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How Stop-and-Go Traffic Can Affect Your Transmission

With Thanksgiving weekend just around the corner, you might be dreading the long drive to your parents’ home for the familial celebration. No matter what time you leave, you get stuck in stop-and-go traffic, and you deal with that every day on your way to work. You want a break, and, besides, you worry that these driving conditions could be hard on your car. Midwest Auto Care is sad to say that you’re right; they are. Here’s what stop-and-go traffic does to your vehicle’s transmission in particular, whether automatic or manual.

Stop-and-Go Traffic Damage to Automatic Transmissions

It’s easier to drive in traffic jams with an automatic transmission because you don’t have to worry about using a clutch; your automatic transmission engages and disengages an internal clutch on its own. This does not mean that there isn’t any damage to the automatic transmission in constant stop-and-go traffic. There is. The most common problem for an automatic transmission in traffic is overheating.

When you start your car, the transmission fluid needs time to warm up just as your motor oil does. Once it is hot, however, the concern shifts from being too cold to being too hot. Sitting in traffic heats your engine because there isn’t any air flowing through it. The hotter the engine the hotter the fluid. Overheated transmission fluid is not as effective, and the excess heat can also affect the mounts.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that your radiator helps keep the system cool. Fluid moving through the cooling system reduces the temperatures of all operating systems that need it, including the transmission. If you’re overdue for a cooling system service, have it done before you leave on your Thanksgiving trip to make sure there’s plenty of fresh coolant to keep the transmission cool.

Stop-and-Go Traffic Damage to Manual Transmissions

If you drive a manual transmission, your clutch (and your leg) gets quite a workout in stop-and-go traffic. You are constantly engaging and disengaging it as you creep along, which is irritating and can be bad for the clutch if you’re riding it. Riding the clutch means you don’t completely disengage it after you engage it, and it’s easy to ride the clutch without realizing it if you keep your foot on the pedal constantly.

Let Midwest Auto Care in Lake Station, IN, give your vehicle the once-over before the Thanksgiving holiday. We’ll check the transmission to make sure it can handle the stop-and-go drive.

Photo by Akabei from Getty Images via Canva Pro
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