The very first difference seen is with the heat exchanger. It is now rectangular in design as oppose to being cylindrical. This is your first clue to the 09G face lift. When the pan and filter come off there is a whole new surprise. All the solenoids have been redesigned and relocated. The smaller pass through connector in all previous models contained wiring for the ISS, OSS and TFT sensors. This connector now contains wiring for the three redesigned solenoids closest to the manual valve. The larger pass through connector which use to contain all the solenoid wiring, now contains wiring for the ISS, OSS, TFT and the remainder of all the solenoids.
The line pressure and TCC solenoids use to be located in the upper far left of the valve body. They are now located to the bottom far left of the valve body. With the solenoids out of the bore, you can see that these solenoids are different yet they both have the same yellow connectors. Care must be taken to be sure these solenoids are placed in the correct location and that the connectors do not get crossed.
The other solenoids are also notably different. They are much more robust than the previous more troublesome design. They have a similar look to the A6MF1 series solenoids which has snap-in feed passage screens. The three solenoids closest to the manual valve can also be easily inserted into the wrong location. Care must be taken here as well. The most center solenoid has its connector mounted to the solenoid differently from the others in an attempt to not get this solenoid in the wrong location.
The valves and small parts inside this valve body are also completely different than the previous design. Inside the transmission there are parts differences to watch for such as the differential bearings. They are smaller in diameter allowing an earlier cover to go over the bearing without you being aware of it. This may happen if you are trying to make this new design fit into an earlier model. The starter may fight you getting it into a different housing but the salvage yard will sell you one that fits. Of course the transmission will not work as the wiring is totally different but you will sure have a clunky transmission before you realize this is not going to work.
