My 6MT vs Auto driving impression. Opinions please

UNKNOWN_370

Glad you're loving the auto.

Shamrock

The question is if the AT transmission is bulletproof like the manual? I have the AT and I love to drive it as a manual but I am afraid of ruining it. I am afraid it wasn't made to constantly shift up and down at different revs than it would have chosen if in full auto mode.


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FPenvy

i drive my 7AT in manual mode almost 100% of the time. only time i do not is a few mornings a week driving to work when i'm not fully awake so i leave it in auto-pilot lol

but as for "bulletproof" i am unsure. i do know that the AT can only handle a certain amount of torque until you have to beef it up. as for the constant shifting up and down in manual mode i dont know yet. i hope it can handle it because as i said before i drive mine in manual mode about 95% of the time.

if anyone else has info on this i'd like to know as well.

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fuzzywuzzy

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wstar

I've been driving mine in manual mode since I bought it. Just about to flip the 30K miles mark, and no issues so far. Maybe 20 miles of that tops have been in D-mode, rest all manual shifting. It gets a track weekend about every 6-8 weeks lately, too.

I did do a full fluid swap at about 20K, which is also about the point I installed an aftermarket transmission cooler (small Setrab core), because the 7AT does get a little bit "mushy" and slow if you let the fluid overheat from an extended session of aggressive/track driving. The tiny Setrab core that Stillen uses in their kit was enough to fix that up (I didn't use their hoses and fittings though).

While that's all positive, I don't have any illusions about its longevity. Ultimately, it's still an automatic transmission, and internal clutches will wear out, etc. I imagine at some point, long before the 6MT would eventually die somehow, the 7AT will need a rebuild. I don't think anyone's put enough hard miles on it to find out when that is. My rough guess for planning purposes right now is that I'll make it to at least 60K even with all the track days before it starts becoming an issue. Maybe longer if I'm lucky. I'm sure they rate it for ~100K, but probably not with me driving .

As for torque, the unit is rated for a considerable margin over the stock engine's torque output. It's rated for 295 ft-lbs, which is more than enough to account for bolt-on mods. Once you start getting into FI territory though, you're exceeding the design's torque limits, and you'll probably burn it up faster. GTM makes some internals upgrades to help with that.

The mfg (Jatco) also makes an alternate version of the same transmission which is used in the 7AT SUVs from Infiniti/Nissan, and is rated for 442 ft/lbs. I still think swapping one of those in might be the best option for FI, but I don't think anyone's seriously tried that method.

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