Ladies and gentlemen,

I apologize for the long post, I just want to state all the facts so you can draw your own conclusions. I just don't want anybody else to get screwed the same way we did.

As you may know from my previous posts our TT Z was supposed to be the first Z with automatic tranny running 0.8Bar+

Just some insight. The car is located in Moscow, Russia and our original tranny gave up after almost a year of abuse. Upon disassembly we came to a conclusion that the frictions melted. I was assigned the task of sourcing upgraded frictions. After about a month of searching I came to the conclusion that nobody produces those yet.

Sam @ Level10 said they indeed DO reinforce the frictions as a part of their full tranny job. I asked him how much he would charge me just for the set of frictions - response was "full tranny price" ~4k USD. At this point we didn't have any other option, since the summer was aproaching and the car needed to go to 3 shows.

We decided to get full tranny. I asked Sam for full work order to describe everything what would be done here's email response:

"We can build you a complete transmission capable of up to 200+ mph and 600 hp. It will also become more efficient than a manual and get rid of all the lag and the hesitation off the start. It has our pts hydrosystem, pts torque converter upgrade and all. The transmission could be completed by friday.
pts transmission system $3864.
pts core charge $2500
s&h to california $300"

Since I knew that frictions were the weakest link, I asked him:

"Sam,
Thank you for getting back to me on this.
Few questions,
1. I know we talked about this over the phone, just wanted to reconfirm.Tranny will have upgraded frictions plates, correct?
2. Can we provide you with the core?
3. How much shipping to NYC will be? "

Here's the response:
"yes you may send us the transmission. Yes we can ship to NYC around $175-$200. The frictions are upgraded."

I sourced the core and wired 4k to Level10. I explicitly asked Sam to keep me in the loop in case there are any issues, he said sure, no problem, core will be fully inspected before he starts to work on it. The job has started. Week later I called Sam and he said that it is ready to be picked up. Our transportation company picked it up and sent it to Moscow via air (1k+ USD).

3 weeks later when tranny cleared the customs my business partner called me and said it was missing a torque converter. I called Sam and his response was that the price didn't include the TC. WTF said I and forwared him his email describing what would be done to the tranny. He said that he couldn't do it because the core was damaged(there was a hairline crack).
Me: WTF, Sam, I asked you to call me with any issues immediately, why am I hearing about this when tranny is actually in Moscow and not from you, but from my partners? Can I have the damaged TC core so I can get a refund from the company I bought the core from?

He said he already discarded it (WTF ???). I get him to admit to charging us for TC and not getting the job done, he said he would do simillar work for one of my friends fo free and my friend can pay me. Fine. We got TC overnighted from Australia to Russia ($$$).

Car finally ran. We were babying the tranny for first 300 miles, just to give it time to settle. After that we wasted couple of C5 Vettes, a bunch of Porsches and an M5. Car was taken to 170mph only several times. Not a single brake launch. Everybody were excited about how well tranny was working, not for long though. After about 500 miles on the new tranny it stopped shifting into gears. Having looked at the diagnostic printout Sam said this was a stuck solenoid and he could help us source it. Great. Meanwhile we took the tranny pan off to find a lot of sludge and metal shavings in it. See pic:

At this point I told Sam that we're going to disassemble the tranny and see what actually was done to it.
So here are the pictures of Level10 "reinforced" frictions after only 500 miles.



As far as I'm concerned the only thing we got for $4k was the VB job. At this point we're working with a lawyer to file a lawsuit. We're looking to get our money back+ shipping expenses+tranny installation & deinstallation+lawyer fees. Please link this thread to any performance forum that you're on, so everybody knows the thruth about Level10.

I also found out that we're not the first people who are very unhappy with Level10, so I urge everybody who feels like they got screwed by them to PM me.

 

That really sucks man !

If you paid 4k and only got VB upgade, I hope they get what's coming to them.

I hope it all works out for you,

Good Luck !


Tasso-

 

The most frustrating part is when our supercharged H2 chewed up the frictions the whole overhaul kit with reinforced kevlar frictions ran us little over $300. Sometimes I just hate import market.

 

why didnt u go with edge racing converters

 

Because they required a core and Australians had the whole TC ready to ship. Car was going to a show in 4 days. We only opted for Level10 because nobody else offered upgraded frictions. I was ready to pay 2k+ for just a set of frictions. I had plans for getting Edge TC and we already had Stillen VB.

 

Did you contact SGP Racing in Texas. They do valve bodys and tq converters for the Z. They also have a tranny package. I have heard lots of good things about them.

 

Andrew.... i knwo we discussed this on the phone a hundred times, but seegin these pictures.. they are unbeliveble. All the rumors about the reputation are true. Sorry you had to find that out on yourself; this, or Z1 Motorsports, has happened to me and my engine to make me take notice about these kinds of vendors.

 

Bump......

 

I had problems with Level 10 myself as they charged me a core charge and then wouldn't credit me the money back. Heck the core charge was more than the damn parts they sold me!! Sam kept telling me the credit would occur, but over a month later I decided to dispute it through my CC company. I am happy with the shifting and VB upgrade, but Sam said with my setup that I should see an easy 0.5 sec shaved off my 1/4 mile times and in reality I saw no improvement. I just pray I don't have problems like what MOTOP had. I already have 4K on my car with a long trip, Tail of the Dragon and a number of 1/4 mile passes so I hope I'm in the clear.

 

Plus they have good experience dealing with customers outside of the USA, maybe try them, they're honest and do great work!

 

Thank you, for this info because I was going to use level 10. I am going to try Edge Racing.

Cesar

 

Level 10 screwed alot of people in the Supra community. No one uses their tranny or tq converters anymore.

 

I realize my post was long, but I mentioned there that it took me a month to look through the options. I went through ANY possible option and than some. As sad as it is only the growing number of failed trannies will speedup the R&D process associated with high TQ holding on our trannies.

 

Level 10 is dog ****. Sgp is a really great place, I have been down there a couple of times. They have done alot of work on nissans and whatever. Great place. Sorry about your car man.

 

Good luck, I hate to hear that this BS still goes on.

 

Ok. I don't know how usefull those pictures would be, since very few people saw stock internals of this tranny. But if somebody has, please point out what exactly has been done to it by Level10.

 

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WOW the things we go through for the sake of performance!!!

 

so those were stock friction plates??

 

MOTOP...what exactly should us non-technicals look at in the pix you showed above?