What does a transmission usually do right before it fails?

Summary:

Jaden explains that a failing transmission announces itself mainly through how it shifts. He describes three distinct shift problems customers feel from the driver's seat: hard shifts, where the unit bangs into gear; flared shifts, where engine speed jumps mid-shift before dropping back once the next gear secures; and missed shifts, where the transmission skips a gear entirely. Beyond shift quality, he points to slipping and to torque converter shudder, which he describes as feeling like driving over turtles. Sounds are a secondary indicator, usually a whine that comes either from a failing internal bearing or from a pump starving for fluid. Smell is rarely a factor unless the transmission is leaking and fluid is burning off, in which case the burnt fluid odor is noticeable.

Answer:

There's a number of ways that it can fail. You can feel hard shifts, weird shifts, missed shifts. Hard shifts means when it shifts from second to third gear, or whatever gear to whatever gear, it'll bang into gear. A flared shift is where it'll actually, in the middle of the shift when it's shifting from second to third, the RPMs will actually jump and then come back down once it secures third gear. Mis-shifts is like it will skip second gear or third gear and go to fourth gear, so you're missing a whole gear. The other thing would be the transmission is going to slip, or the torque converter will shudder. Shudder feels kind of like you're driving over turtles, and that's usually converter shudder. There can be sounds, too. If you have a bearing that's failing inside the transmission, then there'll be a whine to it. Or if the pump for the transmission is starving for fluid, then that will whine as well. Smells, typically no, unless it's leaking and the fluid is burning, then you'll smell a burning transmission fluid smell.