Dealing with transmission issues? Many drivers want to do all they can to fix the issue on their own, but changing transmission fluid at home isn’t always the answer. Mechanic Scotty Kilmer is here to share why it’s not always a good idea to change your transmission fluid to remedy transmission problems.
Why can changing your transmission fluid cause damage to your car?
If you have a high mileage vehicle and you’ve never changed the transmission fluid before, doing so now may cause the transmission to slip due to a radical change in the makeup of the transmission fluid.
In the above video, #savagescotty explains exactly why it might not be a good idea to change out super-old transmission fluid, and what you can do instead to keep your car running well for as long as possible, even if you’ve never changed the transmission fluid before. We’ve broken down the key points for you below.
Changing Transmission Fluid: What You Need to Know
It’s key to understand the history behind the creation of automatic transmission systems to understand the proper way to care for your vehicle. General Motors made the first automatic transmission — it ran using hydraulic fluid rather than with a manual clutch to change gears.
An automatic transmission uses a torque converter to help with the shifting of gears. This also stops the car from stalling when you come to a complete stop, without the need to press down on a clutch.
Normally, your transmission fluid should be changed every 50,000 miles or so. If you’ve always maintained this level of care for your car, you should continue to do so. If you’ve never changed the transmission fluid in your car, however, doing so when you’ve already hit a high mileage level can cause problems.
If you have dirty fluid running through your transmission, the dirty fluid may be providing your car with the friction that’s preventing slipping from happening when your car shifts gears. Changing the fluid at this point may create problems with your vehicle.
If your transmission is still running and it isn’t giving you any problems, it may be better to simply continue driving the car with dirty transmission fluid.
Instead of changing the fluid in a high mileage car, you may want to try Lucas’ Transmission Slip Fix. You can drain 24 oz. of your transmission fluid and replace it with the contents of a 24. oz. bottle of Transmission Slip Fix.
Most automatic transmissions hold a large quantity of fluid, and adding the slip fix won’t radically change the composition of the fluid inside your transmission, but it may be able to help your transmission stay healthy for a longer period of time while running with dirty fluid.
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