Most of the transmission troubles start after overheating.
Under heavy load, such as towing a heavy trailer, rocking the vehicle from the snow, having continuous stop and go traffic in hot weather, racing, etc. transmission overheats.
( a friend of mine burnt the transmission after he was accelerating too hard freeing his shiny Audi from the snow on the next day after he bought it!)
At higher temperature the transmission fluid burns loosing its lubricating qualities and becomes oxidized leaving deposits all over the transmission. Exposed to the heat the rubber seals and gaskets inside the transmission become hardened causing leaks. The metal parts warp and loose their strength. All this, sooner or later, results in transmission failure. However, this is not the only reason - sometimes transmissions break down just because of poor design, or after being rebuilt by inexperienced technician. Few other cases that can cause an automatic transmission damage:
1) Bad driving
2) too low or too high transmission fluid level
3) wrong transmission fluid type
(I know one guy who added a gear oil into the automatic transmission....guess what happened- the transmission died after 40 minutes of driving)
By Lora Sheehy's article on "H.T.B.C.L.
That's too technical, but clearly discussed.
Posted by: concerto em para brisa | 01/26/2011 at 03:10 AM