At times your car won’t give any trouble. And sometimes all hell breaks loose when your car decides to make the garage its second home. One such trouble is a leak in the transmission fluid system. If you are not taking care of it in the right way, it will turn out to be a big problem.
So, if you notice any sort of leaking fluid from your engine, it is advised that you identify it and solve the issue as soon as possible.
Signs of transmission fluid leak
Your car will not move without a properly working transmission system. If you try to drive your car in such a condition, you will hear popping and splitting sounds and end up damaging your transmission system furthermore.
In fact, an unexpected transmission failure will prove to be fatal for your car and leave you stranded in the middle of the road. So, it is necessary to know how to identify a transmission fluid leak.
What does the transmission system do?
Regardless of the transmission system in your car – automatic or manual – it performs the same function of transferring engine-generated power to wheels and ensuring the car is running at the speed you want.
When the gears are changed, the transmission system changes the power output transferred to the wheels and adjusts the speed at which you are running your car.
If you drive a manual transmission car and find it difficult to operate the clutch, you might feel your car giving jerk reaction. You might even feel jerks when you are changing gears. This is an indication of something wrong with your transmission system.
How to spot a leak in the transmission system?
The most obvious sign of a leak in the transmission system is to notice a puddle of transmission fluid at the spot where your car was parked. You can identify the transmission fluid from other fluids by its colour and consistency.
Transmission system fluid is red in colour, slippery and has an oily texture. If your transmission system fluid is brown coloured and smells burnt you might have to get your transmission system serviced.
Other car fluids like the windshield wiper fluid and antifreeze fluid are also red in colour, so make sure you are also checking the fluid consistency to be sure about which fluid is leaking.
You should also take a note of how your transmission system starts. Does it start smoothly or makes a whirring sounds and jerks? If it is taking time to start, you may have to refill the fluid but do check for a leak before you go ahead with the refill. If your transmission system doesn’t start at all, your car may have run out of transmission fluid.
What does a transmission system repair involve?
The number of repairs for the transmission system will depend upon how long you have driven the car with the faulty transmission system after the problem started. The defective transmission system can be repaired by replacing the damaged parts with new parts like a defective torque converter or solenoid pack.
To repair a transmission leak, all one needs to do is reseal the particular spot, as long as the nearby parts are not damaged.
It is possible to rebuild a transmission system. For this, your mechanic will have to remove the whole transmission system, disassemble and inspect each part closely.
After inspection, some parts will be replaced if the damage is severe and the remaining parts can be cleaned with special procedures and put together again. If the transmission system is damaged beyond repair, then your final option will be to replace it whole.
A lot of people are busy taking care of their car’s exteriors by polishing, painting and getting their car wrapped from car wrapping service provider while they end up neglecting their car’s interiors, engine and transmission system.
Now that you know the signs of a transmission leak, how to identify it and what kind of repairs will be involved to fix it, make sure that your car doesn’t suffer from one. Do a visual inspection every week and keep checking the amount of transmission fluid left in your car.
