Common Fixes for a Transmission that Jerks or Hesitates

John Baker|Jun 05, 2017 8:52 AM

The AMSOIL ATF is one of our best sellers in the Sioux Falls store. Thanks to you many local transmission shops are now suggesting it to their customers. You can pick up here and take to your favorite transmission shop.

Here are a few common reasons why your transmission may shift erratically, jerk or hesitate.

• Low fluid level
• Depleted fluid frictional properties
• Poor cold-temperature fluidity

Start with the easiest fix

There’s an old adage when troubleshooting: start with the least expensive and simplest fix. In this case, check the transmission fluid level first. Low fluid can prevent the transmission from shifting properly. It’s important to find out why the fluid is low and fix any problems. It could be a leaky seal or other mechanical defect. Otherwise, adding new fluid won’t ultimately solve the problem.

Worn fluid equals poor shift quality

Transmission fluid that has aged and lost some of its frictional properties can also lead to poor shift quality. When your vehicle’s computer tells the transmission to shift gears, hydraulic pressure (provided by the fluid) squeezes a series of plates together inside a clutch pack to connect the engine to the transmission output shaft and route power to the wheels. The fluid’s frictional properties play a vital role in ensuring the clutch plates bind together properly and gear shifts occur seamlessly.

Over time, the fluid’s frictional properties can degrade, leading to elongated, jerky or inconsistent shifts. In this case, it’s time for a fluid change.

How do you know for sure the fluid is worn? The only definite way to find out is to conduct used fluid analysis. However, fluid that smells burnt or appears dirty is likely due for a change. It’s best practice to change the fluid before the frictional properties are depleted and you experience poor shifting. Those poor shifts can cause the clutches to wear more rapidly and lead to bigger issues that need mechanical repairs.

Be aware of “adaptive” transmissions

One interesting note affects newer vehicles equipped with adaptive transmissions. These units “learn” your driving habits and the characteristics of the fluid to adjust shifts accordingly. As the fluid loses its frictional properties, the computer compensates and adjusts transmission performance.

** If you’ve recently changed your fluid, the computer may still operate as if old fluid is installed, causing poor shift quality. In these cases, keep driving and eventually the computer will “relearn” your driving habits and the behavior of the new fluid and adjust accordingly. The problem was significant enough on some 2012-2013 Ford F-150s to cause Ford to issue a technical service bulletin (TSB 13-1-10).

What do “frictional properties” look like?

We know what good, crisp shifts feel like. Can we dive in even further and see what they look like?

We can, and they appear as a flat, boring line on a graph. The dark blue line represents the frictional properties of new AMSOIL Signature Series Synthetic Automatic Transmission Fluid. The light blue line shows the frictional properties of the same fluid after more than 180,000 miles in taxi cabs operating in the intense heat of Las Vegas.

As you can see, the lines are extremely close, with no abrupt spikes or dips. This means, after 180,000 miles of severe service, the fluid continued to deliver crisp, confident shifts.

Granted, it’s not exciting to look at – unless you love driving and want to protect your transmission.

Cold weather can reduce shift quality

When the temperature drops, transmission fluids with poor cold-flow properties can thicken and cause elongated and hard shifts until the fluid has warmed up enough to flow properly. Switching to a high-quality synthetic transmission fluid will help. Synthetics don’t contain waxes, as conventional fluids do, meaning they remain fluid at lower temperatures for improved shifts during cold weather.

The best transmission fluid available won’t fix a broken transmission. But using high-quality synthetic fluid can help improve shift quality and maximize transmission life.

World’s Most Powerful Outboard Motors Rely on AMSOIL

Seven Marine, maker of the world’s most powerful outboard motors, has a saying: We move the people who move the world. The Germantown, Wis. company designs, builds and sells outboard motors that produce up to an astonishing 627 hp and power some of the fastest and most impressive watercraft in the world.

All that power places tremendous stress on their sophisticated motors, which is why they turned to AMSOIL synthetic lubricants as their factory- and service-fill lubricants after having previously used Mobil* products. We sat down with Eric Davis, Seven Marine Vice President, to get the story.

AMSOIL Magazine: What makes Seven Marine unlike any other manufacturer of marine motors?

Eric Davis: We build the most powerful outboards available on the market today. We use a completely different technological approach than any other outboard manufacturer by using the small-block supercharged V-8 out of the Cadillac* CTS V and applying that in its normal horizontal configuration under the cowl. And that really makes Seven Marine unique because all other outboard motors are vertically oriented. That means we can use the performance, quality and emissions advancements that are central to automotive engines and apply that to outboard motors for the first time. In addition, we pair the engine to a ZF* marine wet-disc-clutch transmission. We’re the only outboard that uses a transmission. Because of that, our motors don’t shift in the lower unit.

AMSOIL Magazine: What performance advantages does that design provide?

Davis: It allows us to optimize the lower unit with a twin-pinion, race-inspired design that’s smaller in diameter. That benefits us in high-speed-cruise fuel economy and top-speed capability. A twin-pinion also gives you a tremendous amount of durability.

So, when you use a horizontal crankshaft engine, go with a wet-disc-clutch transmission and finish with a twin-pinion lower unit, you really get an outboard that’s built completely different, which is how we’re able to deliver the amount of power and torque to the propeller that sets us apart from everyone else.

AMSOIL Magazine: Your most powerful motor produces 627 hp. On what type of watercraft are people using your outboards?

Davis: The vast majority of our applications are multi-engine, and the trend lately has been more quads than anything [using four engines simultaneously]. We address the market that’s called the ‘super consoles,’ so we’re talking about 40-plus-foot, centerconsole, off-shore boats. Four engines can be done using a boat as short as 43 feet and as long as 61 feet.

AMSOIL Magazine: Who’s buying your outboards?

Davis: By the time you find out what they’ve done or what they do, they’ve touched your life in some way, shape or form. We use as a corporate tag line, ‘The Power to Move Those Who Move the World,’ and that really came from the fact that our customers are exactly those people, whether it’s the northern hemisphere’s largest onion farmer or the family that owns the third-largest grain distributor in the world – all kinds of people like that. They have truly amazing stories.

AMSOIL Magazine: How do they use your outboard motors?

Davis: It varies a lot. In general, they use them for transportation. They’re moving great distances, and what makes the applications unique for Seven Marine is that they’re trying to traverse those distances at high-speed cruise. They use the applications for everything from island-hopping to poker runs to deep-sea fishing. We have customers in the Gulf of Mexico who are running 150 miles to fish the rigs, so they’re cruising three hours at 50 mph to get out there and fish. We have people in Alaska 150 miles from civilization. Generally speaking, they’re covering great distances at pretty good clips.

AMSOIL Magazine: Why did you choose AMSOIL synthetic lubricants for your engines and transmissions?

Davis: When you’re trying to deliver the most luxurious experience for the customer and deliver the most performance at this level of power, you really have to have the best of everything to make sure it works properly. And you have to be confident that you have the best lubricants to ensure you’ve got the ultimate in durability. AMSOIL, on the engine and transmission side, has been the best products we can find. That allows us to be confident that when we do a factory-fill and recommended servicefill with AMSOIL, that you’re going to get that same factory performance day-in and day-out.

AMSOIL Magazine: What did your own test results tell you about AMSOIL products?

Davis: When we started doing oil sampling from dyno testing and looking at the performance of the oil and its degradation, the AMSOIL results were superior than what we were using before [Mobil products]. We’re endeavoring to build the absolute best world-class products we can and innovate in the marine industry, so we prefer to have an oil that we feel is as innovative and technologically advanced as the engines that it’s going into, and that leaves us with AMSOIL

In Sioux Falls review our marine 10W-30 and 10W-40 4-stroke oil for the big blocks, the new Mercury 25W-20 and several 2-stroke oils for injection units both OEM and our famous HP Injector formula and the 45 year old 100:1 outboard pre-mix.

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