[SuperSound]

Originally Posted by Klayman

There is alot of discussion on the corvette forums about the A8 shudder and many believe that the Torque Converter (TC) is on the edge of design capacity and was built with inferior materials. So because of this, the active fuel management (AFM) causes undo stress on the transmission, TC and engine, by switching to and running in V4 mode, especially at low rpm's pulling a load on an incline. Many have installed AFM disablers that plug into the OBD port. This does not interfere with the programming, it just keeps the car in V8 all the time. I'm cautious to post links on the forum do to the moderators but if you google AFM disabler you can get them reasonably priced. I am waiting on how my flush works out hoping I can get a new TC first, but I will be getting one for my camaro for sure.

I don't think the fuel savings is substantial with AFM anyway. I would like to run in automatic V8 mode all the time. I will definitely compare MPG.

As far as I know, this does not leave any footprint on the ECM/TCM and can be unplugged when the car is not running.....hence, unknown should any warranty work be required.

Hate to burst their bubble, but the shudder has been reported on turbo 4s, the CTS-V, and ATS-V which I believe all do not have AFM. Now could AFM be a contributing factor, I'd definitely say yes. The driveline is under the most load then so would make sense. But as stated some time ago in this thread, the slip tables seem the be closer to root cause. The TC materials/QC definitely is on the right track too, since we have heard there are multiple revisions now.

As far as AFM not making a real difference, that depends on your driving habits. I have managed to take the a 25 mile average on the same strip of road (all highway). The difference was almost 6 mpgs (36.6mpg vs 30.4mpg). Most of the people claiming no improvement are driving stop and go, or urban areas which it definitely doesn't make a difference. On the highway at speed, the difference is significant. Is that worth it to some people? Probably not, but that's a matter of personal choice.