Death To The Automatic!

The Luxury Of Worry

Automatic transmissions used to be luxury, today they’re commonplace. It’s part of an ongoing trend with automakers these days: to remove the driver from as much of the mechanical operation of the car as possible. Without direct linkages and everything becoming remotely automated, what are the most common issues with automatics?

Take Care Of These Components:

• Torque Converter:  This is the device responsible for coupling the power from your engine, and to do that it requires transmission fluid to cool and spin everything. This fluid loses its ability to cool and lubricate over time, and oblivious owners who don’t change it will find their converter slowly overheating until it breaks.
• Clutch Plates: Planetary gear clutch plates open and close regularly in automatics, but old or overheated fluid won’t engage them fast enough under quick acceleration. This causes the clutch plates to burn and fail. While usually cheaper than torque converters, labor costs still mean a costly repair.
• Control Valves: As automatics adopt more electrohydraulic approaches for transmission control and fluid management, valves and pistons are needed inside these modules. Modern transmission control modules are complex systems of fluid passages, so when a valve fails, it often requires a completely new module to fix it.

Worst Case Isn’t Every Case

While these examples are worst case scenario, there’s no reason here that should discourage you from buying an automatic. Automatic transmissions are incredibly complicated and mechanics see the worst of it, but the engineers who design them know what is needed to maintain them. We can service anything with an automatic, and prevent unexpected and costly repairs from surprising you.  Contact us today!