Hyundai A8LR1 / A8TR1
8-speed automatic · longitudinal · 2009–present
Also known as: a8lr1, a8tr1, hyundai 8-speed automatic, kia 8-speed automatic
Hyundai's own longitudinal eight-speed — in the Genesis G70, G80 and G90, the Genesis Coupé, the Kia Stinger and the Mohave.
Its significance is that Hyundai designed and built it in-house, at a point when almost every manufacturer at this level bought a ZF 8HP. So advice written for the ZF does not apply, and a reader who finds a great deal about eight-speed automatics and very little about this one has usually found the wrong gearbox.
The two designations are torque ratings rather than designs. The A8LR1 takes the higher-output engines — the 3.3 twin-turbo and the 5.0 — and the A8TR1 the rest. They are not interchangeable, and the model and engine decide which is fitted rather than the year.
It is a well-regarded transmission with a small number of specific complaints, most of them about behaviour: a hesitation from rest in the Stinger and G70, and a firm engagement when cold. Both are adaptation rather than damage, and both respond to a relearn.
The valve body and its solenoids are where genuine faults appear, and — the recurring theme of every modern automatic on this site — the fluid is not lifetime whatever the handbook implies, and it is the first thing that wears the solenoids it lubricates.
Cars fitted with this gearbox
9 generations. Only where a source names the model and the generation together — a gearbox is documented as a product far more often than as a fitment, so this list is deliberately shorter than the truth.
Genesis
Hyundai
Information, not instruction
CarGeek is a reference, not a service manual. Its pages are written from public sources and from what other people have found, never from a manufacturer's own service information, so they can be wrong or incomplete for your particular vehicle. Some of what they describe carries real risk: high voltage, fuel under pressure, stored energy, hot and moving parts.
Have anything you intend to act on checked by a trained person against the manufacturer's own procedure for your vehicle. Nothing here replaces that procedure.
Community experience
Be the first to write this up
Nothing posted about this yet. Whatever you found is worth writing down — even a dead end saves someone the same afternoon.
What makes one worth reading:
- The car — make, model, year and engine. The same fault behaves differently on each.
- What you measured, not only what you replaced.
- What actually fixed it — or that nothing did, which is worth knowing too.
Sign in or create an account to add what you found about A8LR1 / A8TR1.