Most vehicle manufactures tell us that the automatic transmission in modern vehicles are ‘filled for life’ or ‘sealed for life’ and never need servicing. There is no such thing as a ‘sealed for life’ transmission. Visit the Ron Hill Workshop and you will see for yourself that these “sealed for life” units fail, we have them in the workshop every day for repair.
The cost of repairing modern automatic transmissions has become huge and will come as a surprise and averages 10-15% of the purchase price of the vehicle when it was new. It applies whether the vehicle’s transmission is a DSG (Direct Shift Gear), CVT (Constantly Variable Transmission) or Regular Automatic Type Transmission.
Nearly all transmission failures we see are due to no oil changes and badly oxidised/contaminated fluid. We believe these failures can mostly be avoided. Multiple heat cycles and clutches applying and releasing constantly degrade the fluid and eventually block filters and turn the fluid black.
You would expect the life span of your vehicle to be 10-15 years or longer, but there is no possible way that a transmission would last that long if left unserviced. In fact, I doubt very much that they would last half that time. This begs the question — how long do the manufacturers believe the life of a transmission really is if it’s left unserviced?
In recent years vehicle manufacturers no longer recommend servicing the transmission in the service schedule. This makes the vehicle appear to be cheaper to run with reduced maintenance costs, resulting in a more attractive vehicle to buy. Fleet buyers are the manufacturers biggest customers and lower maintenance costs are appealing to reduce the overall expense. This may work for short term ownership but who foots the bill when the second owner takes on the vehicle and is faced with a transmission failure.
If you want your transmission to continue to give reliable performance, then forget the ‘filled for life’ mentality and have your transmission serviced regularly …
Servicing will extend the life of your transmission, avoiding an expensive repair bill by the time your car is undoubtedly out of warranty with the manufacturer.
You can prevent premature failure and extend the service life of your automatic transmission, save money in the long term and have a safer, more reliable vehicle in the short term.
It’s called …
Regular Auto Transmission Servicing!
