Family Owned & Operated
50% OFF TOWING WITH ALL MAJOR REPAIRS
We Service All Makes & Models
FREE Shuttle Service Within 3 Miles
Complete Auto Repair
June 19, 2022
Most vehicles have automatic transmissions, yet a lot of Grand Rapids drivers only have a fuzzy understanding about what a transmission does. Think back to the last time you rode a bike in Grand Rapids. You started out in a lower gear and shifted to higher gears as you went faster. Down shift for hills, stuff like that. Think of your legs as the engine – there's an ideal speed you can pedal and you change gears to leverage the work you're doing.
Lower gears for power on hills or for starting out. Higher gears for more speed. That's what the automatic transmission does – it automatically starts in lower gears and shifts up to higher gears to go faster on Michigan roads. And it automatically shifts back down to climb Grand Rapids hills, pass or start up again.
Vehicle automatic transmissions have certainly gotten more sophisticated in recent years. They have more speeds than before: the base is four speeds, five is very common.
At Tuffy Grand Rapids - Fuller Ave., we routinely service transmissions with six speeds and several have seven or even eight speeds. As you can imagine, this means more parts. Any they all have to fit into roughly the same space.
Transmissions are computer controlled these days, with some high end transmissions having two or three computers. Transmissions are engineered to last. But they are also engineered to tighter tolerances. If a portion of the transmission is starved for lubrication, it can lead to failure.
Not enough fluid can starve the transmission, or dirty transmission fluid can clog small passages in the transmission. Then the lubricant is blocked and can't get to all the parts to protect them, so they wear out prematurely. The technicians at Tuffy Grand Rapids - Fuller Ave. see far too many transmissions that needlessly failed due to neglect.
And, as you can imagine, repairing one of these new transmissions at any Grand Rapids service center can be quite costly. That's why owner’s manuals have a schedule for how often you should change the fluid and what type of fluid to use.
It's really important for Grand Rapids area drivers to carefully follow the manufacturer's transmission service schedule.
At Tuffy Grand Rapids - Fuller Ave. in Grand Rapids, we hope you never become shiftless in Grand Rapids because you didn't take care of your transmission.
Tuffy Grand Rapids - Fuller Ave.
1121 Fuller Ave. NE
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49503
616.458.8091
https://www.tuffyfullerave.com/
April 13, 2025
Vehicle emission testing has become ubiquitous in North America and for a good reason. Clean air quality is important for the environment and all of us. Since vehicle emissions are among the main causes of air pollution, emission testing can alert you to problems in your vehicle than can be fix... More
April 6, 2025
You may have heard about an important part of your vehicle's engine called a timing belt, and many know that if that belt breaks, it can cause some very serious engine problems. Not all vehicles have them, and the ones that do generally have smaller engines. The timing belt keeps the engine sy... More
March 30, 2025
When you feel your vehicle vibrating as you're driving down the road, one cause could be something you may not have ever seen: your driveshaft. It is underneath the vehicle and most drivers don't climb under there to take a look very often. The driveshaft is a cylindrical part that helps conduc... More
