[ACEPA]

I am American and I purchased my 2018 2.0T in China at the cost of $60k just to have a piece of American muscle to remind me of home. Not keen to buy a 4 cylinder car I took a risk and I love the car. I added a mishimoto cold air intake and MRT muffler less CAT back system and it transformed the car into a mean high speed machine. I even added an upgrade of LED side marker lights on the car which are not allowed in China. Oil catch can and the car is just awesome until one day: I started the car after just passing 2,000 miles driven and headed for my Saturday morning western breakfast and something strange happened. The car was the most stable smooth driving quiet car I had driven in years. As I was driving down the freeway at 60mph I felt a ripple type vibration occur which I assumed was lines in the road. As I continued it did not stop and appears to occur on light to medium acceleration backing off on the throttle it trends to disappear. Very upset at this development I took the car on 150 mile drive to try and analyse the cause and source of vibration. On hard throttle there is no vibration but it appears to occur between 20-70mph and is a continuous vibration under light throttle RPM does not appear to drop during vibration. The light vibration is throughout the whole car. In neutral there is nothing. Being this is rare car in China I don't what to rush to the local dealer because they never see such cars and probably don't know of converter shudder which on research appears to be. My question to all the 2018 Camaro 2.0T automatic owners 10 speed . Has anyone encountered such issues on this model??

[grampa_ss]

10 speed? Pretty sure you have the A8 and are experiencing the dreaded A8 shudder. See TSB 18-NA-355. All you need is the new fluid (blue label Mobil 1 Synthetic LV ATF HP fluid).

[arpad_m]

Originally Posted by ACEPA

I am American and I purchased my 2018 2.0T in China at the cost of $60k just to have a piece of American muscle to remind me of home. Not keen to buy a 4 cylinder car I took a risk and I love the car. I added a mishimoto cold air intake and MRT muffler less CAT back system and it transformed the car into a mean high speed machine. I even added an upgrade of LED side marker lights on the car which are not allowed in China. Oil catch can and the car is just awesome until one day: I started the car after just passing 2,000 miles driven and headed for my Saturday morning western breakfast and something strange happened. The car was the most stable smooth driving quiet car I had driven in years. As I was driving down the freeway at 60mph I felt a ripple type vibration occur which I assumed was lines in the road. As I continued it did not stop and appears to occur on light to medium acceleration backing off on the throttle it trends to disappear. Very upset at this development I took the car on 150 mile drive to try and analyse the cause and source of vibration. On hard throttle there is no vibration but it appears to occur between 20-70mph and is a continuous vibration under light throttle RPM does not appear to drop during vibration. The light vibration is throughout the whole car. In neutral there is nothing. Being this is rare car in China I don't what to rush to the local dealer because they never see such cars and probably don't know of converter shudder which on research appears to be. My question to all the 2018 Camaro 2.0T automatic owners 10 speed . Has anyone encountered such issues on this model??

First of all, congrats on the car, it must be a hoot driving a Camaro in Shenzhen

This seems to be a textbook case of the torque converter shudder. If your car is a 2018, it has the 8L45 (aka A8) eight speed automatic that is prone to this problem, unfortunately.

There are a quite a few threads about this here, but to summarize, the related GM technical service bulletin is 18-NA-355, you need a dealer to flush the transmission as per the bulletin using Mobil 1 Synthetic LV ATF HP fluid (GM part number 19417577, blue strip across the label). They will also need a GM transmission flush machine to perform this service. More details are also available in this GM TechLink document: https://gm-techlink.com/?p=11127

Depending on the total mileage of the car, the torque converter may be damaged to the extent that the flush alone does not fix the shudder. In this case, you'll need a new torque converter as well. The part itself isn't expensive, at least back here, but the labor will be significant. If you do not or cannot get the transmission fixed properly, the shudder will progressively get worse and may begin to impact drivability.

Not sure how realistic it is for you to obtain this service in China, and who likes to be a bearer of bad news, but the silver lining is that there is a known solution that you can start working towards.

[HCI2000SS]

I agree with the posts above about it being the infamous A8 shudder. Not sure how it works in China, but in the US it is covered under warranty

[nancygrl]

You have an A8 transmission...2018 model year, pretty positive only Camaros that had the 10 spd auto were ZL1's. What you're describing is the infamous A8 transmission shudder. As mentioned above, there's a service bulletin listed. Good luck.

[RWT]

As the previous owner of a shuddering A8 Colorado, I too agree these are pretty classic A8 shudder signs.

[ACEPA]

Thanks guys for your quick replies A8 or A10
it's a hard to believe a car here in China has the same problem unless the transmission is shipped here as a preassemblied item. Its weird because 5 other local Camaros purchased from the same dealer in a 3 month period as mine not one other car has experienced the problem. This will a huge challenge to explain this issue the young Chinese mechanics at my Chevrolet dealership.

[grampa_ss]

Print the TSB I attached above and bring it to them. I'm sure they can handle a fluid change.

[ACEPA]

Hi Arpad_M
What a lot of people do not know last read there were around 60,000 Mustangs and 5,000 Camaros sold in 2019 in China and driving around here but many buyers prefer the local built V8 Mustang over the tiny engine 2.0T Camaro with 4 cylinders. My local Camaro had no wires to its side marker locations only reflective inserts installed. I wired the car to an independent switch so on car inspection the do not come on. Side markers are not allowed. I had to buy from the USA 2 brand sets and Hero was the only one supplying the dummy plugs I needed to link wires into the housing. China is an unusual place full of expensive cars. When I roll up in my blue Camaro it always steels the crowd from some of the best cars around here :-)

[ACEPA]

Hi again here I am in no man's land trying to deal with torque converter shudder. The local Chevrolet dealer told me they have never had an A8 transmission come in for torque converter shudder even though they know about it. Rather than having them experiment on my car I am trying to do the oil drain myself. No Mobil V AFT HP Synthetic oil is available here not even directly from Mobil China but they agreed to back order the oil and one transmission filter for me. How long I need to wait is not clear. As a prior 3 corvette owner dropping the pan and draining the oil is easy for me but in this case I have one specific mechanical question. I cannot flush the transmission be there is no equipment available. How can I ensure the old oil that resides in the torque converter is removed before I fill the transmission with the new synthetic oil. Does anyone know of a way I can remove 95% of the old oil which GM recommends? I do intend to add a drain plug kit to speed up future oli changes.

[arpad_m]

Man, this is a tough one, if the dealership has no flush machine, you can't drain the old fluid completely. I'm not a mechanic, but my common sense dictates that in your situation I'd perform multiple drains and drive the car or at least run the trans through all gears with the engine running between them.

This obviously costs more, but still better than having to replace a torque converter yourself.

Do no accept any other fluid than the new, blue label Mobil 1, here's what GM says in the techlink article (even GM themselves went through different formulations before they found one eventually that worked, which obviously didn't help their reputation, but at least now there is a fix).

[ACEPA]

I am a US consumer products manufacturer in China and truly understand the obligation to supply a consumer quality products. As an owner of 3 prior corvettes and now an avid Camaro fan GM needs to be held accountable for putting such cars on sale that develop this A8 shudder condition after 2000 miles. My loyality to GM has now taken a major change in direction.

[UnknownJinX]

I am not surprised, since Camaro is very uncommon in China so the dealer wouldn't have much of an idea how to service them. Heck, even some dealers in North America would look at one like a spaceship.

Random thought, but see if Cadillac dealers have any fluid, as they sold more vehicles with the A8 transmission, so maybe they would have something in stock.

[ACEPA]

Thanks for the advice but actually in Shenzhen the Chevrolet, Buick and Cadillac dealers are in the same building sharing the same parts department and maintenance shop :-(