rev up your engines, today I'm going to show you how using the wrong
transmission fluid can damage your car now these days transmissions are
extremely complex and there are various types and even various subtypes and
those types like CVT transmissions there's a lot of different designs and
just one they all use specific fluids now the first mass-produced automatic
transmission was GM's hydra-matic in 1940 that was a four-speed automatic and
it used a special fluid called automatic transmission fluid number one that was
only available at the dealerships then in 1949 GM made a type a automatic
transmission fluid that was available everywhere so everybody could service
these automatic transmissions now believe it or not but it is true this
transmission oil contained sperm whale oil and they continue to use this whale
oil in the 1940s 50 60s and even into the 1970s now in 1973 the US federal
government made it illegal to use the sperm whale oil and here's what happened
there are about a million automatic transmission failures in 1972 when they
were still using the whale oil but then they banned it in 73 and by 1975 there
were over 8 million transmission failures as sperm whale oil really
worked whom they took it up they had problems so in 1974 they released a new
type of automatic transmission fluid had chemical additives to replace the stuff
that the whale oil did and it did start to work better and then finally they
come up with modern fluids that they call lifetime fluids that are synthetic
based fluids they do eventually get dirty and they really do need to be
changed they tell you that's oh it's good for a lifetime the transformation
then when the transmission breaks they expect you to buy another transmission
or another car so you still need a change of but they are much better
fluids and they last longer than the old ones they can take heat better one of
the big distorts of automatic transmissions while you're driving down
a road especially on traffic is they get hot the fluid has to help dissipate the
heat and if you got a synthetic fluid that really can dissipate heat
better that's a big advantage that's why I must all modern cars use these full
synthetic fluids now if you go back in history when I was a young mechanic we
had to change the fluid and these automatic transmissions every thirty
thousand miles in the filters and even though they call these modern ones
lifetime I still think you should change them every ninety or hundred thousand
miles things do get dirty over time and your warranty is long gone by the time
it does serious damage from being too dirty well though if you're the type of
guy or gal who gets rid of your vehicle before they have a hundred thousand
miles on it yeah for you it's a lifetime you don't change it isn't gonna affect
anything probably at all driving it around but if you want to keep it for
two three four hundred thousand miles you still want to change that synthetic
food but then it comes up what kind of fluids you use while never use an
unbranded fluid like this yeah I have to use the fluid that was designed for your
transmission and this is one of the reasons that led to many cars with
automatic transmissions today having no dip sticks where you can check the oil
or where you can add oil and if it's leaking the manufacturers found out that
people were putting their own fluid in these modern transmissions which cause
damages they took away the dipstick figuring well people won't mess around
with it now cuz there's no place for them to either check it or to add it in
now of course there has to be ways to change the fluid and add fluid in and
some of them are just insane some have like four pages of directions of what
you have to do to drain it and have special tools in a pump and sometimes a
special computer scan tool that can read it to see what the temperature is when
to add it when to check it it gets really complex down how so many
different types of transmissions out there so many different types of fluids
you gotta use the fluid for the design that's in your vehicle I'll give you a
perfect example one of my customers he comes to me with his friends car checked
out I said well the transmission shot automatic transmissions and Camrys
really have no history of problems did you have anything done to this
transmission he said yeah he said last year I had the fluid changed took a
sample of a stuff that was in the transmission then I sent out to one of
these oil analysis companies it's a combination of the original Toyota fluid
and some other type of fluid the mechanic didn't know what he was doing
he put the wrong fool mixed all together and the transmission
ended up going up and we all know that saying one size fits all well these
people have fluids they say it fits all them that's a bunch of malarkey these
days you're really always better to just go getOEM factory fluid and put it
in your vehicle, now you don't have to buy it at
the dealer there's plenty of places that sell OEM fluid just don't get a
unbranded one you want it from a real company that makes the real fluid that
goes into that vehicle and if you're planning on changing the fluid yourself
only use sealed containers once it's broken air gets in water vapor can get
inside then the fluid isn't any good you want tight sealed containers you don't
want to use half of one and then let it sit on the shelf by I'm a quart at a
time maybe there's a little bit left in one you don't really care we just throw it
away you don't want to use contaminated fluid
always sealed containers now there are many manufacturer proved fluids it has
to have that license on the container it's actually printed on the container
you buy a fluid and it doesn't have that on it don't use it for your car you got
to make sure that it has that label on it by law in the United States it has to
have that label if it hasn't been it won't have the label on it and in that
case don't buy that fluid for your car so look at the product information label
I'm the bottle of fluid that you're buying you can get stalling right after
the engine changes gears you can get gears that won't shift at all you can
get gears that shift roughly you can get gears that slip as you go they slip and
the engine revs up but the vehicle just doesn't take off right and it can cause
the torque converter to lock up when it's not supposed to lock up so when you
come to a stop and it's supposed to unlock it doesn't so with your automatic
transmission when you come to a stop if the torque converter is locked up the
engine will stall all these things will be caused by bad fluid which you don't
want to mess around with now you know a bit more about automatic transmission
fluids and while using the incorrect one can damage your car so just make sure
you're using the right stuff, so if you never want to miss another one
of my new car repair videos, remember to ring that Bell