I'm Joe Weisenfelder with cars.com
the automatic transmission in your car truck or SUV is one of the most complex
components in the vehicle
and as dozens of moving parts typically under electronic control
does a lot of work probably need to make since to
cell what do you do now even know a lot of new automatic transmissions are
sealed and don't really give the owner anything they can check
up most of the automatic still on the road are the old-style
which you something called automatic transmission fluid is a light
on kinda combination oil hydraulic fluid and lubricates the transmission it also
is used under pressure to activate clutches and such
miss a firm on a bit flowing around what you can do as an owner
I in these older cars and even a new or one like this this 2012 Subaru Forester
is check the level and the condition of the fluid
now there's a dipstick very much like a
a an engine oil dipstick which in this case is in the front
more often than not the transmission dipstick is way in the back a little
harder to reach
here its yellow for
easier locating wisely Subaru
labels at ATF for automatic transmission fluid just like the engine oil one says
engine oil on it on
and we recommend just as we do with oil that you wipe it clean
drop it back in now some cars
they specify that the car needs to be warmed up on a level
surface and the engine needs to be idling not always the case so once again
you're gonna have to check for your particular car
we're leaving the engine up so you can hear me and so I don't hurt myself
on and once again this gives you much like
an oil dipstick an operating range and you see if the fluid
is in the right range if there is enough in it now
even though most automatic transmission fluid historically has been read
you'll notice that this isn't so you can always go by that
in cases where it is read or even where it is colorless like this
what you're looking for is on not just the level but the condition
if it is older it tends to get darker and you can actually in some cases
smell a bird order in that as always a bad sign it means that
possibly something is wrong in the transmission but at minimum
you should have the transmission fluid replaced
now what kinda maintenance your automatic transmission needs will depend
on what type it is what design it is
there are more versions love iMac transmissions now than there have ever
been
you can have a conventional type that we've all driven there can be
dual-clutch continuously variable transmissions even a hybrid will have
the same
you know interface hear the same shifter whether the shifter
or the paddles are here really doesn't tell you anything but you know it you
don't need to know what's going on behind the curtain
you just need to know what your manufacturer recommends
and that as always along with the oil change intervals
is in the owners manual just to give you an idea of how different they can be
there's 100 model I can think of that has
two different engines in two different transmissions are both sick speeds but
they have very different
needs in terms of the type of fluids they call for any amount
whether you actually replace the transmission fluid or not depends on a
couple things
one is what the manufacture calls for and the other is the condition of the
fluid in usually that is decided by your mechanic
now in the Subaru example here
the manual calls for a check every 30,000 miles
but it doesn't say that the fluid has to be replaced based on any mileage
this car also has a filter in the system that is supposed to last the life a
vehicle
where other vehicles have a filter that needs to be replaced at some point along
the line
now there's debate about whether it can be bad for your car to replace
the transmission fluid at any point we find us a little bit hard to believe
typically what would happen if someone would start to have a problem in the
behavior the transmission and then the first thing they do is what
change the fresh fluid now not changing your fluid can definitely cause problems
in a transmission
but changing to fresh is probably not going to fix problems
that are already there
like