just rebuilt greatly confusing me.. HELP!

[Brits97TSI]

Oook.. here's what's up.. I have a 97 TSi A/T, transmission just rebuilt about a month ago. Cost me about 450 from a friend.. I supplied the tranny rebuild kit and took the tranny out, he did the labor and got the shift kit and got the torque converter rebuilt. Honestly my dad dealt with all this so I dont rememember the manufacturers. Anyways, drove the car, not too hard cuz it has a few other little problems, but it felt great. A week or so later messing around with my stupid Venom chip the battery was disconnected and ever since the car's basically sucked. The Venom is still not hooked up so it can't have to do with that. It pretty much feels like it did before the tranny was even rebuilt.. trouble going through gears and all that good stuff. It just feels like an old, worn out, about to die, tranny.. and im not understanding how or why ? Could it have to do with the disconnected battery or no? I really have no idea and I'd love to figure this out cuz it really sucks. Thanks in advance guys

 

[definitiveno]

what does the venom chip do and whats intailed with the install?

 

[Brits97TSI]

The Venom chip is a performance chip that's supposed to increase horsepower up to around 25% at full throttle. I got it trying to help make up for the fact that my car's an automatic. Umm it's connected to the throttle position sensor and the manifold absolute pressure sensor, and by monitoring the sensors output characteristics, modifying the input signal to the vehicles existing ECU. Hope that helps

*Brittney

 

[DBR01]

.. trouble going through gears and all that good stuff. It just feels like an old, worn out, about to die, tranny..

When you say "trouble going through gears" do you mean grinding or just rough shifts? Also what weight was the gear oil used?

 

[Jumpmaster]

When messing with the Venom chip, is it possible you fried the TPS or TCU? The Transmission Control Unit operates the transmission by getting information from the Throttle Position Sensor.

 

[Brits97TSI]

Ok.. More like rough/delayed shifts.. no grinding.. and I'm not too sure the weight I'll get back to you on that.

But about frying the TPS or TCU... What ways, if any, are there for me to tell that it is or could be one of those two things that I fried (other than just buying new ones til I find the problem)?

*Brittney

 

[DBR01]

Ok.. More like rough/delayed shifts.. no grinding.. and I'm not too sure the weight I'll get back to you on that.

But about frying the TPS or TCU... What ways, if any, are there for me to tell that it is or could be one of those two things that I fried (other than just buying new ones til I find the problem)?

*Brittney

Yeah doesn't sound like an oil problem. Does the chip you're using program the shift points or have an aggressive tranny setting? I remember the chips I used to use on my V8's and they gave me the ability to change my tranny settings. Just a thought. If not then I'd have to agree about the TCU. If you bring it into Mitsu they should be able to run their Diag Scan and tell you if you fried anything. Here in Cali it cost about $75 an hour. It usually is diag'd under an hour and sometimes they don't charge if it's that quick. Hope this helps!!

 

[Brits97TSI]

You know I'm not too sure if the chip changes the shift points. I don't remember ever reading anything about that, and I've read a lot, so I'm leaning towards no but once I get ahold of the manual again I'll take a closer look at that. My biggest concern with all this that I don't understand is the fact that before disconnecting the battery, it shifted smoothly and quick, and when I floored it.. it went. And now it has the delayed shifts and under sudden acceleration, there's a nice long pause for that too. BTW the Venom chip is still NOT hooked up, so it can't have anything to do with that I don't think. Well I guess I'll just have to take it to the dealership then? If the TCU is the problem.. about how much is that going to cost me? Ahh I just want it to be running right so I can take it to the track in a couple weeks and not embarrass myself! Thanks for the help so far guys..

*Brittney

 

[definitiveno]

While the venom chip might not be hooked up all the way, you said already that you started the install, some thing happened and then you gave up? Or your uncle?


Maybe during the course of the install some thing from the TPS was not hooked up properly or left disconected.

Are you throwing any codes?

I am nothing close to an expert, so take it for what it's worth, but I would be taking another look at my TPS sensor.

 

[Brits97TSI]

Actually... here's the story on the Venom 400.

It was installed and ON about 6 months ago now. Took it for a drive, it was sweeet.. chirpin tires, you could really feel a power increase. Well it had to be turned off cause at the time my tranny was bad and we didn't wanna do anything to make it worse. While it was off the battery was disconnected at a point for my neons or something who knows it's not important. A month or so later I attempt to turn it back on to show a friend and it's being sooo retarded surging and delaying and all this good stuff. So I turned it back off. Blew the tranny a few months later. New tranny, I figure yess turn the Venom back on (at this point the Venom's been disconected and reconected and occasionally turned on to see if it just might be working about 3 times ) and it's still being sketchy. So some dumass friends of mine says heyy let's disconnect the battery, let the car reset itself (retarded and wrong I know.. I didn't know what was going on unfortunately ) Now see before this point the car was only weird when the Venom was on, now it's running like the Venom's on all the time.. though it's disconnected? The Venom is a problem all its own that I'm working on. I just thought I'd try to clear up anything or questions you guys were thinking about the Venom and what it could have to do with the problem I'm having.

"Maybe during the course of the install some thing from the TPS was not hooked up properly or left disconected."

Definitiveno.. that sounds like it could actually be a possiblity from what I just wrote about the many times it's been disconnected and such. And no I'm not throwing any codes.

Sorry that was soooo long.. I'm just trying to describe the best I can what's going on

*Brittney

 

[definitiveno]

Brit, I dont have alot of experience as mentioned before, but the tcu looks to the TPS for certain information. It takes this information and measures how much pressure the hydrolics will provide for the shifts, and makes certain calibration between throttle position and rpm to determine shify points. If the TPS wasn't giving proper feedback I can imagine it would be problematic.


If you go over to the vafq section there is a write up on how to check and calibrate the TPS back to specs.


Another thing, you said that there was some shortage coming from the chip? With the TPS and TCU both being electronic I can't imagine what could have gone wrong there. I guess at this point do some diagnosit on your TPS (not expensive but time consuming) and then go from there.

 

[definitiveno]

In retrospect, I would just take it back to whoever rebuilt the trans and ask them to fix it.

 

[Brits97TSI]

That makes sense.. I'll try to find that vfaq right now. I guess I'm going to try those suggestions because they do make sense and pray that it will fix the problem. Thanks a lot for your help ! Anything else anyone can think of feel free to offer , and I'll post how it turns out whenever it's done (hopefully sooner than later )

*Brittney