8sp AT Transmission Whine

jnc2000 · Mar 28, 2012

Has anyone noticed the awful whine of the AT when decelerating down a hill in a lower gear - It's quite noticeable with the windows down. The noise can also be replicated during partial throttle manual shifting....

Want to make sure I'm not the lone man out here -- hopefully I won't get the "normal characteristic" story from the service department.

Honda has their 5AT which is notorious for producing gear whine at certain speeds / conditions. It is usually indicative of excessive wear within the TQ converter.

Thoughts? Feedback?

EXBMWGUY · Mar 28, 2012

I have not noticed it, but will test it in situations where I'm likely to hear it and give feedback.

jnc2000 · May 6, 2012

So bit of bad news. I was out driving back home through the local festival yesterday and the transmission had a potentially catastrophic failure. A driver behind me flagged me down as I looked back and noticed white smoke pouring from the back of the car as I was driving. A quick glance at all my gauges revealed nothing so I pulled over and shut the car off. After popping the hood more white smoke poured out. Looking under the underbelly pan the car was coated with ATF fluid.

Called Roadside Assistance to arrange a tow. It was already well past 4 and closing in on 5. With the tow truck a good hour out I called my dealer to make them aware of the situation. Unfortunately with it being Saturday service closed at 4. The dealership was closing at 5. I got passed around a couple of times until the Gen Mgmr arranged to have one of his employees come back after 6-7pm or so [when I was to arrive with the wrecker], and they provided me with another 2012 loaner.

The dealer went out of there way, and above and beyond. Kuddos to them for stepping up in this time. I'm very grateful that my son was not in the backseat with me at this time... otherwise it would have made the situation quite worse.

Hopefully we'll find out more information on Monday... but for now suffice to say my 2012 R-spec is out of commission with 10,xxx on the clock.

Glashub · May 6, 2012

Not that there is any good reason for this to happen...it shouldn't but would you take a minute to describe driving behavior? Did you drive it like a sports car with a lot of rapid manaual shifts? See what I mean? Again, a good tranny should hold up no matter what and I'm not looking to place blame....just trying to get a feel for how you drive. I basically drive my 4.6 like a luxo-liner but if I had a 5.0 I know I'd be stressing it every day as I always did my Acuras.

jnc2000 · May 6, 2012

Wasn't doing anything extreme. Winding country back roads with loads of bikes, and other slow moving traffic. No noticeable sound, clunk noise. No dummy lights at all... car gave no warning.

Glashub · May 6, 2012

That's too bad. Sorry you had/have to go through that. At least you have a stand up dealer. You know that now and can find comfort in knowing that. My dealer won't give me a loaner but will give me a Chevy Aveo renter.

jnc2000 · May 6, 2012

Yes the dealer service experience is very important. I went through transmission woes on my 3rd Gen TL early 04') and after repeat issues I moved up to the 4th Gen TL which was nothing but a rattle trap. Decided to try Hyundai with a Sonata 2.0t first which has been flawless. The R-spec was too up until yesterday. Every time I need a loaner I get one; all dealer loaners too. A dealer like this really stands out in my book.

I'm real curious to get a ATV sample and send it out to Blackstone. Hopefully they can dig in to it Monday... but until then I'm content with my 12' Sonata which was given to me with the window sticker still on

Mark_888 · May 6, 2012

jnc2000 said:
I'm real curious to get a ATV sample and send it out to Blackstone. Hopefully they can dig in to it Monday.

By any chance, did you change your AT fluid?

Crusty Old Shellback · May 6, 2012

In your OP, you asked about a whine while holding the tranny in a lower gear.

While you may not have been doing this at the time of the problem, how often do you drive it and manually shift, or hold it in gear at a high RPM?

Like others, not trying to blame, only to understand the actions that may have led up to it. I too drive like that from time to time and if this is a problem, I want to make sure I don't drive in that manner.

Also if this is an issue, we need to let Hyundai know about it so they can make the appropiate changes to remidey the problem.

jnc2000 · May 6, 2012

Mark_888 said:
By any chance, did you change your AT fluid?

ATF is sealed... cant even check the fluid without dropping the pan. Believe me I've looked. So the answer is no OEM fluid since I drove it off the lot with ~5 miles

Crusty Old Shellback said:
In your OP, you asked about a whine while holding the tranny in a lower gear.

While you may not have been doing this at the time of the problem, how often do you drive it and manually shift, or hold it in gear at a high RPM?

Like others, not trying to blame, only to understand the actions that may have led up to it. I too drive like that from time to time and if this is a problem, I want to make sure I don't drive in that manner.

Also if this is an issue, we need to let Hyundai know about it so they can make the appropiate changes to remidey the problem.

I'll manual shift from time to time... really just to engine brake coming off the freeway or to hold a gear on the cloverleaf. The tip-tronic is no where near fast enough to use as a "sport" mode... leave it in gear and go.

I'm on the road on average 150+ miles a day in the R-Spec... believe me the last thing I needed was this... and the last thing I was looking for was an unreliable transmission. I sincerely hope this is a fluke...

Believe me I want to know the cause of this as much as anyone else... and taking it a step further I'm requesting the current ATF fluid which is left be sent out to Blackstone... that will be the only real way to see what was going on with the fluid prior to failure.

Crusty Old Shellback · May 7, 2012

Ok, Thanks.

Please do keep us informed as to the outcome and possible failure.

Do you know if teh dealer can tell if teh tranny had teh proper amount of fluid? Or if the pump was working?

OneFunGenesis · May 7, 2012

Just in case anyone is wondering (and I was going to post this when the OP posted originally but I got busy), any whine in a transmission is usually a precursor to catastrophic trans failure. I'm sorry you had to go through all this!

jnc2000 · May 8, 2012

Talked with the dealer on Monday. Wont be know more until later on... but the 8sp is a very complex unit... apparently any issues / failures give cause for a full replacement.

Possible cause is foaming of fluid, which then lead to seal failure. At $8K+ for the transmission alone, plus $120 / quart it is not cheep.

Glashub · May 8, 2012

Thanks for the update. Keep us in the loop, okay?

jnc2000 · May 8, 2012

Got a call from the lead tech which was working on my car. Case has been opened with Hyundai for this issue. Current analysis showed that the ATF fluid was overfilled from the factory. This condition manifested itself only when the ATF fluid became heated to a certain temperature which initialed foaming. The current in house designed 8sp ATF [designed in partner with Aisin]; a variant of the TL-80SN...

Transmission was dropped, bore scoped to confirm the overfill condition, then drained and refilled per Hyundai. The car was then put on through a simulated test for an hour (off floor and higher RPM / low gears; low RPM high gear to stress test... Inspection through the vent with bore scope showed all clear. A fluid sample was saved and will be sent out to Blackstone per my request.

I'll have the case number in a few days... as I'm on a business trip right now. I'll be sure to post it up once I have it.

Glashub · May 8, 2012

Thanks!

Dragon64 · May 8, 2012

Funny you should mention this

I recently sent a faxed memo to Hyundai consumer affairs from Romax Technologies - addressing the 8 speed transmission whine.

The artcile is on line -

I've had 3 transmissions replaced in my car already - and it's still not right

the car whines like crazy - and makes a high pitched grinding noise if I downshift in tiptronic.

If I use the tiptronic for more than 15 minutes - the whine is so loud - I can't hear the engine or exhaust.

And that doesn't even touch the surface - with the trans fluid leaking everywhere - and the god aweful burning smell

The guys in the service dept. have been great -

And I would like to check out the next R Spec sedan in a few years

But if this nonsense continues -

I won't even bother.

jnc2000 · May 8, 2012

I'm sorry Dragon your post is a bit hard to read.... are you saying you saw something else related to this online?

12gage · May 11, 2012

I was definitely hoping the transmission would be more bulletproof. Hopefully we are just seeing some isolated incidents and not some type of failure trend. I am at 10k miles on my R-spec and I hope that the excellent performance and reliability continues.

genesis20 · May 13, 2012

Glad I got a "new" 2011 with the German made ZF six speed tranny. Proven reliable for many years and in many different cars. IMHO eight speeds is over kill; six works just fine in my Genny and Corvette.

8sp AT Transmission Whine

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