What Does a Transmission Do?

The transmission is one of the most important parts of your car, but what does a transmission do exactly? The transmission is the part of your car that delivers power from the engine to the wheels and decides how much power to give. There are two main types of transmissions, manual and automatic, which function in different ways.

With a manual transmission, the driver shifts gears as they speed up or slow down to change the amount of power the transmission gives the wheels in the same way shifting a bicycle’s gears works. When you push the clutch in a car with a manual transmission, it disconnects the transmission from the engine in order to shift to a different gear, and the transmission and engine reconnect when you release the clutch.

With an automatic transmission, this process is done for you. The car uses a torque converter to sense the changes in speed and how much power is needed at that speed and automatically shifts the car into the correct gear.

2014 Chevrolet Corvette 7-Speed Transmission