Today’s Transmissions

Today’s transmissions are defiantly wearing out sooner than ever. There is more activity with up to 10 speeds in a transmission and more stops in Americas cities, hence today’s transmissions are shifting more than ever.  With this shift activity components are wearing out faster than ever.

Your DAD’S transmission was made in America with American steal and aluminum  and were more durable.  Today’s transmissions are mostly made out of  aluminum with some steal components,  but do not have steal valve bodies.

Transmissions are wearing out much earlier because they are made out of a much softer material.  With federal mandates forcing manufacturers to produce a more fuel efficient vehicle.  Costs have to be compromised somewhere and that is in the quality of every component on the car and this means especially transmissions.

Something to think about

Bear in mind that everybody wants to reduce the maintenance cost of their vehicles so service intervals are raised, and the reason is attributed to synthetic fluids, the truth of the fact is the Manufacturer has lowered the wear/life expectancy of their vehicles.  What this means is they expect you the consumer to get rid of your new car every 4 years or under 75,000, and expect the 2nd owner to bear the burden of repair. So service intervals are recommended with this “VEHICLE REPLACEMENT” schedule in mind.

Most of today’s  transmissions come from the factory with either pure synthetic or synthetic blends— the fluid exchange places (ie…Jiffy Lube’s) don’t use synthetics unless you request. Jiffy Lube is a great service location and offer us all fast efficient services, just make sure that you are getting what your manufacturer requires.

No automatic transmission is wear proof, some wear out early if mostly city driving is the drive condition and last longer if highway driving is normal.  Historically transmissions wore out at about 128k mile average, in the last 5 years we are seeing trends where transmissions are wearing out in under 60,000 miles or at least are requiring a major valve body type repair.

Synthetics are great for almost all transmissions synthetic properties reduce friction and if friction is reduced then less heat is generated less heat helps to extend the life of any transmission.  However just because you use a synthetic fluid don’t neglect the service.

Transmission failure is occurring because the fluid becomes contaminated with the transmission friction material and fine metal, this friction and fine metal are getting trapped in the valve body where very close tolerances must be maintained but are compromised because friction material causes wear, additionally the fine metal is being drawn into the linear solenoids that are magnets during operation and are trapping the metal material in the very small moving components causing binding.

The transmission filter can not be depended on to remove all the suspended material that is detrimental to your transmission, service is the only way to clean up the transmission.

So you have a choice. Either believe that the manufacturer has YOUR interest in mind and not THEIRS. Or you can service your transmission and get better life expectancy.

We recommend service intervals every 30,000 miles or sooner.