Automotive Tips

Keep Your Vehicle’s Shift Smooth—Transmission Maintenance Tips

Your vehicle’s transmission is an essential and complex engine component; the gears convert power from the engine to torque, thus allowing you to drive your vehicle at the speed you choose. Used constantly while driving, it’s important to minimize its wear and tear with regular transmission maintenance, which involves monitoring the level and condition of the transmission fluid and several working parts.

Nothing is more important to the life of your transmission than the transmission fluid which lubricates, cleans, and cools its nearly 100 internal parts while providing the hydraulic pressure that makes all these components work together. In addition to monitoring the automatic transmission fluid (ATF) level, transmission maintenance should include checking the fluid for contaminants as well as a complete fluid and filter change once a year or every 30,000 to 50,000 miles.

If you tow heavy loads and drive long distances or in otherwise severe conditions that generate additional heat inside the transmission including stop and go traffic, mountainous terrain, and hot weather, your ATF may degrade sooner than normal and requires changing every 15,000 miles.

For exact transmission maintenance intervals, Jiffy Lube recommends checking your vehicle owner’s manual.  At your Southern California Jiffy Lube, the following transmission services are available:

• Automatic Transmission Drain and Fill: removing the old ATF and refilling with new fluid to the proper level.
• Automatic Transmission Filter Replacement: removing the old filter and gasket material and replacing them with a new parts; refilling the transmission with new ATF to the proper level.
• Automatic Transmission Fluid Exchange & Filter Replacement: changing the fluid in the transmission system including the torque converter and transmission cooler, replacing the filter and gasket, and refilling with new ATF fluid to the correct level.
• Manual Transmission Service: evacuating the old transmission fluid and filling with new.

Most transmission problems start small with leaks. You can recognize these issues by ATF fluid that is brown or smells burned, unusual noises, vibrations or shifting hesitation. Regular transmission services can resolve these minor issues before they become a big deal eliminating the need for major LA transmission repair.

Keep shifting smooth while maximizing the life of your vehicle’s transmission; check your transmission fluid levels periodically and stop by your neighborhood Jiffy Lube for regular transmission services.