I am a rural mail carrier. I make six hundred stops a day. I’ve worn out 3 transmissions in 3 years. If I put my car in 1st while in a subdivision ( say, 100 feet between stops), would this prolong the life of the transmission?
You probably do not make any more stops than a New York taxi. Your transmission should last longer; I assume it’s automatic?
Perhaps if you give year, make and model as well as mileage, and EXACTLY what your driving routine is, maybe we can help.
Properly serviced transmissions in taxi service can be good for about 4 years or 400,000 miles.
Three transmissions in a year seems quite excessive, but how many miles do you drive? What kind of vehicle is it? Are these “rebuilt” transmissions, factory new, or from a salvage yard? If rebuilt, are they done by someone who knows what they’re doing. Do you get a warranty? Have any of them failed before the warranty period was up?
Many, if not most, people who receive a monthly mileage check tend to live on it rather than banking it for repairs or an new vehicle. I have a customer who (last I knew) got 34? a mile for her job. Last year she drove her 14 year old Taurus almost 50,000 miles while she was on the clock. That’s $17,000. Had she banked that, after paying for her gas, she’d probably still have had $10K. That’s a whole mess of transmissions.
With out knowing how many miles we can’t really say much. I would also suggest telling us what make and model car you are driving.
With little information the only thing that comes to mind is you may need to drain, clean the filter and replace the transmission fluid often.
How often are you changing your transmission fluid?
You might want to tell us the year, make, model, and any other information that might affect our answers. We need some basic info.
At least once a year, I’d guess.
My nephew is a rural carrier. He’s on the same vehicle with the same transmission. Although he puts new pads on his car every 2-3 months.
If you put the trnasmission in manual 1st it won’t shift into 2nd then back down to 1st for each of the 600 stop and go’s you make every day, so I guess it would eliminate the wear and tear on the first and second gear clutches and bands.
Can’t hurt gas mileage any, it must already be awful. Go ahead, it won’t hurt anything.
“At least once a year, I’d guess.”
You’d hope.
Have you talked to the Post Office about this? What do they suggest for maintenance? Surely they must have experience in this area. All postal workers that drive must collectively put a billion miles on their vehicles every year. No, it’s not an exaggeration: one billion - or more.
Actually, I was riffing on “I’ve worn out 3 transmissions in 3 years.”
That is a safe guess because he is averaging a new transmission every year. You’d hope the new transmission has new fluid in it.