Pick any car or truck you want and look at the dashboard. We have gauges and informational engine lites, (idiot lights). The point I want to discuss is that the amount of gauges does not count, the amount of lights is not important either. What is important is to know what they mean. We all know about the gas gauge, it’s purpose is obvious, to prevent us from running out of gas and remind us how expensive gas is.
Becoming acquainted with your gauges and idiot lights and knowing how to read them is well explained in the factory car manual that comes with the car. Darn good idea to know what they do and keep an eye on them. By knowing what a gauge is reading, such as a engine temperature gauge, you may be able to prevent a major overheating problem by being able to know when the vehicle is running to hot, avoiding the possibility of damaging your engine and in particular, the automatic transmission.
Heat is one of the top two reasons for transmission failures. The other reason has been talked about over and over in this blog, lack of maintenance and not using the proper transmission fluids. No need to beat the subject of transmission care. If you don’t take care of your transmission and the fluid becomes burnt, you might as well put a fork in it, it will be well done by then. That would be a great time to call GotTransmissions.com at 866-320-1182 and start to ask questions.
The mystery concerns the “engine light”. What does it mean when it comes on? Let me make this abundantly clear, the engine light is also the transmission light, that’s right, when the “engine light ” comes on, it may be signaling you that you have a transmission issue. I don’t understand why cars rarely have a separate transmission lite. Since they don’t, if the check engine light comes on you may have a transmission problem. Possibly you will notice your transmission is not performing well as soon as the engine light is on.
The first and most important thought pattern should be to have it scanned by a competent transmission shop, or if you have a hand-held code reader, read the codes and look them up with the supplied book. Surprisingly, many times you have a transmission problem.
My message is clear, don’t ignore the “check engine light”. The issue is not what the problem is, but that you get it checked or check it yourself asap. Don’t wait a few days or weeks to get it checked out. You may alter the nature of the repair from a simple cost effective repair to needing a strategy to replace your transmission.
It can happen that fast. The information provided today is one more good reason to read our GotTransmissions.com Blog. To learn more about your transmission and stay on top of your cars health issues, use our blog to your advantage. It is free anyway.
