Auto Service: Why You Need to Maintain Your Car

Welcome to my blog. My name is Ken. One day, I was driving home from work when the engine in my car failed. While I waited for the recovery truck to arrive, I realised I didn’t have a clue what went on underneath the bonnet of my car. I signed up for an auto service course at my local community college, so I could gain the skills I needed to properly maintain my car and repair it if something when wrong while I was on the road. I wanted to start a blog to pass on these skills to other people so that they can look after their automobiles.

Your Transmission Pump Is Failing: The Symptoms You Should Look Out For

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Have you ever wondered how your car goes from a roaring engine at a standstill to a speeding monster on the highway? Well, the transmission is responsible for all this magic. It comprises a gearbox for transmitting power from the engine to the rotating axles. The axles then initiate movement of the wheels depending on how much power the gearbox is drawing from the engine. This can only be done well if there is sufficient transmission oil circulating in the system. Therefore, a bad transmission pump can lead to poor performance of your transmission system. Here are some common symptoms of an ailing transmission pump:  

Difficulty Shifting the Gears

A problem with the transmission pump means that transmission oil is not being pushed through the system. This means that your gears lack proper lubrication, leading to a situation referred to as hard shifting. It's easy to tell when your vehicle experiences hard shifting. If you the car has a manual transmission, the gear lever is hard to shift physically from one gear to another. On the other hand, a vehicle with automatic transmission displays hesitation and jerking every time you accelerate.

Pungent, Burning Smell

Since the pump has some malfunctions, the transmission fluid does not go around in the system as it normally would. For this reason, there is friction between the axle and gear cogs, which generates heat every time the transmission is running. Any available transmission fluid burns up and produces a pungent smell. You can notice the smell quite easily whenever you pull out the engine dipstick. Additionally, the transmission fluid will be darker than normal because of the effects of the heat.

Slipping Transmission

Pump problems can be caused by the presence of dirt and impurities in the transmission system. They can block the pump outlets and inlets, causing the transmission to slip. Essentially, a slipping transmission refers to a case where the car has trouble staying in one or more gears after engaging. For instance, if you shift the car into gear number three, it slips back into gear two or jumps straight into gear four.

Thankfully, flushing the transmission in such cases resolves the problem and gets the pump up and running again. The process involves forcing fluid through the transmission in the opposite direction to maximise the cleaning effect. Additional cleaning agents are also added to the mixture to remove impurities and dirt in the transmission system.

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21 April 2017