Just wondering if anyone has had a problem or heard of problems with the torque converter or transmission in their h3 Alpha. I am bringing mine in for some warranty work tomorrow, and I'm curious if anyone else has had any problems with either of these things. I have an 06 H3 with the 5 cyl and it has better acceleration.

 

I thought there was 1 post on here about a trans problem but I can't find it, you might try HXC or CHO forums.

 

Thanks, I'll take a look! It is really weird, the truck has really bad throttle response. You give it a little gas and it does nothing, you give it a little more and it kicks all the way down into 1st and has very slow acceleration. On a moderate hill it will kick down into 1st and wont shift out till you let off the gas. I was on the hwy the other day and went out to pass, and it kicked down to 1st, the rev's shot up and the truck barely accelerated. There has got to be a problem somewhere this V8 should make the truck honk!!

 

keep us informed? what other warranty work are you having done?

 

Just got it back from the dealer ship. There was a faulty child lock in one of the back doors, and they were suppose to fix the box liner that puffs up in the sun. They were unable to find any problems with the transmission or torque converter. When I asked the service advisor what they determined might be the problem, they said it was the nature of the beast, that is the way it functions. He said they had two supervisors take it home and both came to the same conclusion. On my way back from the dealership, I had no problem making it act up. Either they didn't really put it to any test or they are right and it is the nature of the beast and the truck is a piece of crap. Its hard to believe that a descent V8 and a descent amount of supposed torque would perform so poorly. My next step is to make a comparison. Go to the dealer and take another one for a drive, this might put this problem to rest. I'll keep you updated.

 

The only flaw is that it's only a 4-spd transmission. If it is in 3rd or 4th, and you step on the gas, it may shift into 2nd and RPM will go way up. I only found this RPM redline issue to happen going 70mph up a steep hill at 7000ft with a strong headwind. Most prominent if cruise control is on because it tries to maintain speed.
Workarounds for steep hills:
1) Slow down to 65mph and had no issues with it changing out of 3rd.
2) Turn off cruise control and be more gentle on the skinny pedal.
3) Manually shift it to D "3" going up steep hills and it stays in gear.

Granted it is stupid to have to even consider this, but then again, I did not buy a H3T for its highway capabilities. But I will say that if I cruise at 65, I have no issues, get good mpg, and actually really enjoy driving it on the freeway for long trips.

Note: Another reason to go 65-ish is the mpg. Tested a tank on freeway at 75-77mph and a tank on freeway at 65-67mph.
Results for H3T V8 Auto:
75-77mph = 14.9 mpg
65-67mph = 19.5 mpg

 

After the dealership saying the way the truck ran was the nature of the beast..... I finally got a check engine light. Hopefully they'll find what was wrong now!!! Talked to a couple tech buddy from different car dealerships and they think it could be a throttle positioning sensor or the computer may need an up date of be re-flashed. I'll let you know the verdict when I get it back.

 

Make them go for a ride w/ you

 

I've only got a few hundred miles on mine so I haven't stomped on the accelerator, but I do remember driving the demo Alpha prior to purchasing and remember that there was not any bone jarring G force throwing me into the seat as I was hoping. It appeared to be a lot of bark and no bite, but as another poster said, that's not why I was buying the truck. I bought one anyway. My Titan with a 5.6 did have that raw HP feeling.

This auto trans seems a bit clunky anyway. I especially notice it between first and second when driving slow and then lightly pushing on the accelerator. It drops down into first unnecessarily, in my opinion, causing the motor to rev too high and outside the powerband. This motor has plenty of torque and should not need such a radical shifting pattern. I wonder if the shift points could be tweaked to alleviate some of this. Is it possible that what you're experiencing the trans dropping down a gear and reving to what is really already at, or above, what should be the max RPMs for that gear?

 

I think a shift kit in the tranny would fix everything. Also after I put a new muffler on it made way more power for a low dollar mod