Since my original transmission was so violently destroyed I feel like they should have told me it was probably caused by overheating. They said that was obvious in the original trans yet made no suggestions to check out my coolant system before installing the new trans. I feel like if they are such experts it should have been suggested at the very least to possibly have saved me this time consuming costly repair process.

After the whole experience here are my impressions. The transmission is awesome and a huge improvment over stock. The cost is alot but could be cut down considerably if you are installing and removing the trans on your own, and have no problems with it when you send it in. If you want to consider level ten find a perfectly working donor transmission to send in for rebuilding. And don't be in a hurry because they take their sweet time. If those few suggestions are followed the level ten trans should be comparable in price to a well done manual swap, and depending on your intentions for the cars driving, it is just as good if not better for quick shifts and straight line racing. Of course track driving is better suited for a manual since you can more easily keep the RPM's within a desired range with a manual. All in all I love the transmission don't really care for the company much, and wish that the process would have gone a little faster. I hope this write up helps anyone decide that is thinking about this going the same route as me. Good luck with your transmission problems VS'ers.

Ben

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Oreo931 Rookie

Oreo931

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Thanks for the good information. I know that PatrickW is experiencing very similar problems as you were in terms of the transmission slipping. He told me he has sent it back twice for repairs and this is the third time he is going to send it in. He also said each time something went wrong, level ten was very reluctant to fix it even though it was covered under warantee. He has also spent well over 5k for it.

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SteveO Newbie

SteveO

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hummm makes the manual swap look real good, but for some applications the auto is nice to have.

I haven't had a chance to research having a tranny built to spec locally, but a member posted a parts list in a previous thread I think I was 850drag. I have a donor tranny but don't know if I feel like shipping to east coast.

BTW how much was the shipping to level ten, from Santa Rosa?

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Marzocchi Newbie

Marzocchi

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Get the work done locally. Any good transmission shop should be able to drill out the bodies and get the pressure up. As for the TC a few companies sell a drop in torque converter for these cars.

Where can we find performance upgrades for our transmission online? clutches, TC, etc.

Some links would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Pierre

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SkyWriter Newbie

SkyWriter

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Get the work done locally. Any good transmission shop should be able to drill out the bodies and get the pressure up. As for the TC a few companies sell a drop in torque converter for these cars.

agreed (with the list of options from the other thread) but it's tough to find a good transmission shop. i hear worse stories about local shops as well.

my quote in total was about the same but that included a core cost he should have been reimbursed for.

now with 2 cars i can afford to have it off the road for weeks.... ah well the joys of cars.

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Che'_Moderator Newbie

Che'_Moderator

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agreed (with the list of options from the other thread) but it's tough to find a good transmission shop. i hear worse stories about local shops as well.

my quote in total was about the same but that included a core cost he should have been reimbursed for.

now with 2 cars i can afford to have it off the road for weeks.... ah well the joys of cars.

Yeah but at least its local. Better have them close at hand so you can get the monkey stick after them

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SkyWriter Newbie

SkyWriter

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Yeah but at least its local. Better have them close at hand so you can get the monkey stick after them

yeah i agree. but i dont know of a shop that has better record local. my best bet is my mechanic has a friend that was very good.

the thing with s80 as we all know by now is they suck to work on. you have to drop the subframe to get the tranny out. the good thing is ill have more room to work on the turbos.

there is still plenty of time to decide.

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fromtheshadows Newbie

fromtheshadows

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their work wasn't under warranty???

Obviously some part of it was or they would have charged him for shipping and labor the second build. I share your sentiment though. 5 grand should give you unlimited warranty. 7 grand is too much to spend on a trans. For that much money it should allow you to hover on water and if it gets wet it should come be equipped with a trained spider monkey with a towel.

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