Automatic exchange: how to use, maintain and how they work
The comfort of driving a car with an automatic transmission has conquered many drivers. The market has already noticed this trend and has launched more and more cars with this type of transmission. A study released by Bright Consulting predicts that in 2019, for the first time in history, the Brazilian market will sell more brand new cars equipped with this type of transmission than models with manual gearboxes. Look here for additional insights: transmission shifting hard
However, in the same proportion as the purchase of automobiles with automatic transmissions has increased, doubts about how to use them on a day-to-day basis and care with maintenance have also grown. Therefore, we have gathered here the main questions, tips and trivia about this subject.
After all, is it necessary to change the oil in the automatic transmission? In heavy traffic or when I stop at the traffic light, do I put the lever on N (Neutral) or leave it on D ( Drive )? How should I proceed when I finish parking an automatic car? There are so many questions that we decided to ask a guide to guide you on how to proceed so that you can extend the life of the transmission and do not suffer any losses. In addition to not being fooled when buying a car with an automated transmission, believing it to be a conventional automatic.
Automatic
The automatic transmission does not have a clutch. It's a component called a torque converter that connects the gearbox to the engine. The gears are defined by epicyclic gears, popularly called planetary (different from those present in manual systems). That's why and the automatic transmission is also called epicyclic.
Gear changes are carried out automatically, by an electronic central, according to the engine's rotation and vehicle speed. However, they are not as fast as automated double-clutch gearboxes. On the other hand, operation is extremely smooth.
The most modern systems already have eight or even 10 gears. But virtually all current mechanisms, regardless of the number of speeds, allow the driver to take control and make the changes on his own, sequentially, through touches on the lever or butterflies located on the steering wheel (which have the technical name paddle-shifts). Dual-clutch automats (called DSG or DST) also offer the option of changing gears on fins under the steering wheel.
Automatic exchange of type CVT
And the CVT? The Continuosly Variable Transmission is a type of automatic transmission, also coupled to the engine by a torque converter. However, its working principle has very specific characteristics. That's because it doesn't have a fixed number of gears: it works as if it had an infinity of them.
Is that instead of bringing several epicyclic gears, which determine the gears, it has only two pulleys of variable diameter, connected to a pulley or a chain. The relationship between them changes continuously and progressively, without defined gears, according to driving.
The result is that engine speed remains more constant at accelerations. Consequently, the CVT type automatic transmission is the smoothest among its peers. It also allows for greater fuel economy, although in this case there are a number of factors involved (such as vehicle weight and propeller characteristics, among others).
The CVT automatic transmission also has some limitations. It does not support, for example, very large volumes of torque. Therefore, they are generally not used in sports models or vehicles with a large load capacity.
Another issue is that, due to continuous operation, some drivers find it monotonous to drive vehicles with this type of transmission. However, some systems already bring a feature to circumvent this problem: simulated gears. In these cases, the pulleys remain fixed at certain points, forming the gears. This even allows the driver to change them sequentially, as in similar epicyclics.