Millions of people share two common dislikes: cold weather and dealing with expensive transmission repairs. Going out in cold weather is sometimes unavoidable. Damage to a transmission, however, may be avoided if proper care is taken when driving in tough winter conditions. Driving a car without allowing it to warm up could ruin the vehicle's transmission. Transmission fluid -- along with oil -- end up thickened when the weather is cold. Not heating the fluids up can cause a lot of problems. Damage to the transmission could be both significant and massively costly, which is why doing what is necessary to avoid damage is strongly advised.

Hot to Cold Means Cold

Imaging driving a car an hour on the highway in frigid weather, parking the car for a little while, and then starting the vehicle up again to have it stall on the road. Honestly, none of this should be shocking or surprising. A cold engine is a cold engine. Even if the engine was hot 45 minutes ago, a presently cold engine is cold. That means starting up the engine right away and hitting the road could create transmission troubles. A huge mistake is to assume that warming up an engine is only necessary on the maiden voyage of the day. Always heat the car up to avoid troubles.

Avoid Parking at Wind Exposure Points

Taking a unique step to minimize cold exposure helps as well. Parking a car outside automatically exposes the vehicle to cold weather. There may be ways to reduce the impact of cold on the car by getting it out of the way of cold wind. Parking the car in a lot with no cars next to it means the vehicle is going to be blasted by the arctic, cold winds. Parking a vehicle in between two cars and facing a fence or a wall does offer some wind protection. When wind impacts inanimate objects, the objects are going to be chilled quicker. So, a hot car exposed to the wind cools. In short order, the hot engine quickly reaches the same temperature as the great cold outdoors. Reduce the impact of the wind and the process may be slowed a bit, but not stopped. The car still has to be heated up, but the extra effort to keep the vehicle from fully cooling may help the reheating cause.

Get a Checkup

If a car slips during cold weather, consider it prudent to visit a transmission shop like B G & S Transmissions to make sure no serious cold-weather damage has been inflicted. Doing so may catch any existing problems before things get worse.