Cant Get Good Reading Off Dipstick Wrx

Most vehicle owners know that in order to keep their ride roadworthy, they need to stay up-to-date on routine maintenance, such every bit oil changes and tire replacement. Merely you lot should also go on tabs on your automated transmission—you know, that affair with the gears that yous shift into drive, reverse, and park multiple times a twenty-four hours. Keeping your transmission humming smoothly tin pay dividends, every bit information technology's one of the most expensive components on your machine to repair or replace.

Thankfully, checking on your transmission's health is neither equally difficult, equally fourth dimension consuming, nor as plush as y'all may think. Here's how.

Checking the Fluid

Merely as your engine uses oil to lubricate and cool its internals, automatic transmissions utilize specially designed transmission fluid for the same purpose. Conventional automated transmissions, dual-clutch automatics, and continuously variable automated transmissions each use a specific type of transmission fluid. If you lot're unsure which fluid is used in your manual, consult your owner'due south manual; typically, manual-fluid requirements tin can be found in the specifications section.

You don't need to be a mechanic to gain insight into the status of your vehicle's transmission—a simple visual check will do. You'll need to look at the level and condition of your transmission fluid.

Locate the Dipstick

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Brad Fick Car and Driver

Start, locate the manual dipstick, which tin can be found nether the hood, in the engine compartment. Make sure yous are locating the manual dipstick and not the engine-oil dipstick; the transmission dipstick is commonly further back in the engine bay, toward the firewall (the bulkhead at the front end of the cabin). The transmission dipstick is typically marked with a specific color or a transmission symbol.

Note: if you tin't find the dipstick, don't exist alarmed. Many modern vehicles use a sealed-for-life transmission that never requires checking or fluid replacement—so they don't have a dipstick. (Refer to your owner'due south transmission for your model'south specific service schedule and to double-check whether it has a transmission dipstick.)

If your vehicle has a sealed manual, you can slam the hood close and drive. Only if your vehicle does have a transmission dipstick, hither's what to do side by side:

Check the Level

With the engine warmed up, leave the car idling in park on a level surface. Pull out the dipstick, wipe it clean, replace it slowly, and and so pull it back out. Bank check the fluid level—how loftier the fluid comes up on the dipstick—against the "full" and "low" or "fill" marks on the dipstick.

The color of manual fluid can tell you a lot almost the health of your car'south transmission.

Fluid Condition

Now lay the dipstick on a white surface, such as a paper towel, to analyze the color of the fluid. The condition of your transmission fluid—and to some extent, the manual itself—is indicated past the colour of the fluid. If your fluid is healthy, information technology should take a reddish-pink color; if it'southward getting to the point of needing replacement, information technology will be chocolate-brown red. If the fluid is nighttime brown or blackness, then it's quite possible that you will be replacing more than just your fluid. Dark fluid with a burnt smell is bad news; in the worst case, you might find fine metal shavings in the fluid as well. Both of those symptoms bespeak to possible harm of your transmission'southward internal components. This is usually a consequence of failing to follow the recommended service interval for replacing the manual fluid, but information technology'south not incommunicable that a manual could accept a premature mechanical consequence, merely similar whatever other component on the vehicle.

Low Fluid?

If your fluid is low, it doesn't necessarily mean you're headed for disaster, but it does about likely mean at that place is a leak somewhere in the system. Filling upwardly the transmission and and so checking it daily to run into how chop-chop the level goes down tin be a good way to assess the severity of a potential leak. Also try to visually inspect your manual by looking under the auto for whatever fluid oozing out of it. Does the car leave spots of reddish fluid on the ground after it's parked? If the fluid is blackness, it's engine oil. If information technology's h2o, information technology's likely condensation from the ac system.

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If you lot do notice some transmission-fluid loss or observe that your manual is using an aberrant amount of fluid, contact a mechanic as before long as you can. We'd recommend seeing a reputable car dealer who sells and services your vehicle as a first finish. Its service department volition have the most experience with your make and model and might take seen this issue earlier. If you have the luxury of letting the auto sit until it tin be inspected, practise so.

Opposite to what some internet mechanics may tell you, a transmission-fluid replacement volition not destroy an older vehicle's aging transmission. Typically, when a transmission suddenly has bug after fluid replacement, information technology'south because there was already an internal problem, such as a worn clutch pack. If your manual is healthy, and so a fresh change of fluid will only help its longevity.

FYI, if your transmission fluid is low and needs topping off, this is usually washed through the same tube that the dipstick fits in. Adding fluid (which is available at automobile-parts stores) volition crave a funnel with a narrow—and virtually likely long—spout.

Only like any machine, a transmission needs proper maintenance in lodge to operate every bit the manufacturer intended. As they say, have care of your transmission, and it will take intendance of you lot.