Tech2 - Automatic Gearbox Software Upgrade

**alhambra** · 10th May 2011, 19:31

On about four occasions over the past month the change up from first to second gear as been "lumpy", with the engine revs rising and a jerk as the gear engaged, so to be on the safe side I had the software upgraded today as a member suggested, I now have the latest.

What concerned me was that when I picked the car up the fuel gauge was only reading half although the remaining distance was still showing over 450 as I had filled the tank on Saturday - Technician baffled.

Problem solved by him disconnecting the battery, gauge now reads just under full, where it was, but the remaining distance dropped to 370 miles, but has risen to 384 by I got home.

How does the remaining distance thingy work, obviously it knows what's in the tank, but how work out the MPG?

**g_draper** · 10th May 2011, 20:43

Where did you get your software upgraded and how much was it?

**alhambra** · 10th May 2011, 22:37

Originally Posted by g_draper

Where did you get your software upgraded and how much was it?

I had it done at my local VX dealer and it cost £75.00 including the VAT.

The techy fella who did the Tech2 said that the gearbox software was out of date and that the upgrade was required to bring it in line with that of the engine.

I wish that I knew more about the modern car electronics, my abilities with them are dated - I think that I could still synchronise twin carburettors with a piece of tubing, that puts me into context.

**g_draper** · 10th May 2011, 23:03

Hmmm think I will making some phone calls to some dealers in the morning! Cheers

**g_draper** · 24th May 2011, 15:19

Sorry to ask again but what did you actually upgrade? Was it the ECU or the gearbox software itself? Is there a name for the update so a dealer will know what I am on about?

Been to vaux to ask and they said it's £70 to plug car into tech2 even if the current software turns out to be the latest.

Cheers

**LADmachining** · 24th May 2011, 21:54

Originally Posted by g_draper

Sorry to ask again but what did you actually upgrade? Was it the ECU or the gearbox software itself? Is there a name for the update so a dealer will know what I am on about?

Been to vaux to ask and they said it's £70 to plug car into tech2 even if the current software turns out to be the latest.

Cheers

The OP had new software loaded into the gearbox ECU.

The official Vx name is an SPS (service programming system) update of the gearbox ECU.

£70 is a bit steep to just check to see if the software needs updating. It only takes about 15 minutes to get the car into the workshop, plug in TECH2, read out some info from the ECU, then connect TECH2 to the workshop computer to download any new updates from the server.

The actual programming process can take a while though - some ECU software files are quite big, and updating the memory of the ECU is done slowly to avoid errors.

**alhambra** · 25th May 2011, 23:14

I understand that the latest software upgrade related to the gearbox ECU was available from mid 2009 and this is the upgrade that was installed.

The Tech2 £70.00 also includes time of up to an hour, again that is what I was told at the VX dealer when I muttered about the price.

The problem nowadays is that you can't physically see what they do, you have to take their word - we're talking about the motor trade here, I'll say no more on that.

The early AF40 gearboxes had a weakness surrounding the valve bodies, this was corrected in 2007 when better quality valve bodies were fitted. The earlier ones evidently wore quickly resulting in lumpy changes and rev rises during changes, usually at the low end.

I don't know how many valves are in the gearbox, one only, or one for each gear - that's my next question when I talk to the VX techie next.

The new software has made a slight difference to the performance, but it is still a little lumpy, but not all of the time.

I talked to a technician at an auto gearbox specialist about having the box refurbished and he commented on the valve bodies, but also said that the problem could be water contamination of the oil from the cooing system.

He quoted £2080.00 as the cost of overhaul in a worst case scenario.

My thoughts are to run it until the fault can be clearly identified and then have it done under a warranty that came with the car. The problem with most warranties is that they will exclude anything that can be remotely construed as wear - for them things have to "break". They're not keen on paying out.