QUIKAG

I've had zero issues with my '08 LS3 Vette and now my '10 ZR1 both around town and on track. I do use the Ranger method to flush the clutch fluid out occasionally. This TR6060 transmission isn't as good as my old '05 Honda S2000 transmission and shift action, but it's still pretty nice and it can handle much higher torque levels than the S2000. It's a non-issue on the track.

In short, I think your car has a problem. You said it was a Vegas car, so something in the trans got jacked up cruising up and down Las Vegas Blvd or hot rodding it out in the desert I would guess.

Supercharged111

Ranger method is a waste of time, bleed it right or sell the car.

QUIKAG

hahahaha....

CyberGS

thanks for the other comments, but I snipped the quote back to here for a reason:


HOLY SHEOT! I looked at my reservoir tonight when I got home and my clutch fluid is BLACK! I am thinking this may be the first place to start

I can say the guy I bought the car from I honestly believe did not track it or even hot rod it. He totally babied the car and garaged. In fact, when I bought it I took him for a drive after the money was exchanged (I am not an Ahole that hot rods someone else's stuff this hard on a test drive). He sort of yelped when I hammered it and yanked second gear and spun the tires a bit more. He had never heard the exhaust open up as he said he had never taken it over 3K rpm.

So that and with less than 2000 miles on the car, I would have never expected to see the fluid in this condition. To echo a few other posts, the clutch hydraulics clearly are really bad on these and I need to get a remote bleeder and change this on an insanely regular schedule. Considering I would only change the clutch fluid in my full race car every couple of years at best, this is a bit disheartening, but hopefully the issue. If this is the issue, it is at least resolvable.

I will keep the thread updated and hope to get the fluid swapped out this weekend tho' I have an insane calendar the next 2 weeks...

On another note, I cleared out my cookies and such and managed to get back into my Youtube channel, so I threw a quick vid up of a few cars on the track last Friday along with my fastest lap. I had a half dozen laps within a second of this one, but, hey, post the best, right! The run flats hate me at this point I took a friend out for a few laps in a previous session and put the windows down for the last few laps and man, I can hear the tires howling in every corner or under braking.


The carbon brakes are freakin' nuts - the prev owner did not bed them in right, so I spent my first session hammering them, then easy on them a few corners, then hammer, came in, let sit for 15 mins, then looped around the pits doing softs and hards. People around a track probably knew what I was up to, but I am sure there were a few wondering WTF? Anyway, they took the bedding and the very next session they were nuts awesome. Just tonight after work I gave a buddy a ride and showed him the braking and the tires are barking as I modulate and we are just locked against the belts. I highly recommend them

Next search I guess will be seeing if I can bypass the ABS

jhauswirth

I also have big problems with 2-3 shifts. Not only myself, but my wife does also. We did Corvettes at Bondurant last Dec and it really acted up for the 1/4 mile after doing an open track session. I just checked my clutch fluid and it is also black and on min level. I took a look inside and there were little blobs/chunks stuck on the inside rubber cap. I have 6000 miles on my car.

jhauswirth

I did some searching and found-
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-c...-method-3.html
Note this post-
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/1581502319-post51.html

And finally I found-
http://www.rangeracceleration.com/Clutch_Care.html

crimlwC6

Nice video. I should have mentioned this but the video is with the stock shifter with a different ****, not the mgw I had on my c6.

jhauswirth

I just spent the night (2 hours) doing the modified Rangers method and went through 2 bottles of break fluid. I got it coming out pretty clean. So then I took it for a test drive. I did a bunch of 2-3 shifts and never missed a single one. I was even chirping the tires, which I was never able to do before. I was probably missing 90% of my 2-3 shifts before this fluid change. Note, I would only miss the shifts at high RPM. When I got back, the fluid was very dark brown (not black tar anymore). I'll keep on doing fluid changes until it starts clearing up.

If I was to do it over, I would have changed out 1 bottle's worth of fluid and test drove it, that way it would mix things up better.

BTW, I got the tubes and syringes at McGuckin's. You can buy any length since they just pull it off a spool. The tubes were-
- Oil Pressure Line 1/8" ($.78)
- Micro Fuel Line-100 3/16 x 3/32 ($2.40) (I had to ask the guy if they had any and it was pretty hidden)
They had a 30CC syringe I used for the micro fuel line.
I cut a little off the tip of the syringe, jammed on about 1" of 1/8", then jammed about 8" of 3/32. They fit very tight.

I found the MixMizer at Walmart.

shakedown067

Dude didn't take it over 3K RPM, but sounds like he was abusing that clutch. Glad to hear it sounds like the fluid swap is working out.

Chevy Nick

+1, remote clutch bleeder is the way to do it.

CyberGS

thanks for the info; I didn't even notice you were in Westminster until you mentioned McGuckins I will do this "Ranger Method" in the short term as I have a bunch of things going on including travel over July 4th week and following, and then when I get some time to tear in I will get a remote bleeder.

It is good to hear the clutch fluid has made such a difference.

CyberGS

Just caught this post - I haven't done the fluid swap yet, but it is working for jhauswirth, so I am hopeful.

I too suspect the guy was tough on the clutch - reason is shown in my avatar. That picture was taken from the entrance to his garage looking down on the car at the base of his driveway - it was super steep. He would start out at the bottom with the car almost completely sideways, then sweep up and across to get the car in, and also angle it and enter slow at the top. I remember watching him do this when I got there and wonder how much slipping/riding that clutch had seen in its 989 miles , especially when he likely only put 20 miles on at a time and then climbed that driveway. 50 of those could be hell on a clutch.

I now have a bottle of high temp fluid - big a$$ bottle actually as it appears I will be doing this often - so hopefully tomorrow get it swapped out. I have a torque tube out of an 08 to put in my 66 Nova and I can clearly see the bleeder and that would be a **** to get to in the car, really short and up on top of the system. Totally stupid on GM's part to not put a remote bleeder in the car factory, it is supposedly a sports car so that seems like a reasonable part to add into the design. At $100,000 sticker price just add an extra $100 to it and put in a remote bleeder; I wouldn't notice the extra $100 and frankly wouldn't be bitching nor seeing as many threads or posts on the subject, weakening the appeal of the car IMO.

KBoltz

CyberGS,

I do the Ranger method after every autocross, let alone a track day. I am religious about keeping the clutch fluid clean. My 08 C6 only has 24k miles on it and I have had the trans fluid and diff fluid replaced twice. I stopped counting how many times I have used the Ranger method. I use Super Blue Racing for the clutch fluid along with Motul or ATE for the brakes (I alternate, so one time using Super Blue and the next time either Motul or ATE) so when the color changes over from yellowish to blue or vice versa I know I am done.

I am a big fan of the MGW - I am like a Neanderthal with long arms and big mitts so I kept hitting my knuckles on the center console on the 2-3 upshift before the swap (this is mainly on street driving). I shift the way Bondurant teaches, palm the shifter for 2-3 and 4-5 and fingertips on top for 1-2 and 3-4 and 5-6.

Good luck with the car. Have fun, that is the most important thing about this hobby.

CyberGS

thanks a ton for this response, especially as I was wondering if I could get away with using the Super Blue fluid in my Vette! I was actually just reading a can I had left over today while flushing out with some DOT 3/4 I bought at Autozone. I have used that forever in my Porsche race car and it is really high temp and has been durable for years in my other car - higher temp than anything at the FLAPS.

In fact, I rarely ever needed to bleed my brakes; I would typically run the whole year without having to do it, and then just flush the brakes over the winter just to keep the fluid fresh, so that stuff is awesome. They make a gold color too so it is easy to swap fluid and see the change as you note but that has gotten harder and harder to find; the blue seems to be what everyone stocks. I don't think I ever replaced the clutch side in the 5 years I tracked it here in CO and maybe bled it one time after the first year just to verify initial install, but it was a simple, remote slave, not internal like these cars.

I did the "Ranger +" method today after hitting McGuckins and getting the necessary supplies (thanks again j!) the clutch does feel a lot better in the garage but the weather has been insanely crazy yesterday and today (major hail storm and winds last night, rainy off and on today) so I haven't really gotten out to the freeway where I can smash the gas and shift hard to 3rd to see what happens.

I checked and my power bleeder has too large of a cap for the clutch so I will need to figure that out. Everything is tucked so tight in that corner of the engine compartment I can't get the "strap on" one to fit (that should warrant a bad joke or two) so once I get up under it to bleed it I will have to have a pumper (that should alley-oop the bad joke).

marktsmith

Bill, I love the sage advice in a calm non-accusative manner ! I just purchased a 2013 Z06 with the Z07 performance package. It has the short throw shifter, but I am having some problems. It is not consistent in shifting 1-2. Sometimes you can make a nice easy pull back keeping leftward pressure so if won't slip into 3rd. Then another time it feels blocked. Sometimes a fast shift back into 2nd works great, then again, it feels blocked. I mean it won't go into gear unless you reclutch and start over ?? Downshifting from 3rd to 2nd when braking hard and trying to toe/heal is a crap shoot ??

I have been hoping it would get better with a little more break in time. But, it is not. So, I will have Chevrolet check it out to see if there is some possible line up problems or other problems that can be adjusted. I sure hope so, it would be freaky on the track or "playing" on the road.

c5_4_me

Computer Aided Gear Selection (CAGS) aka Skip-Shift at play here?

C66 Racing

Thanks for the mention!

Cyber GS,
AMSOIL recommends and I use this at the track in my 02 Z06:
AMSOIL Torque-Drive Synthetic Automatic Transmission Fluid (Product Code ATD1G)

While this won't make the tranny shift feel as good as most want it to, will help. I personally run a B&M short shifter in mine with a Hardbar shift ****. Haven't done any other mods to improve the shift feel.

More than happy to get AMSOIL products for forum members at dealer wholesale pricing, about 25% below retail, via the AMSOIL Preferred Customer Program. Drop me a PM if interested.

froggy47

mmmm, my first thought also.

phipp85

I wouldn't think so. That applies to coming out of 1st. OP is having trouble with 2-3-2 shifts. I have a 2011 C6Z and haven't had any trouble shifting. I still have CAGS in my car.

froggy47

True the cags works coming out of 1st IF it's working right. I never liked the idea much anyway of that extra crap in the tranny, having said that, never had a prob with it.