Signs Your Zf Is About To Die.

[Rudiger]

Hello everyone. Hope you are all well.

I have a BF with a ZF. Puting out 370 at the wheels. Its not a severe tune. Power comes on gradually but still strong.

Havent really had a problem. Tranny fluid changed about 10k ago.

The ZF went into limp mode a few months ago after a boot but no drams after that.

Yesterday I booted it to get into a gap on the Monash. the tranny did some strange sh*t. Seemed to jump out of gear then died then went ok.

Now its possible I had my hand on the shifter and accidently touched neutral and then hit the rev limiter. It happened so quick.

But I'm just interested to hear what symptoms others have had and then found their ZF had done a bunk and killed itself.

Thanks guys.

[Turbo6FG]

Rebuild.

Nizpro have their new billet input shafts now which are a bit stronget than the zf ones.

[Paulie2256]

Hey mate,

Please define "severe". Everyone has different opinions on tunes and how power is applied so while one person may say the tune is safe another might not. "Safe tune" is also something used too loosely so going on about the tune is wasting your time.

I would look at the box itself. IMO 370 through a stock zf is pushing it. I imagine you have close to 1000nm too. Nearly double the stress that the box is built to take.

I would look at a rebuild.

m2c

[boost69]

Was your foot constantly on the accelarator or did you give it a bootfull and just before it was about to kick back you backed off the accelerator? Or something in that sequence as I have experienced the ZF being confused about what to do and it feels like it goes into neutral until it figures out what you want to do...not sure if that helps you

[RAP1D]

Give it a good flush and see how it goes... if theres glazing then it'll be time for a build up.

Mines holding 1310nm, 458kw but started to slip in 3rd when I pushed more boost/power (26psi up from 21psi)

Power delivery on changes seems to cause them to slip, being that mine has a much larger turbo it doesnt have such a huge power level under 3000, so is alot nicer on the auto.

Tuning has alot to do with them too.

[Turbo6FG]

I'm considering getting mine rebuilt. I'd rather have it fixed before it sh*ts itself rather than after. They are only rated to about 600Nm or something aren't they? That means that it's probably OK with 700 or even 750 but anything over that is a lot more strain than it's made for.

There's a lot of good info in F6 Tornado's posts (the forums resident zf expert it seems ) about their limitations & how to beef them up.

[Kingo199]

I was talking with ford yesterday cause I was getting a new diff in my XR6T

Asked how good the ZF was and how much can it take when I start to modify my car.

'His reply was fantastic. But its at its limit on about 800-850NM torque.

It will survive over that but for how long is anyones guess'.

Dave

[discostig]

Also remember that the xxxNm rating of the box is flywheel, not rear wheel. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but my 650Nm tune would be a fair bit more at the engine.

I've had two occasions where it refused to change gears in manual mode after me giving it a bit of stick (stayed in 4th and 3rd for a few seconds as I tried to shift it), I think I better get it looked at. It's done 105,000kms, the last 5k or so modded.

[Rudiger]

Thanks guys.

As far as "severe" is concerned the dyno sheet shows a steady curve whereas I have seen some sort of go straight up before the car gets to 140 if you get me.

I have experienced slip in a manual where the cltuch is slipping but I am not sure if this is slipping or not. Torque is around 810nm

As far as acceleration, I cant floor it...I loose traction so I am always gradual on the accelerator. This time I didn't back off except when it di its "thing". I took it out before and didnt give it a big serve but it seemed fine. But will have a play tonight me thinks.

[Trough Lolly]

give it a oil change and see how it goes, it only done it once so dont get to alarmed yet.