Automatic transmissions are becoming increasingly more popular in the UK, with more of them on the road we are seeing an increase in these transmissions needing servicing and rebuilds. Fully automatic gearboxes come in many options from 4 speed even up to the most modern 10 speed fully automatic transmissions. Equipped with a torque converter the purpose of the transmission is increase comfort for the driver and perform smooth gear changes and improving fuel consumption.
At The Gearbox Centre in Kent we are advocates of prevention is better than cure. This comes in many formats, the first format is where possible service your transmission on a regular basis, this will increase the chances of avoiding a costly gearbox rebuild and will also improve the quality of your driving experience, the second is when rebuilding a transmission if there is a solution to reverse engineer a problem out of the transmission we will always do this to ensure that the issue does not happen again.
The Dual Clutch Transmission or the Dual Shift Gearbox or even the powershift transmission are all transmissions that are a mixture between electrics, hydraulics, physical gears and an incredibly smooth gear change when they are working correctly.
There are two types of dual clutch transmissions, they all have two clutches. One will operate the even gears and one will operate the odd gears,
The element of clutch control will allow the next most relevant gear to already be selected. This allows for better fuel economy and also a smoother gear change for the driver. One type of Dual shift gearbox is what we would call a Dry Clutch, this means that the clutch is external to the gearbox and is not submersed in oil. You will usually find these types on the smaller engine vehicles up to 1.6. The wet clutch gearboxes are submersed in oil inside the gearbox and will be found in larger engines.
CVT stands for Continuously Variable Transmission, and it's a type of automatic gearbox that doesn’t use fixed gears like traditional transmissions. Instead, it uses a system of pulleys and a belt (or chain) to provide an infinite range of gear ratios. This allows the engine to operate at its most efficient RPM for a given driving condition.
Key Benefits:
Smoother acceleration: No gear shifts means no jolts.
Better fuel efficiency: Keeps the engine in its optimal power band.
Simpler mechanics: Fewer moving parts than traditional automatics.
The powershift gearbox operates a wet clutch set up however has a slight difference to it. The Gearbox is designed and built by Getrag and fitted mainly into Fords and some Volvo applications, the gearbox itself has the dual mass flywheel built internally into the transmission. This is its biggest failure, the plastics are springs that are used to damped the vibration from the engine crack and disintegrate. As the transmission shares the same oil the contamination works itself through the gearbox causing complete failure with either bumping and banging into gear or no drive at all.