The well being of your transmission is crucial to the proper performance of your vehicle. It’s a sophisticated system that needs proper care and maintenance to remain in tip top shape. However, it’s not very difficult to take good care of your transmission system, especially if you keep the following tips in mind and ensure that you follow them, on the road and off:-
- Warming up is important: On cold mornings, a car takes time to get going. However, most of us heading out to work are in a hurry, and make the mistake of not allowing the car to sit idle and warm up for a few minutes. This puts excessive pressure on the system. Transmission service professionals will tell you that it’s crucial to let your car warm up before you actually head out.
- Check ATF levels: ATF, or Automatic Transmission Fluid, is what provides lubrication to the transmission system. Some fluid is lost over time, so it needs to be replaced regularly. Drive your vehicle with inadequate ATF, and your transmission system will pay the price. Without proper lubrication, there will be far more wear and tear on the system than usual.
- Check for leaks: If you observe that your car is losing too much ATF, too fast, it might be there is a leak somewhere in the system. You need to check for such leaks and get them sealed as soon as possible. Its advisable to take your car to a transmission service center rather than try to fix the problem yourself.
- Don’t change gears too rapidly: This occurs most frequently when the vehicle gets stuck in a mud puddle, a ditch or sand. People tend to rock it back and forth, constantly switching gears, to pull out the vehicle. This should be used only as a last resort, because it can damage the system quite badly.
- Remember, your car does NOT have infinite lead-bearing capacity: It’s a picture often seen in chain letters and humor websites – the comically overloaded small car. While we may not strap a tree trunk or a roomful of furniture on the roof of our cars, we still need to watch out that we don’t overload them, lest we put excessive pressure on the transmission system.
At the slightest hint of trouble, take your car to a professional transmission service center for repairs. Even when there are no problems, its not a bad idea to take your car for regular check ups at a place that provides transmission service. Pembroke MA has plenty of such services, many of whom have been in the business for years, so pick whichever one you are most comfortable with.
