An Often Overlooked Part of the Car Maintenance Routine: 6 Things You Might Not Have Known About Your Car’s Transmission

The transmission is an important part of any vehicle. When the transmission is not working correctly, the vehicle will not run correctly or at all. The vehicle transmission translates the energy produced by the engine into wheel motion. Not just any amount of energy, but the correct amount of energy for each gear or vehicle speed is always required. When a car is moving along city streets, it needs less energy than it does at highway speeds. When a person’s car is not moving smoothly and there are sounds such as clunks, whines, or thuds and when shifting becomes rough with slippage and uneven acceleration, there is a big problem.

Transmission Fluid and Operation

Every car or truck owner should have an owner’s manual for their vehicle, and they should read it. There will be a large section on transmissions that must not be ignored. If a person has questions about their vehicle transmission, they shouldtry looking at telletire.com for answers. The beauty of modern living is the availability of information on the internet. A few clicks and a world of useful information pops up.

1. Check with the vehicle owner’s manual, but most manufacturers want the owners to change the transmission fluid every 30,000 to 60,000 miles. Transmission fluid is the most important part of an automatic transmission. This fluid can be damaged over time by heat, friction, oxidation, and degradation.

2. If a person neglects the transmission for too long, it may need expensive repairs or even replacement. Regular servicing is important. Roughly 90% of automatic transmission failures are due to transmission fluid overheating or being contaminated. Transmission fluid also oxidizes over time and becomes less efficient. Transmission fluid must be checked periodically.

3. A manual transmission and an automatic transmission have differences. Manual transmissions have fixed gears that are designed to be engaged and disengaged when the driver wants. The driver uses a clutch to change gears. An automatic transmission is designed to do everything automatically, making a clutch unnecessary. This is accomplished with a complex gear system.

4. Should the mechanic flush the transmission fluid? The transmission fluid cools mechanical parts and lubricates them. In this process, the fluid can get a build-up of metal particles and dirt. When the manual calls for flushing the fluid, have a mechanic do it. Flushing is different than just changing the fluid. The power flushing process can clean out sludge and particles. But this should not be done too often.

5. Because changing the transmission fluid is a messy, complicated job that requires a car ramp, lift, or jack stands, this is a job for the mechanic and not the car owner.

6. Automatic transmissions fluid does not all drain into the pan. Much of the fluid stays in parts such as the valve body, transmission, lines, and the torque converter. When the transmission fluid is only changed, about 25% of it is replaced.

Transmission Services

When that transmission starts acting up, there are several types of services available at the local mechanic shop. It is better to have the transmission serviced before problems happen, but there is still hope even when problems are present. Services offered might include a transmission fluid change, an entire transmission flush and clean with new fluid, a transmission rebuild, or installing a new transmission. The mechanic will test the malfunctioning transmission and decide what level of service or repair is needed.

When extensive work is needed to repair the transmission, the car or truck owner should go where they offer complete parts and labor warranty for at least 30,000 miles or three years.

How Do Transmissions Work?

The transmission in a vehicle is a collection of parts, click here to learn more, that are designed to receive energy from the vehicle motor or engine and transmit that power to the wheels of the vehicle. Without the transmission, the most powerful engine would not make the wheels move. Also, the transmission or gearbox can not make the wheels move without power from the car engine. And, the transmission would have nowhere to transfer the energy from the engine if there were no wheels or drivetrain.

Engine speed is needed at certain levels to make usable power or torque. This is measured by the revolutions made by the crankshaft in a minute. The usable energy produced by these revolutions is called torque. The transmission needs to regulate the torque or usable energy to fit the need for power at different speeds for the drive train and wheels. This control is accomplished by the different gears or parts of the transmission. There are gears of different sizes and with different numbers of teeth.

Transmission parts

In addition to gears, a transmission contains many different parts making it a very complicated component of a vehicle. Depending on the type of transmission, there is the input shaft, the countershaft, and the output shaft. Then there are drive gears and idle gears. There are synchronizer sleeves or collars to separate gears and connect to a specific drive gear. The gear shifter is what the driver moves to engage the gears. The shift rod connects the gear shifter to the synchronizer collars. The shift fork holds the gearbox’s synchronizer collars, and the clutch in a manual transmission to allow the driver to control the flow of power.

Then there are parts in automatic transmissions, including planetary gears, torque converters, the oil pump, the hydraulic system, the valve body, and computer controls. If there are not computer controls, there will be a governor, throttle cable, and vacuum modulator. In addition, an automatic transmission will have seals and gaskets to maintain the flow of fluids and maintain optimum pressure along the whole transmission system.

There are several types of transmissions in different vehicles including manual transmissions, automatic transmissions, continuously variable or CVT transmissions, semi-automatic or dual-clutch transmissions, and finally Tiptronic transmissions. Each type of transmission operates a little differently, so it is important to know which type of transmission a vehicle has before purchasing it. Ask for an explanation of how the transmission works along with the advantages it offers and the problems it may have.

Every type of transmission depends on the proper operation of the vehicle and periodic maintenance for top performance. If you have questions about a vehicle’s transmission, take the time now to contact an expert for advice.