The simple answer is yes. Cold weather can indeed affect the way your transmission performs. From shifting to potential internal damage, old man winter can have a drastic effect on your transmission. So let’s take a look at the different ways that cold weather affects your transmission and some of the things that you can do about it.
What Transmission Do I Have?
Ways that winter affects your transmission
Things shrink
From transmission seals to plastic valves, cold temperatures can cause certain materials to contract. This will lead to leaks, poor performance and internal damage.
Things you can do to help avoid this:
Park inside – Even if it isn’t heated, parking your vehicle indoors can help shield sensitive parts from damaging freezing temperatures.
Allow your vehicle to warm up before driving – Although it might add a few extra minutes to your morning routine, allowing your vehicle to warm to operating temperature and help prevent seals leaks, shifting issues and other internal damage.
Transmission fluid viscosity changes
In the cold weather, the viscosity of transmission fluid will change, causing it to become much thicker than it ordinarily would be. This will reduce its ability to lubricate moving parts, which can cause significant damage to the gears, clutches, bearings, torque converter and countless other moving parts.
Things you can do to help avoid this:
Let your vehicle warm up before driving – The ideal operating temperature of automatic transmission fluid is between 175°F – 200°F. Allow your vehicle to reach operating temperature before putting the transmission under load will allow the ATF to thin out to the point that it can do its job and prevent significant internal damage.
Consider switching to synthetic transmission fluid – Although synthetic automatic transmission fluid is more expensive than the regular stuff, it has viscous properties that are much more conducive to cold weather. Spending a little bit more money here, may actually save you some time and money this winter.
Unusually hard shifts
Believe it or not, cold weather can make your transmission shift hard. This is because the cold weather causes your transmission fluid to thicken, leading to internal pressure issues. When the transmission fluid does start to flow, it can cause gears to engage with sort of a bang and this can lead to expensive internal damage over time.
Things you can do to help avoid this:
Allow your vehicle to warm up before you drive off – As we mentioned before, cold transmission fluid is too thick to provide adequate lubrication and most importantly, hydraulic pressure. So if you want your transmission to shift properly, let it come up to operating temperature before putting it in gear.
What Transmission Do I Have?
Switch to synthetic transmission fluid – Since synthetic transmission fluid reacts to cold weather much differently, you might want to consider spending the extra money to upgrade to synthetic ATF.
