What do you need to know about the many types of automatic transmissions?

Over time, the use of automatic transmissions has been displacing the manual transmission (see the 15 sports faithful to the dog-leg gearbox). Although it is true that a few years ago there was still a certain mistrust of this technology, today this situation is very different, since it is more and more common to see new cars with automatic transmissions.

But why this change? The answer is simple, automatic gearboxes offer the user a better functioning of the vehicle, and a reduction in consumption and maintenance, which although more demanding, is much less than that of cars with manual gearboxes, say experts from Auto-Matic.

Automatic exchange rates

Currently, on the market, there are different types of automatic gearboxes, whose particularities are little known by most consumers. For this reason, the aforementioned company tells us how to distinguish them and learn about their main characteristics before making a purchase decision, given that, as with any other product, not all automatic transmissions are the same or work in the same way. It is necessary to know them thoroughly to identify which one best suits our needs.

Double clutch changes

These boxes are currently experiencing the greatest boom in the market. It is characterized by the fact that it combines the advantages of a manual gearbox system and those of an automatic one, that is, lower consumption, driving comfort, dynamism, but above all comfort and ease of use.

From a technical point of view, it is an automatically actuated mechanical gearbox, characterized by an advanced gear system and double clutch. But what really makes this device unique is the fact that it makes it possible for gear transitions to take place without any interruption to the flow of power. Consequently, these are soft and hardly noticeable to the occupants. They are also chosen, in most cases, by the manufacturers of the fastest cars in the world.

Robotic boxes

They are another type of automatic gearbox that has gradually been gaining ground. They are basically manual but have an electronic clutch managed by a control unit. They employ electric or hydraulic lifters to replace the clutch pedal and gear lever. An electronic calculator determines the best moment to change gear and synchronizes the different operations.

But perhaps the most striking thing about this type of change is that the driver can also switch to manual mode, which allows him to change gears as he sees fit.

CVT automatic gearboxes

For years these boxes with continuous variator have been used in a multitude of vehicles, such as in some of the cheapest hybrids on the market, but they had the disadvantage that the power they offered to the vehicle was quite limited. To solve this problem, a manager capable of simulating 6, 7, and even up to 8 speeds has been introduced electronically, making this gearbox have nothing to envy of conventional automatic gearboxes.

The constitution of the CVT is mainly characterized by being formed by two pulleys that have different diameters. Each pulley has two cones that can be brought closer together or separated depending on the engine's rotational speed and a belt is placed between them, so if we bring the cones closer together we force the belt to slide through the channel formed by both, and we make it surrounds the cones by the part of the greater circumference. As the belt cannot be lengthened or shortened, the opposite pulley must move the cones away, thus, the belt sinks into the channel and runs around a circumference with a smaller perimeter.

Automatic gearboxes with torque converter

This model is really a system made up of several elements, among which the use or incorporation of a torque converter stands out to make a connection between the gearbox and the engine. They are the "lifelong" ones and have gone from having 3 or 4 speeds to generalizing the 6 relationships. The torque converter consists of three elements enclosed in a hermetic container:

• A pump attached to the motor, shaped like a disc

• Some internal blade-shaped grooves or blades, to direct the oil, are attached to a turbine, which has a similar shape and is attached to the gear change.

• The reactor or stator, also coupled to the change and whose mission is to redirect the oil ( how to know what type of oil my car has ) towards the impeller or pump, thus causing an increase in the flow of said fluid.

Likewise, when the car is stationary, the pump and the turbine turn independently, but as you start to accelerate, the oil current becomes stronger and stronger, to the point where the pump and the turbine (engine and transmission), they rotate together, dragged by the oil, being called “Torque Transmission Phase”. In summary, although a few years ago, in order to forget about the clutch pedal, it was necessary to opt for the slow and undeveloped traditional gearboxes with three and four speeds, in recent times the evolution has been so great that many different possibilities are offered capable of meet the needs of many more users, whether for speed, price, and even consumption and emissions.

Once the different types of most common automatic transmissions that we find in the market are known, it is time to discover their negative part and that is that these types of changes are susceptible to some other costly breakdown so we will have to scratch our pockets if necessary. . These are the most common faults:

• in the torque converter

• Poor box maintenance

• Poor clutch pack ratio

• Noises due to bearings, forks… breakage, and wear

• Electronic mismanagement

• Solenoid valve faults

• Breakage of the drum where the discs are housed

• oil pump faults