Sunshine Coast Auto Electrician Mechanic

Along the Sunshine Coast and around Australia, automatic transmissions have become quite popular. In fact, for every vehicle that has a manual transmission, seven, eight, or perhaps nine have automatic ones. This means additional work for your mechanic in addressing issues with this type of gearbox. Even the auto electrician mechanic may become involved with problems regarding automatic transmissions.

It does seem that more mechanics are repairing or even replacing automatic transmissions at a greater rate today than just a few years ago. This is not due to one single cause, but rather a series of issues that has been developing over time.

Vehicle Usage, Mechanical Modifications, and Software Upgrades

Basically, this comes down to a lack of information on the mechanic’s part when repairing or replacing an automatic transmission. In most cases, the lack of information is focused on how the vehicle is driven. What mechanical modifications have been made, and if the software upgrades have not been included or are not right for the vehicle itself.

For example, a customer wants their automatic transmission that has failed to be replaced with a rebuilt unit. This seems straightforward enough, so you take down the make and model and order a rebuilt unit for replacement. The mechanic takes all the precautions of ensuring the new transmission is suitable for the vehicle, follows all the recommended procedures, and test-drives the vehicle so that everything is working smoothly. You hand back the vehicle, after the repair and maintenance at the workshop, to the customer and everything seems fine.

Then a week later the customer comes back with their new transmission and gearbox undergoing issues after he towed his speedboat. The customer believes you have not installed the new transmission properly and either wants another replacement transmission or his money back immediately.

Gearbox and Transmission Issues

This is certainly a difficult situation for the mechanic because everything was done by the book. But saying that you did everything right is not going to satisfy the customer. Why is the gearbox making noises? Is it possible that you made a mistake when installing the rebuilt transmission?  Of course. But there are other explanations as well which start with the new information the customer has provided when bringing back the vehicle.

Automatic transmissions are designed with specific applications in mind. In other words, they are designed not only to fit the vehicle, but also to cope with a limited range of loads that may be applied to the vehicle itself. While manual transmissions can exceed their standard load capacity by a considerable amount, automatic transmissions tend to be less robust in that regard.

This means that in going back over the original installation process, there are more questions to be asked of the customer to get the most information.

Our next article will include some of these questions like ‘Do You Tow Anything with Your Vehicle?’.

As a Sunshine Coast mechanic that changes out the gearbox and automatic transmissions, gathering all the information first is essential before you do a replacement job. This may also require using the services of an auto electrician if you are not qualified yourself to double-check the wiring and software.

The team from Harmac Auto Electrics have certified Auto Electric Mechanics to help you with all these questions. Contact them on  07 54 938 633, they will have the answers.  You can also book an appointment online and we will confirm your booking.

 

Author – Harmac Automotive