Part of owning a vehicle is knowing how to take care of it. You should get your vehicle's transmission fluid checked and flushed at the appropriate mileage for your vehicle based on the manufacture recommendations. If you fail to keep the fluid running clean on your vehicle, it can damage your transmission, which can cause serious problems that can affect your ability to drive. Here are four consequences of not taking care of your vehicle's transmission.

#1 Your Vehicle Will Get Too Hot To Drive

When your transmission runs low on fluids, or the fluids get contaminated or blocked, one of the serious consequences that can develop is your vehicle will overheat. What happens is the fluid is not able to keep your transmission cool, and your transmission generates a lot of heat as it works.

It is very obvious when your vehicle is overheating. To start with, the temperature gauge on your dashboard will go way over to the hot side of things. Second, steam will start coming out from around your hood if you keep driving your vehicle. This steam is really hot and could burn you and is a sure sign that your vehicle is in no shape to drive.

#2 Your Gears Decide To Change Themselves

Your transmission helps keep your gears in place. It ensures that your gears move into and out of place as they should, based on your instructions with a manual transmission and based on the instructions from your vehicle with an automatic transmission. In order to drive smoothly, you need to be in the correct gear.

When your transmission is now well taken care of, your gears may not stay where they are supposed to be. That means that your vehicle could drop from a higher gear to a lower gear, pulling your vehicle back as you try to move forward at a specific speed. Or, your vehicle's gears could slide upward, from a lower gear to a higher gear, causing your vehicle to surge forward as it tries to go into a higher gear meant for faster speeds. This can be very dangerous and cause you to move forward and pull back in traffic.

#3 Your Vehicle Doesn't Respond Correctly

Additionally, when your transmission isn't working correctly, your vehicle may not respond as you think it should. For example, when you try to go into reverse, your engine may rev without your vehicle moving. Or when you go from a lower gear to a higher gear, you may hear a clunking sound. Your gears as well as your ability to put your vehicle into park or reverse can be greatly compromised when your transmission is not working correctly.

Don't lose control of your vehicle because you failed to take care of your transmission. Get your transmission in for an inspection and a fluid change today at an Audi car care center, especially if you have been noticing any of the signs listed above.