105,000 on my F-150 2 wheel drive. Serviced it last fall and it shifts great.
Automatic Transmission Mileage Life
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Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
Our experience runs counter to many in this thread, but we are all about fleet trucks. Our GM products have steadily improved over the years in transmission life expectancy.
Even our very heavy one ton units last the life of the engine these days with irregular servicing.
I would expect the ZF 8 speed to hold up well as RR, BMW, Bentley, and many others use it in all kinds of vehicles.
my concern is that the ZF trannies in general don't last that long in many applications. If you look around at Bimmerfest or other boards where the cars use primarily ZF trannies, there is all kinds of talk of mechatronic failures and sleeve failures. People consider themselves lucky to make 120K miles without a servotronic or mechatronic failure. Granted this is with previous versions, but they seem to be ok with that. You put that same transmission in a Chrysler and there is going to be [censored] to pay if they only last 100K miles.
That being said, the 8 speed transmission seems to be great, we have a fleet of them in different cars in my family, and I love them. I just don't expect them to last 200K
Our experience runs counter to many in this thread, but we are all about fleet trucks. Our GM products have steadily improved over the years in transmission life expectancy.
Even our very heavy one ton units last the life of the engine these days with irregular servicing.
I would expect the ZF 8 speed to hold up well as RR, BMW, Bentley, and many others use it in all kinds of vehicles.
my concern is that the ZF trannies in general don't last that long in many applications. If you look around at Bimmerfest or other boards where the cars use primarily ZF trannies, there is all kinds of talk of mechatronic failures and sleeve failures. People consider themselves lucky to make 120K miles without a servotronic or mechatronic failure. Granted this is with previous versions, but they seem to be ok with that. You put that same transmission in a Chrysler and there is going to be [censored] to pay if they only last 100K miles.
That being said, the 8 speed transmission seems to be great, we have a fleet of them in different cars in my family, and I love them. I just don't expect them to last 200K
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Originally Posted By: Char Baby
I may not have a tranny failure and you may not have a tranny failure but, there certainly are many more automatic trannys failing these days and it's happening too often IMHO! Even on trannys that have ATF changes waaaaaay more than needed and the draining ATF is still cheery red while doing so.
I thought I was the only one that felt that this was the general pattern since the late 90s.
I wonder, could it be that these failures at about 125k are "intentional"? (designed lifespan)??? I think so.
I HATE automatic transmissions.
My preference is for manual transmissions. I have NEVER ever had one fail in any vehicle I owned. Even the clutches have survived 250k miles without replacement. Nice thing about manual units is that IF you do have to replace or rebuilt stuff it is MUCH cheaper than an automatic overall.
I may not have a tranny failure and you may not have a tranny failure but, there certainly are many more automatic trannys failing these days and it's happening too often IMHO! Even on trannys that have ATF changes waaaaaay more than needed and the draining ATF is still cheery red while doing so.
I thought I was the only one that felt that this was the general pattern since the late 90s.
I wonder, could it be that these failures at about 125k are "intentional"? (designed lifespan)??? I think so.
I HATE automatic transmissions.
My preference is for manual transmissions. I have NEVER ever had one fail in any vehicle I owned. Even the clutches have survived 250k miles without replacement. Nice thing about manual units is that IF you do have to replace or rebuilt stuff it is MUCH cheaper than an automatic overall.
Originally Posted By: CBR.worm
Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
Our experience runs counter to many in this thread, but we are all about fleet trucks. Our GM products have steadily improved over the years in transmission life expectancy.
Even our very heavy one ton units last the life of the engine these days with irregular servicing.
I would expect the ZF 8 speed to hold up well as RR, BMW, Bentley, and many others use it in all kinds of vehicles.
my concern is that the ZF trannies in general don't last that long in many applications. If you look around at Bimmerfest or other boards where the cars use primarily ZF trannies, there is all kinds of talk of mechatronic failures and sleeve failures. People consider themselves lucky to make 120K miles without a servotronic or mechatronic failure. Granted this is with previous versions, but they seem to be ok with that. You put that same transmission in a Chrysler and there is going to be [censored] to pay if they only last 100K miles.
That being said, the 8 speed transmission seems to be great, we have a fleet of them in different cars in my family, and I love them. I just don't expect them to last 200K
Agreed up to a point. ZF's newest design is extremely beefy, and is being used in 600 hp very heavy Bentleys with AWD. Its torque capacity is MUCH greater than the previous generation, and it has shown no propensity for failure across a host of varying platforms.
I agree there is not much info to go on, but a good sign is my extremely busy rebuilder has not even seen one yet!
Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
Our experience runs counter to many in this thread, but we are all about fleet trucks. Our GM products have steadily improved over the years in transmission life expectancy.
Even our very heavy one ton units last the life of the engine these days with irregular servicing.
I would expect the ZF 8 speed to hold up well as RR, BMW, Bentley, and many others use it in all kinds of vehicles.
my concern is that the ZF trannies in general don't last that long in many applications. If you look around at Bimmerfest or other boards where the cars use primarily ZF trannies, there is all kinds of talk of mechatronic failures and sleeve failures. People consider themselves lucky to make 120K miles without a servotronic or mechatronic failure. Granted this is with previous versions, but they seem to be ok with that. You put that same transmission in a Chrysler and there is going to be [censored] to pay if they only last 100K miles.
That being said, the 8 speed transmission seems to be great, we have a fleet of them in different cars in my family, and I love them. I just don't expect them to last 200K
Agreed up to a point. ZF's newest design is extremely beefy, and is being used in 600 hp very heavy Bentleys with AWD. Its torque capacity is MUCH greater than the previous generation, and it has shown no propensity for failure across a host of varying platforms.
I agree there is not much info to go on, but a good sign is my extremely busy rebuilder has not even seen one yet!
Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
Our experience runs counter to many in this thread, but we are all about fleet trucks. Our GM products have steadily improved over the years in transmission life expectancy.
Even our very heavy one ton units last the life of the engine these days with irregular servicing.
I would expect the ZF 8 speed to hold up well as RR, BMW, Bentley, and many others use it in all kinds of vehicles.
On the fleet trucks, how many were base engines? Also, were they saddled with high rear end ratios, or might they have been geared deeply? I'd think a low torque motor with deeper gears would last longer--and wouldn't represent how most of these vehicles were sold. Is an interesting datapoint, though.
Our experience runs counter to many in this thread, but we are all about fleet trucks. Our GM products have steadily improved over the years in transmission life expectancy.
Even our very heavy one ton units last the life of the engine these days with irregular servicing.
I would expect the ZF 8 speed to hold up well as RR, BMW, Bentley, and many others use it in all kinds of vehicles.
On the fleet trucks, how many were base engines? Also, were they saddled with high rear end ratios, or might they have been geared deeply? I'd think a low torque motor with deeper gears would last longer--and wouldn't represent how most of these vehicles were sold. Is an interesting datapoint, though.
Originally Posted By: CBR.worm
Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
Our experience runs counter to many in this thread, but we are all about fleet trucks. Our GM products have steadily improved over the years in transmission life expectancy.
Even our very heavy one ton units last the life of the engine these days with irregular servicing.
I would expect the ZF 8 speed to hold up well as RR, BMW, Bentley, and many others use it in all kinds of vehicles.
my concern is that the ZF trannies in general don't last that long in many applications. If you look around at Bimmerfest or other boards where the cars use primarily ZF trannies, there is all kinds of talk of mechatronic failures and sleeve failures. People consider themselves lucky to make 120K miles without a servotronic or mechatronic failure. Granted this is with previous versions, but they seem to be ok with that. You put that same transmission in a Chrysler and there is going to be [censored] to pay if they only last 100K miles.
That being said, the 8 speed transmission seems to be great, we have a fleet of them in different cars in my family, and I love them. I just don't expect them to last 200K
From what I read about BMW trany failures, no one finds the trany failures of any age vehicle acceptable. Just sayin...
Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
Our experience runs counter to many in this thread, but we are all about fleet trucks. Our GM products have steadily improved over the years in transmission life expectancy.
Even our very heavy one ton units last the life of the engine these days with irregular servicing.
I would expect the ZF 8 speed to hold up well as RR, BMW, Bentley, and many others use it in all kinds of vehicles.
my concern is that the ZF trannies in general don't last that long in many applications. If you look around at Bimmerfest or other boards where the cars use primarily ZF trannies, there is all kinds of talk of mechatronic failures and sleeve failures. People consider themselves lucky to make 120K miles without a servotronic or mechatronic failure. Granted this is with previous versions, but they seem to be ok with that. You put that same transmission in a Chrysler and there is going to be [censored] to pay if they only last 100K miles.
That being said, the 8 speed transmission seems to be great, we have a fleet of them in different cars in my family, and I love them. I just don't expect them to last 200K
From what I read about BMW trany failures, no one finds the trany failures of any age vehicle acceptable. Just sayin...
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Originally Posted By: supton
Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
Our experience runs counter to many in this thread, but we are all about fleet trucks. Our GM products have steadily improved over the years in transmission life expectancy.
Even our very heavy one ton units last the life of the engine these days with irregular servicing.
I would expect the ZF 8 speed to hold up well as RR, BMW, Bentley, and many others use it in all kinds of vehicles.
On the fleet trucks, how many were base engines? Also, were they saddled with high rear end ratios, or might they have been geared deeply? I'd think a low torque motor with deeper gears would last longer--and wouldn't represent how most of these vehicles were sold. Is an interesting datapoint, though.
Most of our fleet is 3500 Savanas with 3.73 gears. Each weighs just shy of 10k pounds every single day of their lives. My Silverados are all 3.23 with one 3.73, they are operated unloaded most of the time, they weigh just under 5k pounds.
We usually do a pan drop and filter change every other servicing, and then a driveway fluid exchange is the rule after that.
Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
Our experience runs counter to many in this thread, but we are all about fleet trucks. Our GM products have steadily improved over the years in transmission life expectancy.
Even our very heavy one ton units last the life of the engine these days with irregular servicing.
I would expect the ZF 8 speed to hold up well as RR, BMW, Bentley, and many others use it in all kinds of vehicles.
On the fleet trucks, how many were base engines? Also, were they saddled with high rear end ratios, or might they have been geared deeply? I'd think a low torque motor with deeper gears would last longer--and wouldn't represent how most of these vehicles were sold. Is an interesting datapoint, though.
Most of our fleet is 3500 Savanas with 3.73 gears. Each weighs just shy of 10k pounds every single day of their lives. My Silverados are all 3.23 with one 3.73, they are operated unloaded most of the time, they weigh just under 5k pounds.
We usually do a pan drop and filter change every other servicing, and then a driveway fluid exchange is the rule after that.
I had a 1996 Nissan Altima with 218K on it, when I sold it. Electrical gremlins left me stranded several times in the last year.
Never touched the transmission, and no shifting issues.
Never touched the transmission, and no shifting issues.
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