Is it possible to seriously extend the life of the "machine" with the help of additives

Manufacturers of auto chemicals, in pursuit of the money of car owners, made additives for any liquids in the car. They did not bypass their attention and transmission. The AvtoVzglyad portal found out whether the car owner should contact this type of “topping up”.

Judging by the typical annotations on the packages, almost every self-respecting “automatic transmission additive” improves the smoothness of gear shifting, reduces transmission vibrations, restores wear and protects the surfaces of rubbing parts of the mechanism, cleans them of dirt, and so on in the same vein: solid pluses and usefulness with no cons at all. But is it really so?

Let's start with the fact that almost the main role in ensuring the performance of the automatic transmission belongs to the transmission fluid. There are several types of these "oils" in the world. Moreover, almost every automaker requires that liquid of an exclusively certain specification be poured into one or another of its automatic gearboxes.

In response to this, manufacturers of "automatic additives" offer to pour their chemistry into any "box", regardless of its model, design features and type of oil used there. Who in this case is a fool or a swindler - an automaker or a manufacturer of auto chemicals - does not need to be explained, I think.

But let's assume for a while that the additive will not change the gear oil parameters for the worse. Will she be able to "protect against wear", "clean" or "improve smoothness"?

To protect against wear, it must be understood, the friction surfaces of the gear pump are assumed. The thing is that they are in contact, being completely covered with gear oil and practically do not wear out. But even this wear does not affect anything during the operation of the “machine”. If only because any such pump in the automatic transmission was initially designed with a large margin of performance. Rather, the gearbox will fall apart from old age than the wear of the pump teeth will begin to affect its performance.

“Cleaning the surfaces” of a gearbox with an additive is generally ridiculous. If something is contaminated there, then only the transmission oil itself is the products of natural mechanical wear. It and only it needs to be cleaned in the automatic transmission. For this purpose, a special filter is used. And change the transmission fluid periodically.

Improving the smoothness of switching "automatic" with the help of additives - generally from the area of ​​​​some kind of "shamanism". To understand this, it is enough to remember that shocks and shocks when shifting gears in a transmission occur due to an untimely stop of the friction packs. If you believe the promises in the annotations to the "ACP additives", they solve this problem. Apparently, by changing the friction coefficient of the friction discs.

At the same time, in some mysterious way, the friction parameters of the steel disks and the transmission fluid itself remain unchanged! How to put into practice such filigree selectivity, no specialist in the automatic transmission will tell you. And magicians from among the manufacturers of auto chemical goods easily perform such a trick. But only on the paper of advertising booklets.

The conclusion from all of the above: if you don’t feel sorry for the money to buy a dubious drug, and also don’t care what happens to the AKP, then yes - pour the “additive” you like into it. Maybe after that nothing bad will happen to the "machine". With the best arrangement.

However, the operating costs of "automatic" additives noted above mainly relate to products of the so-called tuning direction. In fairness, it should be noted that therapeutic and prophylactic drugs are also on sale today, focused on use in “middle-aged” automatic transmissions.

The main purpose of such auto chemistry products is to support the performance of certain significant elements of a used automatic transmission. As an example, we can cite a well-proven German additive for "machines" called ATF Additive. The product was developed by Liqui Moly chemists to restore the sealing properties of oil seals and gaskets used in automatic transmissions.

The additive contains a Seal Sweller component that causes controlled swelling of rubber and other elastomeric seals, as well as a decrease in their hardness. As a result, seals and gaskets can keep the required volume of working fluid inside the unit for a long time. In addition, thanks to special components, ATF Additive has a good cleansing effect. An important feature of this additive is that it is able to keep dirt particles in a suspended and safe state for the “machine”. This makes it possible to slow down the aging and oxidation of the oil in the automatic transmission.