Stagecoach Manchester

[thomasl1231]

RE: Stagecoach Manchester

(22/02/2014 13:50)P528LND Wrote:  I mean all of those that are within Greater Manchester's fleet, they all definitely have a ZF 6 speed 'EcoLife' transmission

You are correct P528LND. You can tell a Voith from a ZF easily.

Voiths always have a high pitched sort of 'wine' sound, especially in idle. This also tends to also be a feature with the engines anyway on newer Enviro 400s so it makes the ZF sound like Voiths. Voiths also tend to rev higher too, especially with 2007 and previous once which have kick-down enabled. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FKWoNhTqjE is a good example of a Voith one that I've got.

ZF EcoLifes tend to be slower than Voiths, and with a lot less of the whine sound. You can tell easily as they don't usually rev too high, and they also tend to have 'jerky' transmissions in first gear, which is something to do with how the torque converter works on EcoLifes I've been told. You tend to hear a lot more eninge sound on them, similarly to B9TLs with the Wright Gemini bodywork. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsCX9ZiEtp8 which is one of the SN12 batch which I've been on. The Voiths sound a lot better in my opinion!!! Can't be doing with EcoLifes! :P