Drivetrain slipping?
So yesterday I was headed out to a job pulling my equipment trailer which is pretty heavy and the route includes some hills with up to 7% grades. Going up one of those hills at medium RPM but near fu...
Forum Discussion
theoldwizard1 wrote:
Check the color and smell of the transmission fluid. It should be bright cherry red and not smell. Either of those are bad !
But before you freak out, trans fluid "smells" even when new, but it should not smell burnt.
Also, bright cherry red is more an indicator of a recent service and if you have 50k or 100k on trans fluid, (and not all atf is red, but most is) it may be brownish and still functioning properly. (May be time to change it, for sure, but it's not a certainty that it's bad, or causing an issue)
It's just like motor oil or gear oil. It picks up contaminants and those contaminants darken the oil. The red color is also dye, so back to my previous statement. Bright red only tells you it's not that old. It's not an actual sign of transmission health unless you're monitoring it right after a fluid change, which a pan drop and refill which most typically do, only gets about half the fluid.
Some "red" atfs turn color relatively quickly. One of the best fluids on the market looks nasty after not that many miles (Castrol Transynd), but works spectacularly.
In short, if it aint burnt, it aint the problem!
