WHEN, HOW AND WHY YOU SHOULD CHANGE YOUR AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION FLUID (ATF)



ATF is that pinkish, or reddish sweet smelling oil inside your car’s automatic transmission or gear.

When you need to change your ATF

The truth is that Automatic Transmissions are built to last longer than we can imagine, but nothing preserves the live of your transmission like a regular oil change so ATF should be changed as frequent as possible.
Usually oil change varies according to manufacturer’s specification which can be found on the owner’s manual or according to owner’s usage or driving habit.
 Some manufactures recommends change after every 100,000 or 150,000, nor 50,000 miles.

But according to usage, if you are the type that does a regular stop and go city or home to work city drives, this allows your oil to loose viscosity i.e. its lubricating power faster due to frequent steam condensation inside the oil. Thus if you are the type with this type of city drive habits, no matter your manufacturer’s spec, it is better for you to do oil change every 15000 miles (1 year) or at most 60000 miles (2 years) intervals to prolong your transmission’s life.

Also if you have not been taking note of your car’s mileage or months of usage, then you might want to check your ATF now. It’s easy to do this on your own. Full procedure on how to check your transmission accurately is in the next article.

Lastly if your ATF is not in a good condition, it has a way of telling you the car user. This might be through MIL light coming up for you to perform a scan or diagnosis to decode its fault.

Or most evidently you will be experiencing some abnormal behaviors in the gear’s performance. E.g. slippage in gears while on motion, lateness in shifting between gears, lateness in engaging each gear as you change the gear stick from one position to the other also you might notice some noise when changing gears and several other abnormal behaviors.

My advice, don’t wait till you start experiencing this abnormal behaviors before checking your oil because most times the transmissions already getting damaged to exhibit t these symptoms and signs.

To be continued.............


PROFESSIONAL OF THE WEEK

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Comments

  1. Unknown9 March 2018 at 13:14

    The first thing to check is the fluid level. For an automatic transmission to function normally, the fluid level must be between the "full" and "add" marks on the dipstick. If the fluid level is low, the transmission may slip or engage slowly. If the level is too high, the fluid can become mixed with air (aerated) causing shifting problems, slippage and noise.

    Check the level when the transmission is hot. On most vehicles this is done with the engine idling and the transmission in Park. Moving the gear selector thorough each gear position prior to checking the level will help assure an accurate reading.

    Under normal driving conditions, a transmission should not use any fluid. A low level, therefore, usually indicates a leak. A visual inspection of the pan gasket and driveshaft seals will tell you where the fluid is going.

    Next, check for fluid oxidation. The sniff test is a good one, but a "blotter test' is even better. Put a few drops of ATF on a clean paper towel. Wait 30 seconds, then examine the spot. If the fluid has spread out and is pink, red or even light brown in color, the fluid is in satisfactory condition. But if the spot hasn't spread out and is dark brown in color, the ATF is oxidized and should be changed.

    If the fluid has a milky brown appearance, it indicates coolant contamination. There is probably a leak in the ATF oil cooler inside the radiator that is allowing coolant to mix with the ATF. This is bad news and needs to be repaired immediately.

    If the fluid is full of bubbles or is foamy, the transmission is probably overfilled with ATF. Other causes include using the wrong type of ATF or a plugged transmission vent.

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