Year: 2015

There are many “mechatronic” parts that control and protect the traditional clutches and planetary gears in modern automatic transmissions. These devices shift the gears, lock the clutches and regulate the fluid pressures. Tool Up When overhauling and diagnosing transmission units, you will often need special tools. Back when transmissions where purely mechanical and hydraulic, all…

Low sulfur diesel is in many ways an improvement of old high-sulfur diesel, but it isn’t free of problems. The sulfur in older fuels combines with nickel in the engine to create a molten alloy that enhances lubricity, a property that engineers anticipated when designing engines for the fuels. While engines and vehicles designed specifically…

Do you have a steering or handling problem that nobody seems to know how to fix? Or a wheel that nobody can balance? Or a weird vibration that won’t go away? It might be a bad tire or a bent wheel! Most tire manufacturers today have a pretty good grip on quality control, and perform…

The Powertrain Control Module, or PCM, is the central processing center for many of the electronic functions in a vehicle. When it has a problem, the entire car can have a problem. This automotive “brain” can affect everything from emissions to whether a car even starts. Determining whether trouble stems from the PCM itself can…

The automobile allows us to communicate with other drivers in many ways. As an example, the turn signals notify motorists we plan on making a turn just as the brake lights tell them we are stopping. Sometimes it’s important to gain another drivers attention and sounding the car horn can force even the most distracted…

Your tire wear pattern can tell you a lot about any problems you might be having with the wheel/tire/suspension geometry setup. The first two signs to look for are over- and under-inflation. Whilst this used to be a problem on older tires, modern radials have much stiffer carcasses but even so, you might still be…

There are a few words in the language of auto repair that make car owners want to crawl back into bed, and “transmission” is at the top of the list. There’s something about that mysterious box underneath your car that incites fear. Unfortunately, most repair shops know this, and will take advantage of the situation…