NJTypeS

I was browsing Level 10's website to see what products they had for our cars and noticed the "bulletproof " transmission service and hi performance torque converter. I'm interested in the comptech supercharger when it becomes available and decided I would email level 10 to get some input on their products. They told me they would recommend both the tranny upgrade and torque converter for a supercharger installation. they quoted me $303 for the tranny upgrade and $498 for the torque converter and said 9-12 hours labor in house. They are located in Hamburg, NJ for anyone who is familiar. For anyone whose interested in the supercharger, what do you think about this? Personally, if I was going to get the tranny upgrade I would rather have Park Ave Acura do that for me instead of Level 10

Here is a copy of my email to them and their response.





I am currently interested in purchasing a supercharger for my car. I have a 2001 Acura 3.2CL-S. The supercharger would either be Comptech or Jackson Racing. Both should be available within a few months. My question is whether or not the stock transmission can handle the added power. I see you offer the transmission kit and torque converter. Please advise if both these products would be needed for a supercharger application, and if they do, how many hours does it take to install them. Is it possible only one of the products would be needed? Thank you.



Thanks for the inquiry!This is what you need with a supercharger.The PTS BULLET PROOF KIT this will handle the the extra power.We have HOTEST torque convertor on the market.This torque convertor makes the car faster that a stick!The kits takes about 9-12 hours to install.

CO-CL-S

I'd do a search on this web concerning Level 10..

astro

specifically do a search for pending lawsuits against level 10.

Nashua_Night_Hawk

$300 + $500 + (10hr * $60/hr = $600) + $4800 + (8 hr *$60/hr = $500) = $6700 just for the SC/L10.

Asume you get a decent 100HP... so that is $67 per HP.
For this price I would want to be at 300WHP. 300 lbft.

Good luck.

Vampyre

ONe of the ex-members of ClubGP was suing Level 10. The tranny they sold him failed whin a month and they REFUSED to admit it was their fault, even after MULTIPLE shops proved their parts caused the tranny to fail. They then blamed an outside company saying someone else actually made that part for them. AFter about 4 months he got his money back but the lawyer asked them what they were going to do with the tranny that broke and they said fix it and resell it.

NJTypeS

That's exactly what i thought! And its probably more like $75 per hour labor. I certainly am not planning on spending that kind of $ for the upgrade. Anyone aware of any other places that would strengthen the transmission?



that's certainly not very encouraging!

Nashua_Night_Hawk

It is not bad to mod a car. However, I would say beyound simple bolt on CAI. headers, pulleys, RES and MM2. It just not feasible....

If someone paid $32k for his ride, plus $4,000 ( labor and parts) for basic bolt-ons and tires and sways springs.....
Plus $7000 for his L10 and SC...

He should better have bought an S4 and chipped it... Or Some Blown 540... or maybe a 2-yr old M5....

moomaster_99

hindsight is 20/20....and the initial price outlay is a lot more....

SleeperCL

I've HAD the torque converter in my car. The total install price is like $1,200. I cant even explain how much faster the car was. Eclipse23-Ernie & Streeteffectz-Ron can vouge for that. I broke into the 13's with that and just intake and header.
On the other hand I was on my way to an acura meet in Long Island and my tranny started leaking fluid & smoking. I let level 10 know, and they got back to me 3 days later. In an e-mail they let me know not to worry about it. I was like WTF? The best Acura dealer in NJ took care of the leaking problem under warranty of course. They let me know that almost all the seals were loose!? My tranny looked banged up and so did a few of the sensors.
After that the car was running ok but the shifts were getting more & more rough. I had the tranny replaced through the dealer under warranty and didnt want to risk more problems so I kept the new stock torque converter.
Sometimes I miss it, but I'm dealing without it.
I'd think twice before jumping into it.

shockboltthrower

maybe I'm retarded, but if I wanted a faster car i would just simply buy one!!

OneQwkv6

The full level 10 tranny rebuild is 3,264.00
The torque converter is 498 it makes a huge difference in the cl.
Off the line you got the power you need and when you shift threw the gears there's no lag and gets you to vtec faster.
Well worth it and about these lawsuits the reason being all these supra's are goin down are because the tranny only can hold up 700 horse. Also beating the car to death doesn't help the rebuild!

TheNemesis

I know this thread is old, but google still routes to it so I wanted to give my insight.

I read this thread prior to working with levelten on a transmission rebuild, and the negative comments regarding lawsuits etc were disheartening. I decided to purchase from them anyway, since a member said that the lawsuit was regarding a supra transmission rebuild.

My experience? Amazing. My second Honda transmission died and I decided I didn't want to put another P.O.S. transmission in my car. I called up level 10 and they had one available. It cost $4300+$700 in shipping. I then had it professionally installed which cost another $800. All said and done it cost me just under $6,000.

Some would say the money was wasted, but my wife loves the car and it is her daily driver. We have looked at new cars(even TL's), and nothing has that same feel for her. So rather than getting her something she may not like, we stuck with the car she thoroughly loves.

Now down to the transmission. Our TL is a 2001 TL-P. The only other modification on the car is an AEM short ram intake. I took the car to the dragstrip a few years prior to this replacement and was able to run a 15.68.

Fast forward to after the transmission install, and I wanted to see what the car could do 80,000 miles later. With the new transmission being the only change, the car ran a 15.301. Almost 4 tenths from this upgrade has made me happy. Granted the cost per tenth of a second is ridiculous, but the transmission shifts wonderfully and after 40,000 miles hasn't missed a step.

I hope to get 300,000+ miles out of this transmission. When I spoke to level ten the gentleman mentioned that they had just serviced a level ten transmission installed on a TL cab. The cab had seen 350,000 miles on the transmission already.

I love the body style of the 2001-2002 TL's. If you are like me and want to keep the car forever this is a good alternative to spending 3k+ on a Honda transmission that may get you 100,000 miles.

Karanx7

iTrader: (2)

Lol, the level ten transmission is just another POS tranny with the same design flaw. The AV6 tranny would have been a real solution and also be much cheaper.

For $6000, not just some people would say you wasted your money. In fact, I don't think anyone would say that it was a good investment.

I too love my 2G TL and plan on keeping it forever, and I would have much rather got an AV6 tranny for $3k than a level 10 tranny that will fail again.

TheNemesis

My above post was made because there is very little in the way of reviews regarding levelten transmissions with a google search.

That being said, would you care to prove your statements? Solid evidence, no hearsay or assumptions. I have felt well served by the transmission I had installed, hopefully I won't be looking at the same failure at the 90,000 mark that I encountered twice with manufacturer transmissions.

CL-S progression 01

iTrader: (2)

I have level ten transmission clutches in my CL... I was the first to do it, everyone said don't pretty much at the time.... They have been good for 130 kms and I tow with my cls.

Now tho I have a valve body issue where the cpc valve is not moving fast enough to redirect pressure to the clutch packs so under no load it flares. If u are accelerating at all it engages as it should.

If you rip it the car will literally squeal the brand new summer tires changing from 1st to 2nd sometimes. That never happened when I got the rebuild with stock components, but as soon as the level ten clutches went it it was very obvious something was different about the clutches. The stock clutches from the cls was the first rebuild and that lasted 26000 kms... Level tens are over 100000 kms past that.

My mechanic is pulling apart the valve body in the next few days when he has time. I want to then micrometer each of the clutches to see how much they have worn over the 130000 km. I doubt it will be much tho cause it shits so well when ur driving under 20% throttle or more. Then I will have quantifiable proof that these level ten clutches are likely the key to saving these transmissions.

For the record I use my car as a service vehicle so all it does is city driving and I also tow with the CL. So if any car would eat a transmission I think it'd be me.... Unfortunately.

I will keep you all posted, hopefully my mechanic calls me when it's all apart and then I can shed some undeniable light on this matter.

Either way good luck with the Trans issue OP... I know it's a headache! It's not like body work that can be done poorly and u notice in 2 years, it's gott be done perfect the first time.

gnuts

iTrader: (1)

If you look on the TL side many many people have done it. I'm not sure that info was either available or widely known when you did your level 10 install. Either way it is less than half of what you paid.

I hope your trans holds forever, but now with what we know, there are cheaper ways.

CL-S progression 01

iTrader: (2)

so im eating my words here fellas.

trans is pulled apart... valve body is getting updates, new level ten rebuild kit, new trans star tq converter, new filters, original atf feed pipe is going in instead of the T one for the jet kit. also a new master cylinder for the brakes had to go on cause its had the biscuit too.

level ten clutches in third clutch pack are worn just past tolerance... as opposed to failing like the oem ones where there was no material left at 26000kms these level ten clutches lasted in my cl as a service vehicle for roughly 110000kms. ALL city driving pretty much.

when the trans would start slipping before it was horendous it would barely be able to find the gear, when these clutches went i was still able to drag race, but when daily driving at minimal throttle i would get a flare from 1-2 and from 3-4.

NOTE- the symptoms were way different when the trans started going this time as it was slow process. with the oem clutches it was like flicking a switch. one moment it was fine the next it was barely even moving.

so they are much better than stock, but clearly there is still a heat issue and i do have a trans cooler.

so level ten isn't bulletproof, but it is a hell of a lot better.

i am re doing the trans again cause my mechanic is only charging me 1000 for all the labour and. should i change the trans completely? maybe, but at this point if i get another 110000kms outta her i wont have it any more as it will be a rust bucket.

I told you all i would shed light on this kit, hopefully i have. althought its not the result i had prayed for it clearly is a decent upgrade to our glass transmission.

P.S i was towing with my CL this year too, for service.. which i now definitley do not recommend. lol

Acidicheartburn

It's disappointing to see that even with all the upgrades you did to your trans it still bit the dust (again). I have been eyeing the Level 10 upgrades. Looks like I may just have to drive the car until the trans dies and move on. Sad, because I love my CL-S and I'll likely never have anything like it again for a while. The J-32A2 sure is a peach.

CL-S progression 01

iTrader: (2)

Just an update with my car fwiw.
1 of the clutch gears was worn pretty badly. But the flare came from two bad valves in the valve body. Including a spring that had lost its punch.

So a multitude of problems. Clearly I drive this thing in the city too much. If it was just highway cruising it likely would have lasted twice as long. But I am never coommuting far so the Trans is shifting nonstop.