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Talking About Automotive Maintenance

Hi there, my name is Nancy. Welcome to my site about automotive maintenance. My car has lasted for more than 10 years without any major problems due to the strict maintenance schedule I follow. Vehicle maintenance includes oil changes, tune ups, tire rotations, alignments and a host of other important services. These services protect the vehicle’s components from excessive wear and unexpected failure. I will use this site to explore all of the different maintenance procedures and schedules available. I hope you can use the information on my site to keep your vehicle in great shape over the years. Thanks for visiting. Come back soon.

Talking About Automotive Maintenance

Common Transmission Problems In Vehicles With Automatic Transmission And How They Are Repaired

by Saira Tanis

Transmissions are a very vital part of a car or truck's engine. Without the transmission, your vehicle could not get moving, and when you are on the highway, the vehicle would drag slowly because it would have no additional gears to help it move. The following information will discuss common issues with automatic transmissions and how these issues are repaired.

The Planetary Gearset Is Defunct

The planetary gearset is the part of an automatic transmission that controls the gear ratios. You can tell that there is definitely something wrong with the planetary gearset when you try to put the vehicle into one of the automatic gears and the gear shift just seems to slide or slip through all of the possible gears. If the stick on your steering column just drops and flops or does not stop in any one position, then you have a planetary gearset issue. The entire component will need to be replaced in a transmission shop, like Mr Transmission.

The Transmission Does Not Seem to Be Getting Enough Fluid

Most of the time, when a transmission is not getting enough fluid it is because it is leaking out the bottom of the vehicle. However, the issue could also be the transmission gear pump. The gear pump is responsible for pumping enough transmission fluid into the transmission so that its components glide smoothly together and increased torque does not cause the transmission to burn up when metal parts turn inside other metal parts.

If the gear pump is in need of repair or shot, you will not see much transmission fluid leaking out, if any. The transmission will go dry from lack of fluid, and you may hear a grinding sound combined with a burning metal smell. (If things get this bad, your entire transmission may go because the components wiil begin to grind against each other.) The gear pump needs to be checked and/or replaced so that fresh transmission fluid can enter the transmission and keep it going.

Sun Gears Have Rusted/Corroded out or Gone "Bald"

Sun gears are the part of the automatic transmission that help lock the gears into place. When a sun gear rusts or corrodes through road salt or water exposure, it becomes harder to lock the shift stick into the gear you you want. If the sun gear goes "bald" (i.e., the threads on the gear head are too smooth for the planetary head to lock onto), you might experience something similar to when the planetary gearset is defunct, since these two parts fit and work together. If a sun gear rusts or corrodes, it will need a complete replacement. If it goes bald, your transmission expert may be able to salvage it by cutting, filing and/or regroving the threads on the sun gear so that there is something onto which the rest of the transmission can lock.

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