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CVT shifting issues and new TSB PI1309


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58 days later I got my spark back!   It seems to be doing a TON better.  No more jerking when I come to a stop, no more of the transmission not knowing when to shift, accelerates smoother.

I have previously posted about a concern I had about the CVT sometimes not resetting to the lowest ratio at a stopped condition, this made it very sluggish pulling out. I contacted Chevrolet Customer

I have taken a few road trips and been driving around town quite a bit since the software update and it works great. Its been in the upper 80's and Lower 90's the last few days and using the AC it sti

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Some time ago my dealer mailed me & my dad a recall form, for the CTV basically saying it needs to be reprogramed to reduce issues with harsh "shifting" conditions. My dad had it done on his spark, and claims it made his car take a LOT longer to accelerate. Going on a 45mph road, it takes a good distance to go from 0-35 without basically flooring it. I did not do it to my car ( yet ) and i can get to 45mph pretty quickly. I never noticed acceleration issues unless i step on the gas, flooring it almost, to dart out in traffic. On rare occasions it'll act like its stuck in a low-speed and 3-5 seconds later go "OH! YOU MENT GO! OKAY!!!!" and RPMs fly up and car goes. The 'reprogramming' I was told would prevent it from doing that kind of harsh transition ( slow to OMG-GO ) which ultimately made my dad's pretty sluggish acceleration. As long as I dont floor it, my car always accelerates pretty fast.. I'm pretty easy on the acceleration, rarely make my RPMs go up much, and it seems every red-to-green light I'm at, everyone else is always way behind..making me feel like "Oh, I must be really gunning it or something???" when im not at all. Hardly pushing much RPMs.. must just be people here dont touch the gas much. I feel my car is really peppy though, the CVT transitions nicely, rarely ever get any bogging-down like I did when it was new new.

So. I have that "recall" on hold. I also have the newest BYOM one on hold, the one that regaurds locking keys in the car, and the dinger not going off after 10 minutes. Seeing I modified the looks and all of my BYOM folder, I dont intend to have them change anything. I skipped the hood-latch replacement too, as mine still looks great ( I open the hood often due to RC-flying ).. my friend did the hood-latch recall, and he has to oil his a lot now because he doesnt pop the trunk often and the few times he does, it will NOT close, the latch gets locked open.

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that being said my car is not "stock" .. things I've learned over time with the baby for best acceleration

run 87 (lowest octane) higher octane gives you slower off the line accl. but better on the freeway at speed.. i need to get on the freeway faster than already being on it

pull the resonator intake pipe.. ya it'll be annoyingly louder but its worth it and to me makes its funner, but any more added intake/air than this and it has adverse affects and is slower off the line .. its a small engine and to make the ratio even more air = more fuel and the little cylinders cant burn it all fast enough at low rpms and you get lag (im also running a k&n filter, not intake just stock replacement filter, helps a little off the line barely noticeable, the resonator pipe very noticeable)

performance exhaust or any free flowing exhaust will hurt, this little guy needs the back pressure from a restricted system. I put a flow master muffler, slower. removed the the resonator, way slower. screwed a reducing pipe (2"-1.75") into the tail pipe and got that acceleration back restricting the system. i did a 2"-1.5" and it made response off the line amazing but higher speeds hurt.

the car/tranny learns.. if you're always flooring it racing around it gets used to and drive accordingly, trying to get better mpg and baby it it will drive weird for awhile and be ready to zoom. and vise versa, babying it for high mpg, when you try to floor it it'll freak out and you'll get major lag like wtf i thought we were going slow..

running the a/c will hurt.. a lot.. I never do.. I like the fresh air. :)

good luck guys.

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KillaX

I had major issues with high reving and very slow acceleration after the recall was done. The problem got bad enough that they eventually replaced the transmission. Now its running better than it did before the recall.

I baby the hell out of my car too and never floor it. But it acted like i was flooring it just trying to climb to 35.

Skids: surprisingly, I'm only dropping from 39.9 mpg to 39.7 with the a/c running. Which is a MUST here at 110.

Last year i had to turn off the a/c to start from a stop.

Not quiet sure whats going on with my car... it had such bad problems, and others are starting to see problems i was having before. (One person has a sonic and is having the a/c bogging down problem)

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thats not bad for running the a/c you must really baby that guy. any car I've ever had running the a/c full blast takes noticeable power from the engine and i've had one of every kind pretty much. I think once youre moving it's fine but that intial off the line acceleration hurts a lot when the a/c is pumping

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I agree about the A/C running and slow acceleration off the line. The other day I almost got hit because it just wouldn't go when I needed it to. It only recently got hot enough to warrant the A/C being on around here so I am only having my first experience with it this way. So far I haven't noticed any other issues with the car except the occasional hopping/bouncing effect at some lower speeds. I rolled my 2015 2lt off the lot in February of 2016 so I imagine this recall was already done. Is there a way I can see what has been done to my car without actually calling the dealer?

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Skidz

Oh it used to horribly. I also dont run it at full blast, at one or two normally. I do notice a difference in pick up, but im not having to turn off the a/c completely to even get going.

But i guess i do baby the hell outta it. I dislike going over 2k rpms.

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I agree about the A/C running and slow acceleration off the line. The other day I almost got hit because it just wouldn't go when I needed it to. It only recently got hot enough to warrant the A/C being on around here so I am only having my first experience with it this way. So far I haven't noticed any other issues with the car except the occasional hopping/bouncing effect at some lower speeds. I rolled my 2015 2lt off the lot in February of 2016 so I imagine this recall was already done. Is there a way I can see what has been done to my car without actually calling the dealer?

Hi evertroy,

We are sorry to hear about your concerns with your Spark. The dealership will have the most accurate information pertaining to this. However, we would be happy to check for any open announcements associated with your vehicle. Feel free to send us a private message with your VIN.

Best,

Cristina

Chevrolet Customer Care

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lol vegas.. i'm red lining this puppy all day long!! sho is fun! lol

evertoy on mine they put a sticker on the front buper/grill right above the radiator under the hood, that says it was done and says do not remove.. first time ive ever seen this but maybe its a new s.o.p for gm to do.. take a look see if you have a sticker..

anyone have a sticker after the recall????

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I agree about the A/C running and slow acceleration off the line. The other day I almost got hit because it just wouldn't go when I needed it to. It only recently got hot enough to warrant the A/C being on around here so I am only having my first experience with it this way. So far I haven't noticed any other issues with the car except the occasional hopping/bouncing effect at some lower speeds. I rolled my 2015 2lt off the lot in February of 2016 so I imagine this recall was already done. Is there a way I can see what has been done to my car without actually calling the dealer?

Just plug your VIN number in on this site.

https://my.gm.com/recalls

If nothing comes up the recalls have already been done.

Edited by heymak
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got to drive an impreza with a cvt for a few days.. huuuuge difference to our cvt (im not saying power and all that good stuff wise obviously it hauls ass compared to our mini motors) it was smooth as silk and thoroughly boring i tried on multiple occasions to get some sort of beefy mode out of it, or over drive if you will, and nada.. ya no lurching, jumping, stalling, in fact a bit too much power from a stop (or maybe just used to flooring it in the spark) but naw no thanks.. i can actually make my cvt "shift" and feel it.. this was just a constant ------------------ eh no fun.. plus a boring ugly crappy sound system car too and the passenger seat is really uncomfortable on your knees .. anyway kinda related, kinda not.. just wanted to share if thats what a cvt is supposed to do im glad ours are so messed up! :)

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I forgot to check under my hood, but I did make a small observation.

I'm not sure if it's just my car or what, but it seams like when I turn off the traction control and stabilitrack I have more power when I have the AC on. I am able to accelerate much better than when it is turned on with AC running. I figure as long as its not raining or snowing it should be ok off. I wouldn't necessarily have the AC on in rain or snow either, so no need to turn TC off.

Turning TC and stabilitrack off and also having the AC off seams to have a sort of smoothness to the CVT as well.

Can anyone else replicate this? Is it just my imagination? Is it just my car?

Edited by evertroy
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  • 2 weeks later...

KillaX

I had major issues with high reving and very slow acceleration after the recall was done. The problem got bad enough that they eventually replaced the transmission. Now its running better than it did before the recall.

I baby the hell out of my car too and never floor it. But it acted like i was flooring it just trying to climb to 35.

Skids: surprisingly, I'm only dropping from 39.9 mpg to 39.7 with the a/c running. Which is a MUST here at 110.

Last year i had to turn off the a/c to start from a stop.

Not quiet sure whats going on with my car... it had such bad problems, and others are starting to see problems i was having before. (One person has a sonic and is having the a/c bogging down problem)

Interesting. I'm getting my tranny replaced because of slow accelration too. Edited by GuyFromMars
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On Friday, July 08, 2016 at 1:08 PM, GuyFromMars said:

Interesting. I'm getting my tranny replaced because of slow accelration too.

 

I'm starting to worry. I only have 5k miles before the warrenty runs out. 

Im hoping it doesnt happen again.

 

Someone mentioned in a different thread that transmissions are currently on back order. So, lots of replacements happing it sounds like.

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I have been waiting for about 3 weeks now for a new transmission.  They didn't say they were manufacturing one, they just said they checked all across the country and they're on back order.

 

Getting out of hand Chevy.  Just giving me a rental car doesn't cut it this time....

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On July 8, 2016 at 3:08 PM, GuyFromMars said:

Interesting. I'm getting my tranny replaced because of slow accelration too.

 

On July 24, 2016 at 7:34 PM, VegasSpark said:

Is anyone having issues of "bouncing" with accerations from a stop?

Almost as if you are tapping the petal.

 

Note, i have had my transmission replaced after the recall aready.

 

On July 19, 2016 at 0:15 PM, GuyFromMars said:

I checked in again today and aparently there are no more transmissions, and I am waiting for a new one to be manufactured. 

Mine has the slow acceleration when the AC is on and when it's above 80. It's been in the shop 5 times since the tcm recall and each time they just keep reprogramming it not replacing and now I know why. I've gone to 2 different dealers and each say yea something is wrong but.... We don't know what it is. I have to take it to last dealership tomorrow as I have run out of dealerships in town. The mechanic test drove with me and asked how come they didn't replace transmission, I didn't have rough shifting, mine went completely out as in started car, no gears showed on screen and car wouldn't move.  Since tcm recall, the car will have been in 6 times in 5 months cause it's still not shifting right and now no AC.  Called Chevy so many times to just get the run around and now I know why, if they are no more transmissions. I've had more loaner cars than I have been driving my spark in the last month, tomorrow will be the 3rd time in a month at the shop. 

Edited by Flygrl
Left some out
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On 6/23/2016 at 6:18 PM, evertroy said:

I forgot to check under my hood, but I did make a small observation.

I'm not sure if it's just my car or what, but it seams like when I turn off the traction control and stabilitrack I have more power when I have the AC on. I am able to accelerate much better than when it is turned on with AC running. I figure as long as its not raining or snowing it should be ok off. I wouldn't necessarily have the AC on in rain or snow either, so no need to turn TC off.

Turning TC and stabilitrack off and also having the AC off seams to have a sort of smoothness to the CVT as well.

Can anyone else replicate this? Is it just my imagination? Is it just my car?

yes. most gm cars (the ones Ive driven anyway) drive smoother and seem have "more power" with traction control off .. weird stuff but it is noticeable  and seems like theyre in a lower gear with it on.. 

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2 hours ago, TheThickness said:

I was having the bounce issues.  Yes.  It seems as if the transmission is trying to hold the gear it is in and then fails.

 

It only did it one day, but I'm starting to have to turn off my a/c to go from a stop with passengers in the car. I might have to go visit the dealer again.

Might try to go through the customer service reps on here, as the last time i went through the reps (over the phone), thats when i finally got a resolution.

Edited by VegasSpark
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I stopped by my dealer today, to ask about the bouncing. (I have video proof, and it did it again going in to the dealer)

The suggestion i was given was to try 91 gas from a top teir station. (Chevron, arco, shell, ect) and to avoid cheaper gas (smiths, sams club, costco).

He said the bouncing could be from air in the line from gas boiling. (Its been consitantly 110+ recently) if that doesnt help, to bring it back in. He was also surprised it was only bouncing and not stalling, which is why he recommended the gas change. (During these hot months)

 

On a funnier note, i asked if he missed seeing me once a week, he said yes and no. Then mentioned that he's had several more sparks come in for the transmission. And that i was the first or second one. So, ive been joking "look what i started!" But maybe im not that far off!

(He also confirmed back order on transmissions)

 

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