improving the performance of high-mileage cars

3 Tips To Keep Your Car's Transmission Running Smoothly And Prevent A Costly Repair

11 August 2015 by Hugh Lowe

Your car's transmission is crucial to its everyday operation, and yet, because it's out of sight under the hood, it's also often one area of the vehicle that can be easy for a lot of owners to overlook when it comes to performing maintenance. Most car owners know that they should change their engine oil on a regular basis, but if you don't take equal care of the transmission, the engine won't be able to do its job.

Here are a few tips to keep your car's transmission in great shape and your vehicle out of the transmission repair shop:

Friction Modifiers

The transmission uses its own special fluid in order to keep running smoothly, much in the same fashion your engine runs on gasoline and engine oil. While flushing out the old fluid and replacing it with fresh oil from the local department store on a regular basis can go a long way towards preserving the transmission's life, there is an additional step you can take that you might not have heard of.

There are a number of additives available on the car market today that can be added to your typical transmission fluid. These additives can help the transmission run even more smoothly and add additional longevity to its lifetime.

These special additives, called friction modifiers, aren't typically found in the fluid you can purchase at your department store. Your local transmission repair shop is the place to go if you want to get this extra protection.

Cooler Line Filter

If your vehicle runs on an automatic transmission, it already has a filter inside of it. This filter is designed to catch loose particles that would otherwise gunk up the works and cause a problem. But this filter is not going to catch everything, and over time, some dirt or other particles could cause damage. If you want additional help fighting this mess under your hood, have your local transmission shop install a cooler line filter. A cooler line filter will help remove junk from the transmission fluid and it won't break the bank to have it installed.

Annual Checkups

Even if you do nothing else, every car owner should get their vehicle to a local repair shop for service and maintenance at least once a year. A complete fluid and filter change should be completed. If your shop allows it, schedule your next appointment for the following year way in advance, just so you have it on the books, and will therefore hopefully be more likely to stick to it. 

If you want to keep your car's transmission in solid shape, get into the habit of performing regular maintenance on it, just like you do when you change your engine's oil. Your local transmission shop has a number of things it can do to help extend your transmission's life, including adding a cooler line filter to help take care of dirt and debris, or adding a friction modifier to the fluid to keep things flowing smoothly.

Contact a company such as S & A Transmission to learn more.

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