What Are the Most Common Causes of Transmission Problems?

Mister Transmission offers the best transmission repair services money can buy. Having said that, you still don’t want to bring your vehicle in for a transmission repair if you can avoid it, regardless if you’re bringing it to Mister Transmission. Of course, it would be foolish to think you can drive a vehicle for its whole lifespan and never require a transmission repair. Nevertheless, you want to minimize the number of repairs needed as much as possible. To do that, you need to know the root causes of transmission problems. So…what are they?

Transmission Problems

Transmissions are incredibly intricate and complex, more so than most folks think. This is because, to many people, the transmission is one part of their vehicle: the transmission. But in actuality, the transmission is a series of parts working in concert to deliver the power generated by your engine to your wheels. And when even just one of those parts is not working, that can render your whole transmission ineffective. What this all means is that a lot can go wrong with transmissions. Even the best built transmissions can run into problems because they are inherently complex.

Common Transmission Problems

While it can sometimes be exceedingly tricky to pinpoint the exact problem with a transmission, there are several common transmission problems that we hear about at Mister Transmission all the time. Here are some of these common transmission problems:

• Hard Gear Shifts
  When you shift gears, you expect the change to occur smoothly. But this is not always the case. Sometimes drivers notice resistance to the gear change. It can be difficult and it is sometimes accompanied by odd clunking and whirring noises. This is not good.
• Slipping
  Some transmissions have the opposite problem. Sometimes it’s really easy to shift gears. Too easy. So easy in fact that your transmission does it for you. You can be driving along the highway and all of a sudden your transmission slips into neutral. This is definitely not good.
• Rejected Changes
  Similar to slipping, sometimes a transmission can “reject” the driver’s gear change. For example, you might change into reverse only to have your transmission switch you right back into drive. All of these problems are annoying at best and dangerous at worst.
• Smells like Burning
  This one is fairly obvious. If ever any part of your vehicle smells like it’s burning, you should get it checked out. Unless you just “burned rubber” out of the parking lot. Which you definitely shouldn’t do, by the way.
• Fluid Leak
  As you pull out of your driveway, if you see a patch of liquid underneath your vehicle, you have a problem. Do not ignore it.

Transmission Fluid Problems

This last point is important. Not every transmission problem is caused by an issue with your transmission fluid. But there is no transmission problem that cannot be caused or worsened by a transmission fluid problem. If you’re low on transmission fluid, top it up. If your transmission fluid is damaged or burned –smells unpleasant, looks opaque– bring in your vehicle for a fluid change. And if you suspect you have a leak, bring in your vehicle for a transmission re-sealing.

Get In Touch

If you would like to learn more about the causes of and solutions to common transmission problems, please contact us today.