The summer months bring warm weather, cook outs, and family road trips. However, the heat during this time can really affect your new or used Toyota. The heat affects all cars, new or used, on some level. Having your vehicle properly prepared for the heat of summer is the only way to combat the affects. The newer cars are developed for better fuel efficiency; which means they are usually built using more aluminum than the previous cast iron material. The problem with this is that aluminum has a much lower melting point than cast iron, leaving it especially vulnerable during the summer months.

If you happen to be driving one of the newer, more fuel efficient models; be sure to keep current on all required and recommended maintenance for your vehicle. The transmission of your vehicle may need a little extra TLC during the summer months simply due to the fact that it has to work harder than normal to keep all systems working correctly. If the vehicle does not have adequate cooling ability it forces more the transmission to work harder than normal. Also, if the transmission has not been maintained properly and is forced to work with a poor flow of fluid or a dirty filter, it could easily result in overworking the transmission.

Transmission maintenance should be the cornerstone of your maintenance routine. If the transmission is not serviced as recommended by the manufacturer, it will over time malfunction and could end up costing you much more than you would’ve spent on the maintenance in the first place. You probably paid a good amount of money for your vehicle. Having it regularly serviced is the only way to protect your financial investment.