If you took apart your automatic transmission, you’d find an intricate and amazing automobile system. When it’s working well, you don’t even think about it. You put your foot on the gas and cruise along with the transmission switching gears for you the entire way. Once the transmission acts up, Ultimate Auto Repair recommends you have it checked ASAP because it could be a sign of serious trouble.
1. Your Transmission Should Be Smooth
When your automatic transmission shifts gears, you should barely feel it. If you feel your automobile shake, stutter, or jolt, the gears are struggling to shift. If you feel your vehicle lose power suddenly and your engine revs, your car has slipped out of gear. These are signs of a serious transmission problem.
2. Your Car Should Always Respond When Put In Gear
Another sign of a serious automatic transmission problem is your vehicle will hesitate or refuse to go into gear. This happens when you put it into drive or reverse from neutral or park. Your vehicle should go into the gear quickly and smoothly. If it doesn’t, you’ve got a transmission or computer problem.
3. Your Transmission Should Be Silent
As we’ve said above, your transmission shouldn’t “clunk” into gear. The shifts should be smooth. You shouldn’t hear any noise, either, whether in gear or in neutral. If your transmission fluid has broken down, you might hear clunking, grinding, humming, or whining coming from the transmission.
4. Your Transmission Should Not Smell Hot
Anytime you smell anything hot coming from your car, park your automobile and shut it off. Hot or burning smells point to a serious problem that could result in an engine fire. In the case of the transmission, the fluid could be old, broken down, and overheating itself and the gears.
5. Your Transmission Should Not Leak
Leaking fluid near the front of your automobile is not transmission fluid. If you see red fluid on your garage floor toward the center, that’s transmission fluid. A transmission fluid leak is bad not only from the perspective that a part has failed but also that the fluid is low and unable to protect the gears.
6. Your Check Engine Light Should Not Be On
Finally, because it doesn’t have its own light, your vehicle’s engine control unit will turn on the check engine light if there is even a minor problem with the automatic transmission. This is a good thing because the sooner you’re alerted to trouble the quicker you can get it fixed and avoid serious damage.
Bring your automobile in to Ultimate Auto Repair. Our Jackson, MI, service shop is the only shop you need for all of your automotive services and repairs.
