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Question

Does my car need transmission fluid?

Answer

Citroën is one manufacturer that committed to semi automatic transmission. First appearing in 1955 on the Citroën DS, a hydraulic system was used to select gears and operate the conventional clutch using hydraulic servos. There was also a speed controller and idle speed step-up device, all hydraulically operated. This was a clutchless shifting with a single column mounted selector. The Citroën 2CV gained a device named 'Trafficlutch', a centrifugal clutch that enabled clutchless changes in the first two ratios only (for town driving). The DS's semi automatic transmission was nicknamed 'Citro-Matic' in the United States. Later, the manufacturer introduced optional semi automatic transmissions on their medium and large saloon and estate models in the 1970s; the Citroën GS and CX models had the option of 3 speed, semiautomatic transmission marketed as 'C matic'. This was simpler than the previous inasmuch as it used a floor mounted quadrant lever operating a contact breaker and conventional gear selector rods in series, a fluid coupling 'torque convertor' and wet plate clutch were cut in and out of phase by an electro valve controlled by the contact breaker. This system was simple in that it dispensed with the former use of hydraulics to operate a clutch AND select the gear ratios. Citroën semi automatic transmission of this era made no use of electronics, the entire gear selecting operation was carried out by simply moving the gear lever from one ratio to the next.

— Source: Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org)