Transmission/Chip

[Silver03MM]

First off is the transmission in a Marauder really as bad as they say it is, I mean I know the shifts are all f'd up but can it really go so premmaturely? If so, will a good chip alone truly fix this problem?

[Murader03]

First off is the transmission in a Marauder really as bad as they say it is, I mean I know the shifts are all f'd up but can it really go so premmaturely? If so, will a good chip alone truly fix this problem?


A chip or tuner will fix the shift problems. As for the transmission, it'll last as long as you take care of it and don't beat it to death. Mine was replaced by Dennis Reinhart with his upgraded transmission at 54,000 miles. It was still woking okay, but on tear down they found the internals had been burnt due to heat build up. There are others that have died due to internal parts breaking....

[SergntMac]

If you look at modding the MM as preventing failure, modding doesn't do that. Modding may be beneficial in reducing the expectation of failure, but it's more likely that modding accelerates failure.

Modding, or, "beefing up" a particular component on any automobile, increases wear and tear on others, and sometimes accelerates their failure. Case in point is upgrading the rear gear ratio. Many of us found it necessary to replace the driveshaft, once it's shortcomings were revealed. Another case in point, is the PI torque converter, which multiplies the power going into the tranny. This is raw power, force, and if you don't plan to address what that force will do to tranny internals, it will fail sooner than you expect.

Other than the obvious performance gain, the upside to mods is that you get a handle on failure and some ability to control the "when and where" of it. But, modding won't prevent failure. Moreover, how we tend to drive harder because we feel it's safer to do so now, quite naturally accelerates wear and tear on the whole car.

IMHO...The stock tranny is a solid design with a great history and a lot of potential. However, it's performance is disappointing in the MM because of it's factory programming. OTOH, many of us are not disappointed with the "bone stock" MM, which is fine too. I've learned that the average life of the 4R70W tranny in stock form is around 75K miles, and adjusting the software may cut that back to 50-60K miles. But oh what miles and smiles they are too, eh?

You can live with the MM as it comes, or you can reprogram the tranny to behave better. But, doing so has it's risks, you could cause a premature failure of internals. I took advantage of the software fix because it was cheaper, and my MM performed just fine. I also experienced a premature failure of internals some time later, and came to rebuild the tranny with improved hardware, and readjusted the software, resetting it back to almost stock settings. I've had no problems since then, and the performance is everything I wanted. I have one final shift adjustment to make, and I'm done, and very pleased with my results.

Looking back, I could have simply rebuilt the tranny to handle my new power in the first place, and side-step some frustration. I did not, and and ended up doing so anyway. No big deal in my book, I learned a lot about my MM in the process, and I see this as part of owning a new gen/old style street muscle car. This will have it's headaches from time to time, and I'm comfortable with that.

While everything feels "bullet proof," in reality nothing on this car will live forever, which is why I call the failures "premature." If you mess with anything on the MM, you're accelerating failure, however, not modding doesn't mean you will avoid failure, it will happen someday.

If you enjoy what modding this car to your own tastes provides in terms of satisfaction and learning, it all seems worth it. If this isn't added value for you, leave the car bone stock and let L/M worry about the failures as they occur. There's nothing wrong with this, you decide how you want to enjoy your MM.

Just my .02c

[RF Overlord]

If you enjoy what modding this car to your own tastes provides in terms of satisfaction and learning, it all seems worth it. If this isn't added value for you, leave the car bone stock and let L/M worry about the failures as they occur. There's nothing wrong with this, you decide how you want to enjoy your MM.

^^^what Mac said^^^ Exactly. :up:

A chip or a reflash of the PCM won't FIX anything...it WILL make the transmission shift better, and give you more performance. I'm not sure this will necessarily accelerate premature failure, but neither will it prevent it...

As Mac so eloquently said above, if you want to make this car "your own", then take advantage of the extraordinary knowledge of the vendors here and do whatever mods you are comfortable with...just keep in the back of your mind that ANY mod you do CAN void parts of your warranty, IF your dealer proves to be "mod-unfriendly"...if that scares you, then leave well enough alone until the warranty has expired.

[TripleTransAm]

Nicely put, Sarge.

[Murader03]

Boy Sarge! It's nice to see your words of wisdom and experience back on the baord!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :banana2: