Sonnax Line Booster

Disclaimer: Links on this page pointing to Amazon, eBay and other sites may include affiliate code. If you click them and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission.

truckin151

Supporting Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2010
Posts
5,712
Reaction score
254
Location
Arizona
Ram Year
2013 sport
Engine
5.7
Been thinking of adding one to the truck for a little while. Curious of any issues with adding it with a tuner that has trans control (DSP)? I have read quite a few posts saying one thing and quite a few saying the other over the years on many different forums but there has never been a straight up yes/no answer as to wether or not this does more good or harm when adding it with a programmer that ups the line pressure or adding it with a converter or both.

Reason I am looking at it is I believe either my tc or my 2nd/2nd prime gear is starting to slip. I does not do it all the time and the temps are well below any danger range, hell they are even below normal operating temps and the fliud looks great, however if I can get it to firm things up a bit more untill I can dig into it I would prefer to "bandaide" it now in hopes of it not getting any worse and look at it more when I get the funds for a new TC and valvebody or a whole new performance trans. So who all is running one? what are your temps like? Why did you do it and did it work or do what you wanted it to do? Will this cause any adverse affects? I do not want a $45 part costing me $2k+ for a new trans. I have sent an email to Chris with Circle D to get his opinion on it as well since I would assume that he knows a bit about these things, but any and all first hand experirence with people running them would be nice.

Also I know there is a DIY to make your own, I would rather pay the $45 in this case for a plug and play setup than doing it myself and splicing wires.
 

glass3222

Senior Member
Joined
Jul 2, 2010
Posts
2,338
Reaction score
31
Location
Central PA
Ram Year
2005
Engine
5.7 Hemi
I installed one on my 05 and ran the DSP, SC, and Trinity with it and had no issues
 

RubberFrog

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 26, 2010
Posts
5,727
Reaction score
335
Location
Arizona
Ram Year
2019
Engine
6.4
The theory is that it raises line pressure across the board. This is good in gears with low line pressure and bad in gears with higher line pressure.
 

Redtruck-VA

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2010
Posts
5,864
Reaction score
984
Location
Virginia
Ram Year
2003 & 1989 D250 RWD
Engine
Hemi-5.7, 5.9 12v & 24v diesel
The Sonnax indeed raises the pressure across the board. And the Transgo raises the pressure on a sliding scale depending on actual LP pressure. This IMO makes the Transgo a little more sophisticated. But both do pretty much the same thing in the end. I intend to make a hybrid of the two. I'll have a LP monitoring sensor installed this coming week using my AeroForce Intercepter to actually read the pressures. But back to your question, again in my opinion no one can give you a definitive answer because no one monitor's their LP and have no idea what LP they are running. Good luck...
 

OlDirtyJohn

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 26, 2010
Posts
1,518
Reaction score
50
Location
Naha-shi, Okinawa, Japan
Ram Year
2004 Quad Cab 2500 *Sold*
Engine
Hemi 5.7
mine worked great when i had it in. took it out when i was having the shuddering issues, never got back around to putting it back in. Andre from Edge highly recommended it to me. hell he even gave me one for free!
 
OP
OP
T

truckin151

Supporting Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2010
Posts
5,712
Reaction score
254
Location
Arizona
Ram Year
2013 sport
Engine
5.7
Well I guess I'll see what it'll do when it gets here, just ordered it tonight. I have my concerns about the reverse shift being a little high with it but again have to wait til its on.
 

Redtruck-VA

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2010
Posts
5,864
Reaction score
984
Location
Virginia
Ram Year
2003 & 1989 D250 RWD
Engine
Hemi-5.7, 5.9 12v & 24v diesel
Well I guess I'll see what it'll do when it gets here, just ordered it tonight. I have my concerns about the reverse shift being a little high with it but again have to wait til its on.

IMO, don't worry about it being too high, as there is a relief valve that prevents it from going higher than what it already see's in reverse. I didn't specifically check the spec's again, but what I remember is there are two pressure regulators, one mechanical and the other controlled by the LP. The LP is there to reduce drag on the pump to save fuel, (parasitic loss). The engineering stradegy was to run the transmission at the lowest pressure possible in attempt to reduce internal loss. This may be fine until tuning is done and then the PCM is using altered inputs to establish what LP pressures are needed for the trans and I believe the LP is mistakenly reduced causing some failures. I just return home and will have my LP gauge setup shortly and then I'll be able to give more definitive information about what pressures and hopefully resistor values do what. But raising the LP IMO is all good. Good luck...
 
OP
OP
T

truckin151

Supporting Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2010
Posts
5,712
Reaction score
254
Location
Arizona
Ram Year
2013 sport
Engine
5.7
We'll see. If it doesnt feel right or my temps start to jump its an easy removal, however its been recommended by a few trans places now to add it even with the tuner.
 

OlDirtyJohn

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 26, 2010
Posts
1,518
Reaction score
50
Location
Naha-shi, Okinawa, Japan
Ram Year
2004 Quad Cab 2500 *Sold*
Engine
Hemi 5.7
i would imagine your temps wont raise at all. they might even lower a hair if anything. the higher pressure SHOULD cause the clutches to hold together more, and have less slippage. thats the idea behind it at least.
 
OP
OP
T

truckin151

Supporting Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2010
Posts
5,712
Reaction score
254
Location
Arizona
Ram Year
2013 sport
Engine
5.7
Line booster came in today. Going to see about installing it tonight. One question though, it says I need to perform a "Clutch Volume Index" reset to relearn the new pressures. Other than a scan tool to go in and do the reset is there another way to do it? I would think reloading the the dsp trans tune would reset the CVI, however doing that would also make the truck have to relearn the last pcm tune which is doable just not one of the funner things to do while on a job the next morning. So, is there another way to do the reset?
 
Top