Wear Elemental Spectrometric Quantitative Analysis of Used Perodua Automatic Transmission Fluid-3 Series (ATF-3)

Abstract This paper investigates the severity level of wear elements occurred in Perodua MyVi 1300cc automatic transmission (AT) mechanism via multi-elemental spectrometric oil analysis. The work of analysis was performed merely on automatic transmission fluid (ATF) Perodua original equipment manufacturer (OEM) (ATF-3) series. The ATF was analyzed through continuous dynamometer basis at operating speed of 3000 rpm and actual travelled distance mission profile categories. The operating mileage tested during continuous dynamometer basis ranges from 0 km up to 10,000 km maximum operating distance. The traces of wear elements were quantitatively analyzed at each operating mileage of 1,500 km, 3,000 km, 4,500 km, 7,000 km and 10,000 km, respectively. The mileage selected and observed for second mission profile category was divided into three main categories. Category sample number A1-B3 referred to the actual travelling distance between 800 km up to less than 20,000 km. Category C1-D2 and E1-F5 each represents the operating travelling distance of 20,000 km up to less than 40,000 km and 40,000 km up to less than 60,000 km, respectively. Spectrometric analysis is primarily commenced based on serious limitations of the wear particle size that usually expressed as wear concentration in parts-per-million (ppm) unit. The typical concentration range for every element is between 1-100 ppm and the severity level of concentration for every element varies from one another. The element of Aluminum (Al), Chromium (Cr), Copper (Cu), (Ferum) Fe, Lead (Pb), Nickel (Ni), Tin (Sn), Titanium (Ti), Vanadium (V), Manganese (Mn), Argentum (Ag) and Cadmium (Cd) are principally categorized as the wear elements. It was found that the occurrence of wear by product of these elements presence in the AT mechanism can be classified as benign wear and the presence of wear particles on both mission profiles are considered as normal wear particles mode even the ATF has been used at continuous operating speed of 3000 rpm and extendedly used beyond its recommended drain period of every 20,000 km operating travelling distance.