Franklin Auto Maintenance – Caring for your Transmission
Franklin Auto Maintenance
While most people handle standard Franklin auto maintenance tasks like changing brake pads, rotating tires, swapping out the air filter and changing the oil, there are other more advanced maintenance tasks that are equally important, even if you don’t have to do them as often.
One of these tasks is changing the transmission fluid regularly, but fluid changes depend on a few different variables, like whether your vehicle is a manual or an automatic. This isn’t a fun job to handle, but having it done regularly can prolong the lifespan of your transmission, one of the most expensive parts of your vehicle.
Why Change the Fluid?
Just like with oil, transmission fluid becomes contaminated over time. You’ll get small bits of metal and other nasty objects suspended in the fluid, and that can speed the wear on your vehicle’s transmission noticeably. In order to prolong the lifespan of your transmission, it’s important to change this fluid at the recommended interval.
Manual versus Automatic
Vehicle owners with a manual transmission are expected to change the fluid more regularly than owners with automatic transmissions. This means that you must track the mileage on your vehicle closely, and make sure that the fluid is changed at the proper interval. This generally varies between 30,000 and 60,000 miles, but in some instances you’ll be expected to change the fluid as soon as 15,000 miles if you are driving in harsh conditions.
It all depends on how much stop-and-go traffic you are in (more is harder on the transmission), what material your transmission is made from (aluminum is prone to wear faster) and what type of vehicle you drive.
Read your manual closely, and determine what the recommended change period is for the vehicle. This will help you stay on top of important tasks, so that you don’t run into issues later on when it comes to Franklin auto maintenance.
Can You Do Franklin Auto Maintenance Yourself?
If you’re an accomplished do it yourself and you’ve handled tasks like changing your brake pads, swapping out oil and changing the spark plugs, it’s likely that you can handle changing your transmission fluid as well, but it’s up to you to decide if you want to take on the task or not.
It’s a messy task and you’ll be required to remove the entire pan in order to change out the fluid and the filter. Even the pans that have a drain plug still require you to remove them to change out the filter, which is something you should do each time you change the fluid.
If you don’t want to deal with the mess, or you aren’t confident about tackling this type of project yourself, it’s a good idea to hire it out to a professional. You’ll save yourself time, you’ll do away with that mess and you’ll end up with a healthier vehicle because of it. Call us here or make an appointment at Franklin Auto Clinic for all of the Franklin auto maintenance you’re in need of.
