After reading all I could find on rebuilding the tiptronic I will be pulling the trigger and dropping my 996TT off in Dallas, Texas this week for the rebuild. The shop is "FixEuro" (formally "Freddie's Transmissions") and was referenced in other tiptronic rebuild threads. I spoke several times with the shop and they seem to have a lot of experience and knowledge of our Mercedes based transmissions. Many thanks to those memebers who did a lot of the research/background work on the diffenent options to a tip rebuild.

I'll be upgrading my K24s to 18gs soon and, given that my car has 76K miles on it, I figured it would be a good idea to rebuild the tip before I increased the hp/tq levels (I already feel a little slippage during WOT and had to dial the EBC down a tad). Anyway, FixEuro will be documenting the rebuild on a blog so I can monitor the progress. I will share my experience on this thread for those of you with tiptronics considering a rebuild and interested in alternative shops. I hope this turns out well!

 

Are you doing a straight rebuild or upgrading the strength of the Tip? If you're upgrading, to how many hp? Thanks.

 

Thanks! I'm still shopping, but a Tiptronic is on the menu. This will be great for future reference.

 

We do rebuilds here as well. Pretty cheap and works amazing - http://www.vividracing.com/catalog/a...pgrade&x=0&y=0

 

That's good to know Dan.

 

Awesome man!! Good to hear as that's gonna be my choice too. What all ya getting!? I know they were offering a bunch of stuff like custom oil pan, oil cooler, clutch upgrade possibly with "Kevlar", valve body rebuild and would do solenoids, and replacing some sort of wiring harness adapter that tends to leak, and more. Most other builds are $3500-7500 or more and all ya get is clutches and maybe solenoids. Are you shipping the car or just tranny. I hope it goes well cuz I think I was the first to recommend them.

 

I'm having them strengthen the transmission with more clutches in the clutch packs. They are looking to see if there are stronger clutch materials available for the rebuild, i.e. kevlar, double-sided clutches, etc. I was thinking of having them install a torque converter with a slightly higher stall, maybe 400-500 rpm higher. Also, they are correcting some known defects with the transmission, like the leaking wiring harness.

I looked around and every other shop I looked at was going to charge about the same amount for the rebuild that FixEuro quoted me, but the labor was NOT included in the price. FixEuro's rebuild price quote included both the parts AND labor, including rebuilding the torque converter. They also have a 1 year, 12K mile warranty for the rebuild for no extra charge. Finally, they have a coupon for 10% off for first time customers. It also helped that they are located in Texas. I'm having the car dropped off on Thursday and they said it would take about 7 days to do the work. The icing on the cake is the web blog they will create documenting the rebuild.

 

i would be worried about a general tranny shop taking out my engine/tranny in my turbo and reinstalling it all correctly

 

Went through all that.. Read here - http://www.vividracing.com/blog/proj...ject-not-ours/. Stick to the upgrade that MB guys have been doing for years and you will be happy.

 

Turbotodd dropped his with jack stands! He may not get back in tho....lol. These guys are not general tranny shop, they been doing porsche (including late model) and other euro's for years with photo documentation. And the do general engine repairs, so not just tranny. Nobody else on the planet has offered or mentioned replacing common problem pieces like the wiring harness nor offering a custom oil pan which says more about the more popular builders less for more policy than anything!! The more popular guys prices are outrageous!!! IPT was like $6-7000 which had same crap as fix euro and more and doesnt include engine drop or fluids? Somebody just had a leak in their IPT tranny and had to pay again for engine drop/install although they covered the repair. MKB is similar price, plus engine labor, plus fluids, plus shipping. Being in dallas works great for texas folks and it can be road tested before pick up unlike MKB or other shipped out trannys. Just hypothetical but what makes vivid a Porsche transmission specialist?? They haven't been offering this service for very long to my knowledge. I'm not saying they don't do a good job. Vivids is fair but doesn't include TC nor labor for engine drop and install to my knowledge. So it ends up outrageous too! If freddies offer warranty and are insured how can you go wrong?! Iv got a 722.6 repair manual and its really not the most complicated thing in the world and is not much unlike manny MB, chrysler, dodge trannys. All they are doing is putting more clutches in guys!! It's like getting extra cheese on a pizza!! They quoted me about 3500-4500 for the full Monty with labor of engine and fluids! No shipping! I can drive there. We need an alternative to the $7-10000 tax, title, and license builds that the self proclaimed "specialist" have and I applaud our friend in the valley for biting the bullet!

 

Pumptech is dead-on. FixEuro is not a general tranny shop. They specialize in Mercedes transmissions, which is what our tiptronic basically is.

And let me be clear about something guys. I grew up in a family full of mechanics and I do A LOT of my own maintenance on all of my cars. I have a full-rise lift in my garage that gets plenty of use. That said, anyone who knows me (just ask my wife) knows how much my 996tt means to me. I love this car and would never allow a shop to touch it without doing a thorough background check. After looking for over a year for a shop to do my tiptronic rebuild and taking a lot of things into consideration (price, location, convenience, down-time, warranty, options, etc.) I settled on FixEuro because I felt they offered the most for my money and time. I am not, in any way, trying to imply anything negative about the other shops that offer a tiptronic rebuild. But, I just feel that someone needs to see if FixEuro offers a service that a lot of us need/want for a competitive price. That "someone" might as well be me. Who knows, if FixEuro does a good job with my tippy this might nudge other shops to be more competitive with their pricing for this service. Like I said, let's hope this goes well!

 

Keep this thread alive during the build please.

 

Does anyone have experience with a tiptronic with a modified torque converter with a 400-500rpm increased stall? Any drawbacks to such an increase in daily driving?

 

Sure, I had EVOMS increase my stall to 3500 on my tip. It was great for the drag strip, but seemed to hurt my highway pull numbers. It's give and take.

 

Both 997 Tips we built with 900HP we did our Agency Power Torque Converter Rebuild here with a 500rpm increase install. No issues driving and they were FREAKING monsters.

http://www.vividracing.com/blog/proj...fastiblackout/

http://www.vividracing.com/blog/proj...ject-not-ours/