Welcome to my manual transmission nightmare.
I bought my certified used 2009 CTS-V about a year ago with 22,000 miles. Car was perfect, no mechanical issues whatsoever. About 3 months later I added a ported snout, 2.55 pulley, intake, exhaust, and D3 suspension. Car dynoed @ 525 rwhp.
In August I took the car to Auto Club Speedway for a track day with Speedventures and D3. After boiling the brake fluid and overheating the differential my day was done after 3 25 minute sessions.
I replaced the brake fluid with high temp stuff, built a diff cooler, and added some r888 tires for my next go round @ Auto Club for the first round of the Cadillac racing series in February.
Through the first 2 sessions car performs great and a shave 3 seconds off my times from August. During the third session I begin to hear a faint whine during acceleration in 1st through 3rd gear, which progressively gets worse throughout the rest of the day. There are no symptoms associated with the noise, transmission shifts perfect, no clutch issues, just the loud whine.
So Monday after the track day I put the car on the lift, drain the trans fluid through a painter's filter looking for any signs of internal damage. Maybe I chunked a tooth on gear during a bad downshift. After filtering the fluid twice, I discover no metal in any of the fluid. So I decided to fill the trans with some Royal Purple Syncromesh to see if the noise gets better.... Noise was improved but I was still concerned. I called D&D transmission (they built the trans' for the CTS_VR's) and was told the noise was probably a damaged input shaft, FML!
I end up pulling the trans to have a look inside for myself, and here is what I found.
Input shaft and cluster gear overheated and scuffed the gears. Notice the discoloration and hash marks on the contact pattern.
View attachment 88309
From what I have learned this can only happen from a lack of lubrication or a break down of the fluid itself. I never received a transmission overheat message in the DIC. My only theory is that during the banked turns 1 & 2 of the NASCAR oval in 5th gear @ 130+ Mph, there is enough G-force to pull the fluid away from the junction of the input and cluster gears, causing the damage.
Cost to repair,
New Input shaft $340.00 (only made by GM)
New Cluster gear (actually 4 gears machined onto 1 shaft) $550.00 (only made by GM)
R&R transmission $500.00
A week and a half of my time.... priceless
I would have tried to warranty the car but I wasn't willing to take the chance and have them blame it on the supercharger pulley and triple the cost of the repair.
Unlike the previous 6 speeds, the tr6060 in the CTS-V is a very strong trans, and there are no upgrade parts other than bronze shift fork pads (Tick performance). The factory transmission cooler (located inside the radiator) is woefully inadequate for racing IMHO, so I have added a Setrab cooler to the front of the car and replaced the factory lines with -6 braided line. This adds about a quart of fluid capacity too.
It's also a good idea to fill the trans with the car running, that way the pump is filling the lines and trans cooler and you can get an accurate fill.
I will have the car put back together and @ Chuckwalla raceway on the 24th and I will report back after that.
I bought my certified used 2009 CTS-V about a year ago with 22,000 miles. Car was perfect, no mechanical issues whatsoever. About 3 months later I added a ported snout, 2.55 pulley, intake, exhaust, and D3 suspension. Car dynoed @ 525 rwhp.
In August I took the car to Auto Club Speedway for a track day with Speedventures and D3. After boiling the brake fluid and overheating the differential my day was done after 3 25 minute sessions.
I replaced the brake fluid with high temp stuff, built a diff cooler, and added some r888 tires for my next go round @ Auto Club for the first round of the Cadillac racing series in February.
Through the first 2 sessions car performs great and a shave 3 seconds off my times from August. During the third session I begin to hear a faint whine during acceleration in 1st through 3rd gear, which progressively gets worse throughout the rest of the day. There are no symptoms associated with the noise, transmission shifts perfect, no clutch issues, just the loud whine.
So Monday after the track day I put the car on the lift, drain the trans fluid through a painter's filter looking for any signs of internal damage. Maybe I chunked a tooth on gear during a bad downshift. After filtering the fluid twice, I discover no metal in any of the fluid. So I decided to fill the trans with some Royal Purple Syncromesh to see if the noise gets better.... Noise was improved but I was still concerned. I called D&D transmission (they built the trans' for the CTS_VR's) and was told the noise was probably a damaged input shaft, FML!
I end up pulling the trans to have a look inside for myself, and here is what I found.
Input shaft and cluster gear overheated and scuffed the gears. Notice the discoloration and hash marks on the contact pattern.
View attachment 88309
From what I have learned this can only happen from a lack of lubrication or a break down of the fluid itself. I never received a transmission overheat message in the DIC. My only theory is that during the banked turns 1 & 2 of the NASCAR oval in 5th gear @ 130+ Mph, there is enough G-force to pull the fluid away from the junction of the input and cluster gears, causing the damage.
Cost to repair,
New Input shaft $340.00 (only made by GM)
New Cluster gear (actually 4 gears machined onto 1 shaft) $550.00 (only made by GM)
R&R transmission $500.00
A week and a half of my time.... priceless
I would have tried to warranty the car but I wasn't willing to take the chance and have them blame it on the supercharger pulley and triple the cost of the repair.
Unlike the previous 6 speeds, the tr6060 in the CTS-V is a very strong trans, and there are no upgrade parts other than bronze shift fork pads (Tick performance). The factory transmission cooler (located inside the radiator) is woefully inadequate for racing IMHO, so I have added a Setrab cooler to the front of the car and replaced the factory lines with -6 braided line. This adds about a quart of fluid capacity too.
It's also a good idea to fill the trans with the car running, that way the pump is filling the lines and trans cooler and you can get an accurate fill.
I will have the car put back together and @ Chuckwalla raceway on the 24th and I will report back after that.