I'm new to the Tahoe, but not new to the auto world. I have built a 64 Nova autocross car and love Harleys. I love working on things and I am a big DIYer. That being said, I need some guidance.
I recently acquired a 2009 Tahoe Z71. Unfortunately, it is now needing a new 6l80. It has 126k miles on it with a pretty good maintenance record. My trans guy told me to look for a programmer to turn off AFM and to change the programming of the trans. What do you recommend for these issues? Thank you for your help!
I firmly believe that the life of these transmissions is severely shortened by the excessively soft and sloppy factory tuning. When the company I work for bought an entire new fleet of 2012-2013 Express 2500s, more than half needed new transmissions at mileages ranging from around 75K to 150K. We never carried any weight that would require a 2500 and weren't allowed to tow trailers per our insurance policy. The vans didn't even have hitches. Almost every van that failed so soon was one that serviced major cities, so LOTS of stop and go, upshifting and downshifting all day. My unit's miles were mostly highway and when I was in the city, I manually shifted it. I went 230K on the fluid that it left the assembly line with.
126K miles is young. But if your Z71 did lots of towing or lots of city driving or anything that would require frequent shifting, that could explain the short life. To fix the sloppy, confused and soft factory TCM programming, you're gonna need a good tune. A handheld, one-size-fits-all "canned" tuner isn't gonna cut it. Black Bear is pretty much the guaranteed choice for what you need. They can clean up and fix the factory transmission, engine and throttle controls to make it much more responsive, reduce the slip between shifts (extends trans life) and just plain make it more fun to drive. Disabling AFM can be part of the tuning if you want that as well (and I'm one to highly recommend doing so).
