If you want the transmission to last at least as long as, for example, a vehicle engine, the answer is YES.
How often is it necessary to maintain the transmission? For example, the world’s largest transmission manufacturer Aisin Seiki (owned by the Fortune Global 500 list) suggests changing oil even every 2 years and after 20,000 km.
http://www.aisinaftermarket.jp/en/products/atf/images/atf_a2_CFEx_AFW+.pdf
This transmission is used by Toyota, Volvo, Saab, Opel, Lexus, Mitsubishi, Suzuki, Subaru and other car manufacturers.
The German top manufacturer of transmission ZF recommends oil change every 8 years or 100,000 km.
https://aftermarket.zf.com/remotemedia/lol-lubricants/lol-en/lol-te-ml-11-en.pdf (page 4)
The oil change interval is actually set by the type of the transmission and also by the strength, or how long it is designed to be.
In general, it could be considered that the engines of modern vehicles do not have the problem of running 500,000 km for proper maintenance, however, the transmission that is not maintained will most likely need repair by this time.
Transmission manufacturers recommend maintaining the transmission at the following intervals:
| Planetary | manufacturer Aisin recommendation is 20,000 km or 2 years (recommendation for high-temperature cities in Japan and the US) |
| Planetary | manufacturer ZF recommendation 80,000 - 100,000 km or 8 years |
| DCT | 40 000 – 60 000 km |
| CVT | 40 000 – 60 000 km |
Car manufacturers’ service books vary widely. For example, the same CVT variator transmission may require maintenance in the US every 40,000 miles, but in Europe, it is “filled with lifetime oil”. The same transmission needs to be maintained on one model, but not on the other. As a rule, car manufacturers have imposed slightly stricter requirements on the US market.
Hõbenool's statistics
Our statistics show that of the 5,000 vehicles that came to our service, 5-7% of car owners are actually late.
These are the vehicles we do not recommend to maintain, because it is essentially a waste of money – the transmission cannot be fixed just because of the oil change.
However, we have seen quite a lot of troubled customers coming to the repair and there is already a new oil in the transmission. The reason for this is that X service suggested trying out the oil change – MAYBE it will get fixed.
That’s why we in Hõbenool thoroughly test every vehicle before the oil change to avoid wasting money.
