Transmission Information - Planetary Gears

Transmission Services: Planetary Gears

Planetary gears are a crucial component to any automatic transmission. Taking good care of these gearsets is how to keep automatic cars on the road for as long as possible. Thurston County Transmission employs expert planetary gears technicians Lacey drivers can trust. Read on to learn more about this component and why they matter.

What are planetary gears?

Also called planetary gearsets, they are responsible for gear ratios. In other words, the sun and planet gears — named for their position in relation to each other, just like planets revolving around a large star — determine how often and how smoothly a shift occurs.

How important are planetary gears to automatic transmissions?

The gears must be finely tuned in any vehicle built for performance. For non-performance driving, it is possible to go for longer without getting the gearset serviced, but routine maintenance is recommended to avoid serious damage over time. These gears require a lot of lubrication compared to different gear systems. One huge advantage of a planetary gearset is how much stability they offer. In fact, if a modern driver never operates an auto transmission built more than 40 years ago, they will never appreciate just how easy they have it these days!

Are planetary gears expensive to repair or replace?

The cost of gearset services comes down to two things:

OEM quality

Original equipment manufacturer parts (OEM) are different across the board. Toyota and Jaguar, for example, have similar planetary gearsets, but the latter is much costlier to replace. The good news is that most car manufacturers build these components to last a long time for non-performance drivers. If you do not offroad, race, haul or otherwise put frequent stress on your planetary gears, they should last several years before replacement is required.

Service interval

On the other hand, if you do put a lot of stress on your automatic transmission, get it serviced often. If you do not take good care of the gear set with routine maintenance at least once per quarter, you may end up needing a replacement after just two years or less of racing, hauling, offroading or other serious driving.