Buy Planetary Gears for Your Suzuki

Suzuki fields three quite different automatics locally — a conventional torque-converter automatic, a CVT, and the AMT automated manual used on the budget cars. The AMT is a manual gearbox with an actuator bolted to it, so its parts have nothing in common with either of the others despite all three being sold as "auto". Getting that wrong is the most expensive mistake on this page. In practice the decision in front of you is whether a repair, a reconditioned unit or a good used gearbox represents the best value on a car of this age.

Whether the car is manual, AMT, CVT or a conventional automatic, plus which engine sits in front of it. With that we can usually confirm the right part quickly, and we'll tell you whether we're quoting new, aftermarket or good used rather than leaving you to guess.

Not necessarily. Suzuki fits an automated manual it calls AGS to some models, and that is a normal manual gearbox with actuators working the clutch and the shift — constant-mesh gears, no torque converter and no planetary gearset. A conventional automatic does have one. Send your VIN through the quote form and we will tell you which unit is actually in your car.

Rarely worth it. The gears run as a matched set with the carrier, thrust washers and bearings, and by the time one is chipped the debris has usually been through the rest of the box. Most workshops price a rebuild or a good used gearbox instead of a single gear.

Heat and dirty fluid, in that order. Fluid that has cooked loses its film strength, the clutch packs start slipping, the slipping makes more heat, and the debris that comes off circulates through the bearings. Stop-start metro traffic in Johannesburg and Pretoria is the hardest use a small automatic gets.

Often, yes, particularly on the small-capacity boxes fitted across the Suzuki range where a rebuild kit and the labour to fit it can approach the cost of a complete unit. The thing to check is that the donor unit is the same code and the same final drive, not just the same model name.

Keep the fluid clean and the level right, and do not ignore a shudder. Use the quote form with your model year and engine code if you want us to confirm which fluid specification the unit takes, because the wrong fluid will do the damage all over again.