The price of the service is determined by several components:
- the time of work (complexity)
- the cost of spare parts, i.e. the amount of oil
- the brand/type of oil
- the price of the gasket and the filter
Let’s take a look at them all.
The complexity of the work
Cars and their transmission are very different. The time taken for work depends, for example, on the position of the transmission (longitudinal, perpendicular), the connections of the cooling pipes and their location, the number of crank bolts, the position of the bottom protection or beams, etc.
Therefore, the procedures for maintenance of different brands or types of transmission can be very different in time. For example, a 5-speed Mitsubishi Pajero needs to be replaced by a vehicle beam to replace the filter, while the Mercedes 7-speed car is open at the bottom of the car and no extra work is done and on some Volvos the filter cannot be replaced at all.
The total oil change time for the transmission (diagnostics, test run, oil and filter change, and gasket replacement with dynamic oil change and subsequent testing and adaptation if necessary) is 1-2.5 hours.
How can Hõbenool’s service be 1-2 hours shorter than with other service providers?
We use a different approach to oil change, as well as other equipment, but the main part of efficiency is the speed of operation, which is guaranteed by the great experience (over 10 000 transmission maintenances).
Quantity of oil
The amount of oil consumed during the process depends on both the degree of dirt in the transmission and the size of the transmission.
As a rule, the higher the cubic capacity of the vehicle engine, the bigger the transmission.
The degree of dirt in the transmission depends on the history of the vehicle, how and where it has been used and whether the oil has been changed at all. The higher the mileage, and the more heavily the car has been working in (and the country of origin and temperature also affect that), the dirtier the transmission.
The transmission oil change always requires the oil in the amount of the transmission + an additional amount of oil to remove the old dirt. The net volumes of the transmission of modern vehicles are 7-13 liters, and usually 2-6 liters of extra oil is needed to clean the transmission.
Thus, the total cost is theoretically 9 to 19 liters, but in most cases oil consumption remains between 12 and 15 liters, of which 7-13 remains in the transmission after cleaning.
The brand of the oil
Nowadays, many different types of automatic transmission are used on vehicles. They differ from each other in terms of working principles (CVT, DSG, planetary, etc.), manufacturer, and load-bearing capacity.
Gone are the times when “normal” ATF Dexron II was enough for the transmission oil. Only special oil intended for this transmission may be used in the transmission.
Usually, more than one particular brand of oil is suitable for one transmission, just the same recipe has produced several different manufacturers of the same product.
In the ATF (automatic transmission fluid) section, we wrote that transmission oil is made by high-performance products in particular. All this means that depending on the type, brand and certificate of the ATF, the price of oil for modern automatic transmissions (since 2000) may vary from 5 euros to even 100 euros per liter. The latter is an exception where the car manufacturer uses a monopoly position. c
Oil filter and gasket
All transmission have an oil filter inside. Some models even have 2-3. As a rule, the oil filter of rear-wheel drive and most four-wheel drive cars can be replaced during normal maintenance, but this is not possible on many models of front wheels.
As with spare parts, it is possible to use both the original manufacturer (usually more expensive) and the alternative B manufacturer (usually cheaper).
Car manufacturers do not themselves manufacture filters but buy from similar factories where the aftermarket companies buy them. Therefore, from experience, we can say that the output of certain spare parts companies is even better quality or of the same quality as the original.
The filter and gasket prices vary depending on the car manufacturer and the supplier, ranging from 10 to 200 euros.
