Is going up a steep hill bad for automatic transmissions?

Question

I have a 2003 Nissan Altima with 80,000 and a 2006 Nissan sentra with 30,000 miles. I drive up a steep hill to work everyday is this bad for my transmission? What should I do to lower the strain on my transmission?

Answer 1

use a lower gear if your going up a real steep hills,but if its an automatic it will choose which gear it needs to be in ,it doesn't hurt one to drive up hills they was built to take it,good luck.

Answer 2

No, this does not cause unnecessary strain on your transmission. Even if it did, your check engine light would come on and log a trouble code telling you the transmission has seen higher than normal temperatures.

I overhauled automatic transmissions for many years and I will say the number one failure of most transmissions is excessive heat. But I can't think of a single case where the heat was caused from going uphill without a heavy load.

In most cases it was a vehicle towing a heavy trailer or carrying a lot of cargo. These vehicles were usually not equipped with a large enough transmission oil fluid cooler.

My only recommendation to you is to pay attention for shift busyness.By that I mean see if the transmission is down shifting and up shifting frequently during the course of climbing the hill. If it is, then I suggest shifting out of overdrive. The shift busyness can cause excessive heat.  

Answer 3

That is the exact situation that automatic transmissions were born for.  It puts absolutely no excessive strain on the transmission at all.  It really beautifully designed for going up a steep hill.  

When the transmission shifts, then that does put wear on it each time. You only get so many million clutch engagements before it's work out. So if you care about that, go to work the way that causes the least shifts.  That's probably the most pleasant way to go to work anyway, right?

Answer 4

It is "better" to drive down hill as that is less stress on the tranny.  But there's not much you can do about the hills on your way to work.

I use to live in Maui. There was a tour guide company that climbed 37 miles up hill to a mountain few times a day.  They would replace the tranny few times a year.  But that is the extreme cases.  So yes it is not great but you are far from this kind of extreme condition.

You can manually shift to lower gear.  That is better for your automatic clutch.

good Luck...

Answer 5

Put it in low gear.

Answer 6

Well it's advised that you use a manual transmission vehicle or change your automatic transmission to a heavy duty transmission. Ofcourse both solutions are quite costly and impractical.

I advise you treat the gear shifting as a manual transmission. Such as:

0 mph - 12mph: L

12mph - 19mph: 2

19mph - 37mph: 3 if available, if not use D

It's simple, just like a manual transmission gear.

Answer 7

"shift" to a lower gear (i believe it goes D L 2 for nissan transmissions) and drive slow and steady.  this should lower the strain on your tranny.