New king of FWD?

[CrUziN4L]

dun dun dun dunnnnnnnnn^

[Ted7rns]

Originally Posted by brads03zx3

I believe Rob Holland grenaded not one, but several SRT4 transmissions in the same season. I credit it to WOT shifting. Because they have to run a restrictor, the lag is worse than factory.

I can't see them here at work, but there are a few videos in this thread
http://forums.focaljet.com/road-rall...+holland+video

It’s the pinion gear that is the problem on the SRT4. Greg Greenbaum has broken his transmission several times and I know that Mike Tolle has also broken his at least once because of the pinion.

[blackbird]

Originally Posted by blueovaldave

This is going to be a big problem with the Cobalt also.

The trannys are supposedly at the limits with the 260 hp 260 tq right now.

That is why there are no stage kits avaliable at this time like there was with the Supercharged SS.

The F35 is a Saab transaxle that's also used on the 9-5. The 9-5 has a 260 hp, 258 ft-lbs of torque (with a 20 ft-lbs overboost feature) 2.3L Ecopower four (which is inpSaab's old B235R engine not relate to the Ecotec). Vehicle weight plays just as big of a factor in transaxle longevity as engine input torque and the 9-5 wagon weighs in at just over 3600 pounds. That's about 700 more than the Cobalt. In many countries in Europe you can also buy aftermarket Hirsch Performance upgrades and retain full factory warranty. Those upgrades can take the 9-5 up to 300 hp with a similar torque number.

The F35 has been refined and upgraded over the years since it was introduce in the old Saab 9000's in the early 80's. The myth that it's currently weak is just that and it has proven to hold up in larger, more powerful vehicles. As with any transaxle if you abuse it then you can expect it to fail sooner rather than later.



As to the SRT-4's T850 there are a few common problem areas. The clutch release mechanism has a few spots that wear down so the clutch eventually doesn't fully release which tears up the synchronizers. If you slam the gears hard (which can be compounded by a lot of people replacing stock shifter bushings with solid Delrin bushings) the shift selector has a piece that can break, the brass shift forks can bend if you miss and jam a gear, and the retraining snap rings for the synchro/speed gear assemblies can be damaged by those hard shifts which can lead to failure and/or bearing damage for said pieces. The input shaft has been known to shear but that's usually on very high output torque monsters running giant sticky slicks. I'm suspicious that there might be some front input shaft bearing damage/play that might be compounding that problem but need to dig into a few more to verify.

That might sound like a lot but in reality the majority of people even with reasonably heavy modifications won't see most of those issues. But if you really hammer the car hard and are trying to put down double the rated input torque on sticky tires or slicks that don't slip as much you should be prepared to deal with weak spots (and remember those "weak" spots only become issues way above what many other FWD transaxle would even handle for a few passes). Just like the Cobalt's transaxle. Luckily for the SRT-4 there are now a lot of aftermarket upgrade pieces like input shafts, forks, etc. to address design "limitations" and I'd bet if the new turbo Cobalt takes off and experiences similar problems there will eventually be the same for it.

[Ted7rns]

Input shaft.. That's it. That's what Greg keeps braking and what Mike broke.