Maintenance is the key to long automotive automatic transmissions life. The maintenance is extraordinarily important for an automatic transmission because they make use of many gaskets, seals and components we term hard-parts and soft-parts. These parts are very sensitive to heat, mileage and the time between maintenance’s.
Whether you have new car or you just put a used transmission in your car, don’t discount the importance of maintenance. In fact if you install a good used transmission it is wise to do a “service” immediately, therefore establishing a starting point for your used transmissions maintenance schedule.
Aused transmission is a great replacement for a broken transmission. Not knowing the last time it was serviced makes it a good idea to service it right away, that way you have started a maintenance schedule to go by for your tranny.
Maintenance schedules vary from brand to brand and from the age of the vehicle. We also need to consider the type of usage your vehicle will experience, meaning is it a work vehicle, a grocery getter or general transportation with an occasional trip to the hardware store where you may buy something heavy. Transmissions produce lots of heat, so making sure they cool properly is a key ingredient to long life.
Most cars built from the early ’90’s use a synthetic based transmission fluid. Synthetic oils or automatic transmission fluids (ATF) withstand more than twice the heat of a conventional ATF. Cars built from the early ’90’s have overdrive transmissions that are constantly shifting up and down the gear ranges causing lots of activity and heat which warrants good maintenance.
To make it simple, request synthetic ATF, it costs more, however, it lasts longer and your transmission will last longer. therefore negating the higher cost. A quality ATF has all the additives it needs, usually about 27 additives are mixed in to a light 15 weight oil.
As a general rule if you drive 12,000 to 20,000 miles per year than I would suggest changing your ATF and transmission filter once a year. If you drive over 20,000 miles a year but it is mostly highway driving, 30,000 miles is a good interval, if it is a work vehicle than it depends on how hard the vehicle works. In most work vehicle cases an ATF and filter change about every 12000 miles is a safe amount of mileage. On the other end of the spectrum, if you drive less than 12,000 miles per year just change the ATF every year. The importance of yearly maintenance in low mileage vehicles is that condensation can build up in the ATF. Simply put, you should drive enough to get your transmission hot enough to burn the condensation out of the ATF. You can always go for a 50 or 60 mile ride to get your tranny hot. Yes, it takes that long for the trans. to heat up all the way.
GotTransmissions.com has one more piece of advise, if your car overheats, since the ATF cools through the radiator, it is mandatory to change the fluid, because more than likely the fluid is damaged from the engine being overheated. The engine and transmission are bolted together. The radiator and everything in the cooling system needs to be checked and fixed too.
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