Has anyone gone with an aftermarket company for the 8HP70 transmission. Like a stage one or two. Speaking of course for those with a 3.0 TDI upgraded. Otherwise what kind of higher end power have these known to hold up to for how long? Mine currently has 143k miles no mods. Thanks!

 

Your question is unclear to me. Are you asking about aftermarket tuning of the TCU, swapping transmissions for more torque handling capability...what?

Do you even know what transmission you currently have in your Q7 and what it's rated for? The single most prevalent item called out on the Aisin OC8 tranny is that it requires fluid changes at regular intervals, and the trans cooler system needs to be kept clean, as it won't tolerate overheating (thus the factory towing kit has an H/D radiator fan included). Interestingly, on the TR-82SD, the fluid change intervals are significantly reduced, etc. Read all about it.


Aisin supplied the OC8 (8spd) tranny on the 4L Q7 from late 2010 to 2015, for example, but there are three variants of the OC8 tranny with different torque handling capabilities, so really just depends on what engine is in your Q7, or T-Reg, or Cayenne:

Aisin OC8, TR-80SD (550Nm)...Q7/w 3.0 petrol engine

Aisin OC8, TR-81SD (600Nm)...Q7/w 3.0 TDI engine

Aisin OC8, TR-82SD (850Nm)...used by Audi/VW/Porsche for their higher torque output motors such as the TDI V-8, V-10, V-12, and also gas V-8/turbo engines in Porsche Cayenne, etc.

 

So I'd like to point out my information was wrong. I had the transmission nomenclature wrong. I don't pick my Q7 up until 8Feb, so everything I've looked at and read was up to the validity of the Internet (wiki), my bad. Thank you for the clarification.

To rephrase, has anyone done upgrades on their transmission? I will be looking into upgrading the cooler for mine since I don't have the tow package from the factory along with installing the OEM hitch, harness, and module (hopefully my ECU coder will suffice). This suv will be a new world of tinkering for me.

 

Also where does the "asin 1000" come from in regards to Malone tunes? Again just trying to fill the cracks left from what I've found.

 

What you don't get on the TDI w/o the factory tow kit option when adding it later, whether via new 'accessory' kit or simply piecing it together via used parts is the higher output radiator fan (the large fan, but rated for more wattage/output), and there's also a dedicated fan shroud part # related to the tow kit as well. All this stuff is called out in dedicated threads on topic of adding towing to the Q7, btw.

There's a couple threads on here from owners of the Gen 2 TDI (2013-2015+), where the original factory (TDI) TCU tune is compared to the post-dieselgate TCU tune from Malone. As you might guess, the original factory (TDI) TCU tune is superior to the post-dieselgate derived TCU tune by Malone, although the Malone version is certainly better than the dieselgate TCU tune you may have on your Q7 TDI, it is unfortunately developed based off the dieselgate version. In short, it's better than the dieselgate TCU tune, but also pricey. You can likely still get the original TCU tune if you look around on the internet and read related threads, etc. If your TDI doesn't have the dieselgate de-tuning on the ECU and TCU, then enjoy it, and still consider tuning your ECU for more power to Stage 1 if you gonna be towing, as that will be reliable for you.

Don't forget the driveline fluids maintenance (diffs xfer case, tranny fluid & filter), as towing will absolutely kill your tranny if you fail to service it properly, and on a used Q7 it probably has never been done since Audi wrote it out of the services schedule....planned obsolescence, that is.

 

For TCU tuning, when you buy the TunezillaPro unit, you can tune the "stock" mapping with no additional cost. If you want to go to Stage 1 or 2, then you have to pay to play. The stock map is worlds smoother than the settlement tune!

I tow with mine, non-factory, no issues, right up to the weight rating. I also replace fluid regularly (about every 40,000 miles).

 

I did find the thread with the tow package part numbers for upgrading. Thank you for clarifying the fan part, I was a little confused as to what the shroud difference was. From what you both have told me it sounds like a stage 1 with the complementary tcu tune will be the path. Thanks to this forum I was able to learn about SUSTDI egr kits. They look really well put together with another revision coming.

 

And thanks to WES for identifying that at on the 8spd Aisin (OC8) Malone offers the Factory stock TCU tune free when you've purchased an engine tune.

So based on this revelation, I'm following up with Malone to see if I can get the stock/Factory TCU tune downloaded for my '10 TDI (6spd transmission) as well. Here's to hoping!

 

Forums are friggin awesome.