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About This Quiz
Modern automatics shift smoothly and make driving easier, but some don't even know the basics about what they're driving. Test exactly how much you know about automatic transmissions by taking this quiz!
What should you do before starting an automatic transmission car?
Depress the brake
Make sure the vehicle is in park
Both A and B
“Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.” –Henry Ford in The Expanded and Annotated My Life and Work: Henry Ford's Universal Code for World-Class Success.
None of the above
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What is a sign your transmission fluid is leaking?
Your car drags a little when it is shifting
There is a squealing noise when you turn the steering wheel
You start your car, but it must be well-warmed before the transmission will work
A puddle of pinkish or brownish fluid on the ground
A puddle of fluid under the car means something is leaking or if it is clear and summer, it could be condensation from the air conditioning unit. Generally, the color of the fluid can help you determine what is causing the puddle.
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How frequently should you change the automatic transmission oil?
3,000 to 6.000 miles
30,000 to 60,000 miles
Automatic transmission fluid breaks down more rapidly than manual transmission fluid. For regular maintenance, most manufacturers recommend you change it every 30,000—60,000 miles. Once you start having transmission problems with a vehicle that has never had the fluid changed, it is generally too late, and you should not attempt to change it at that point.
130,000 to 160,000 miles
You should never change automatic transmission fluid unless you are having transmission problems
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What takes the place of a clutch in an automatic transmission?
The first gear
Torque converter
“Most people have no concept of how an automatic transmission works, yet they know how to drive a car. You don’t have to study physics to understand the laws of motion to drive a car. You don’t have to understand any of this stuff to use a Macintosh.” –Steve Jobs in 1985
Governor
Countershaft
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What does a torque converter do?
Act as a transitioning gear
Separates the transmission from the wheel axles
Allows the engine to spin somewhat independently of the transmission
One part of the torque converter is attached to the engine, and a second part is connected to the transmission input shaft. The first part moves the transmission fluid, which causes the second part to move.
Increase or decrease the vehicle’s speed so shifting is ideal
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What tool would be helpful to change the oil in an automatic transmission?
A filter wrench
A multimeter
A catch pan
“Money may not buy happiness, but I’d rather cry in a Jaguar than on a bus.” –Francoise Sagan
A hydraulic gear puller
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What is one way the performance is enhanced on an automatic?
There are usually more gears than in a manual
With a special overdrive gear
Electronic sensors
A transmission sensor unit monitors driving and determines how to shift. Most can learn driving habits and work based on the information obtained.
A vacuum monitoring system
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The first automatic transmission invented by Alfred Munro used what as a medium?
Oil
Air
“There was a time when people cooed over Ferraris that developed 200 horsepower, whereas today 2.0 liter Escorts can manage that. It's almost impossible to buy a car that won't do a hundred.” –Jeremy Clarkson in Born to Be Riled
Sand
Gasoline
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Which component of early transmission fluid has been banned internationally since 1987?
BHT
Olestra
Whale oil
Whale oil was initially a much better lubricant than petroleum and was used in automatic transmissions until synthetic ester lubricants were invented in the 1970s. Whaling was banned in 1986.
Potassium bromate
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What kind of gear does an automatic transmission have?
Bevel
Rack and pinion
Spiral
Planetary
“Lamborghini is refinement, luxury, and perfection.” –Ferruccio Lamborghini
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What are planetary gears?
A gear system where a central gear and a set of smaller gears is housed inside a larger outer gear
The center gear in a planetary gear system is considered the sun and it turns several other (planets) gears -at once- that are housed inside a ring gear. The output shaft on a transmission is connected to the planet gears.
A gear system where there is one large gear (the sun) and several smaller gears (the planets) in a line
A gear system where the gears have a spiral tooth system and are shaped like the solar system
A gear system where the gears operate a track
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Which of the following fluids would you use in an automatic transmission?
DOT 3
15W30
Type F
“There were some people, it seemed, who were incapable of being pleasant about anything. Of course, the cars that such people drove tended to be difficult as well. Nice cars have nice drivers; bad cars have bad drivers. A person's gearbox revealed everything that you could want to know about that person, thought Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni.” ― Alexander McCall Smith, The Good Husband of Zebra Drive
75W90
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What does a gear pump do?
Use fluid to move gears
Cause gears to engage and disengage
Circulate hydraulic fluid
The gear pump works by being off-centered. It prevents fluid from flowing in the directions where the inner gear meshes perfectly with the outer gear and allows fluid to flow on the opposite side where the gears are not meshed.
Circulate air
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What does CVT stand for?
Continuously variable transmission
“Be ready to revise any system, scrap any method, abandon any theory—if the success of the job requires it.” –Henry Ford
Coefficient viscosity transmission
Closed vacuum transmission
Coolant vortex transmission
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If an automatic transmission has a third pedal, what would the three pedals be for?
The gas, the brake, and the clutch
The gas, the brake, and the emergency brake
“The Alfa Romeo GTV6 had the worst gearbox I've ever encountered, and the worst driving position and the worst record for reliability. Nevertheless, I bought one. I knew it was a hopeless basket case but I'd become smitten by the noise its engine made: a rumble in the jungle at low revs and almost an eerie howl as it neared the red line.” –Jeremy Clarkson in Born to Be Riled
The gas, the clutch, and the emergency brake
The gas, the brake, and the push-pedal start
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In which country would you find more automatic transmissions on the roads?
Germany
The United States
In European countries and Japan, vehicles with automatic transmissions make up only about 20% of the new cars. Automatic transmissions make up about 96% of new car sales in the United States.
Japan
Great Britain
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What is another name for a CVT?
A viscous clutch
A throttle position sensor
A single-speed transmission
“As long as we look to legislation to cure poverty or to abolish special privilege we are going to see poverty spread and special privilege grow.” –Henry Ford, in The Expanded and Annotated My Life and Work: Henry Ford's Universal Code for World-Class Success.
A reprogramming kit
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Which of the following parts monitors the speed of the car in an older automatic transmission?
The timing belt
The alternator
The governor
Electronic vehicle speed sensors monitor vehicle speed in vehicles with electronic transmissions, but non-electronic transmissions still use a governor.
The gear pump
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When you are changing the transmission fluid in an automatic transmission, what else should you change?
The torque converter
The engine oil
The transmission fluid filter
“Obviously, driving a convertible yellow Porsche raises certain sociological issues. I mean, some people are going to look at me, I know, and think I'm a merchant banker.” –James May on Top Gear November 2, 2003
The serpentine belt
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What is a sealed transmission?
A modern transmission that uses a silicon seal at part junctions instead of metal seals
A modern transmission that uses a metal seal at part junctions instead of rubber seals
A special racing transmission that requires “seal” oil instead of transmission fluid
A high-end automatic transmission with lifetime fluid and no dipstick
Sealed transmissions are designed to maintain fluids throughout the lifetime of the vehicle (usually only 150,000 miles). These transmissions are designed to limit contamination and prevent people from servicing their own vehicles and thereby damaging them because they add the wrong fluid to the wrong component. Although they are sealed, some come with directions on how to check fluids without the dipstick.
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Which part of an engine connects to the automatic transmission?
The flywheel
“If you need a machine and don’t buy it, then you will ultimately find that you have paid for it and don’t have it.” –Henry Ford
The housing
The camshaft
The driveshaft
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When was the first automatic transmission made?
1991
1971
1951
1921
Munro was the first to make the automatic transmission, but it was quickly improved upon by Brazilians José Braz Araripe and Fernando Lehly Lemos in 1932. They sold their semi-automatic transmission idea to General Motors where it was further developed into a fully automatic transmission that began appearing in cars with a model year of 1940.
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An automatic transmission usually weighs…
Less than a manual with the same amount of gears
More than a manual with the same amount of gears
“The only Japanese cars with even a trace of humanity are Hondas, and there's a very good reason for that. There was a Mr. Honda and he did have a vision when he was a small boy. Even today that vision still steers the engineers, and as a result there's a very definite correlation between the S2000 sports cars and those early motorbikes. It's solely because of this link with the past that I like Hondas more than any other Japanese cars.” –Jeremy Clarkson in I Know You Got Soul
About the same as a manual with the same amount of gears
None of the above
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How does a CVT work?
Friction disks attached to pulleys lock into the gear using steel plates
Two pulleys adjust their width to form different gear sizes
Increased speed varies the diameter of the pulleys. Because the increase is steady, the CVT has smoother transitions between gears. The belt connecting the pulleys limits the torque.
It contains one gear with multiple sets of different sized teeth that act as multiple gears
Hydraulic pressure forces the ring gears outward, changing the size of the pulley system
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The transmission provides a link between what two parts of the car?
The ignition and the alternator
The engine and the wheels
“A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.” –Henry Ford in News Journal August 3, 1965
The battery and the wheels
The engine and the cooling system
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What is the best way to change gears on an automatic?
Make sure you are going 10-20 mph
Come to a complete stop by shifting into the parking gear and then selecting the gear you want
Come to a complete stop using your brake
Any time you change gears on an automatic, the car needs to be stopped with the brake first. It is especially important to stop completely when changing from a forward gear to a reverse gear.
You never have to change gears on an automatic- the car does everything for you
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What does a CVT use instead of a gearbox?
A condenser system
A piston system
A pulley system
“I’m a huge NASCAR fan, but I’m not a gearhead. I’ve never been into fixing cars. It’s not because I don’t like it. I would love to know more. It’s just that my dad never taught me that stuff because my dad wasn’t a mechanic.” –Larry the Cable Guy
A hydraulic system
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Which part helps a non-computerized automatic transmission determine when to shift?
The governor
Governors also work as speed limiters. The automatic transmission governor functions similarly to these in that as two weights in it spin faster, they move apart from each other, opening the valve.
The oxygen sensor
The tachometer
The load-sensing valve
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What else can you call the transmission?
A hemi
A gearbox
“Poor quality is remembered long after low prices are forgotten.” –Charles Rolls
A pickle fork
A dyno
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What does “torque” mean?
The change in power
The turning power
Torque is the twisting force. Transmissions use different gears to increase the amount of twisting force exerted on the wheels.
The forward power
The backward power
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What is the difference between a transmission flush and a transmission fluid change?
You only replace the filter if you are doing a fluid change
You run gasoline through the transmission when you are doing a flush
The transmission flush gets rid of most of the old fluid and the change does not
“[A Bugatti Veyron is] quite the most stunning piece of automotive engineering ever created… At a stroke then, the Veyron has rendered everything I’ve ever said about any other car obsolete. It’s rewritten the rule book, moved the goalposts and in the process, given Mother Nature a bloody nose.” –Jeremy Clarkson
There is no difference—they are two ways to say the same thing
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If you change the oil in your automatic transmission without flushing it, what percentage of oil in the transmission will be removed and replaced with clean?
About 60%
A lot of the transmission fluid remains in the housing and the torque converter. Since automatic transmission fluid has cleaners in it, even refreshing some of the fluid is beneficial.
60-70%
70-80%
80-90%
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Which of the following is not a good rule to follow when you are driving an automatic transmission vehicle?
Shift into neutral at a red light
“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.” –Tom Magliozzi from In Our Humble Opinion: Car Talk’s Click and Clack Rant and Rave (2000)
In cold weather, allow your vehicle to warm up for about two minutes and/or drive slowly for the first 15 minutes
Keep your fuel tank more above the ¼ tank mark
Rev the engine if you have to change gears while moving
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What was the name of the person who invented the first practical automatic transmission?
Rudolph Diesel
Charles Babbage
John Logie Baird
Oscar H. Banker
Unlike Munro, Banker developed a transmission filled with fluid. He was born in the Ottoman Empire with the name Asatour Sarafian.
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What is the powertrain?
The rear hitch of the vehicle that allows you to pull trailers
The engine, transmission, transfer case, drive shafts, differentials, and axles
“Right, it's on. I... think. There's no noise at all, but anyway. Put [the Tesla Roadster] into drive — [it] has a one-speed gearbox. They tried it with a two speed but that kept breaking. So one it is.” –Jeremy Clarkson on Top Gear December 14, 2008
The part of the transmission that reduces vibration and provides a point of attachment for drive belts
The part of the vehicle that holds the transmission and engine in place
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You Got:
/35
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