Of all the fluids in your vehicle, transmission fluid is one of the most important. This special type of fluid helps keep your car’s automatic or manual transmission cool and lubricated. Driving with low or dirty fluid inside the transmission can cause wear and tear that ultimately leads to unexpected transmission repairs. To help keep your transmission running strong, take a closer look at the importance of transmission fluid and transmission fluid service.
Regardless of whether you have a manual transmission or automatic transmission, you will need to change the transmission fluid according to the service schedule in your owner’s manual. Automatic transmission fluid should be changed every 60,000 to 100,000 miles, while manual transmission fluid needs to be changed about twice as frequently, or every 30,000 to 60,000 miles. Over time, the transmission fluid degrades and breaks down. Eventually, old fluids cease to keep all of the moving parts inside the transmission lubricated, thus increasing the amount of wear and tear on the transmission itself. Old transmission fluid also becomes contaminated with metal particles that can shorten the life of your transmission.
It is therefore important to change your transmission fluid as and when due.