Hey all,
No posts from me recently because my Acclaim has been running awesome, but I do have a question.
The transmission in my car seems to hate the cold. When I start it up in the morning on cold days (or after work if it's really cold), it is a little slow to shift up into 3rd the first time. It will stick in 2nd until 40-45mph, float at that speed in 2nd for a few seconds, shift into 3rd a little hard, and then be good the rest of the drive. When I leave work, if it was a cold day it will do the same thing, but my drive starts in the city, so I only have one opportunity to go fast enough to make it go to 3rd, otherwise it will stay in 2nd. After this first hard shift, it shifts smoothly (the lockup even works on the converter).
A few other facts: On days where all of my driving is in town, it will eventually go into 3rd at city speeds. Also, on the very coldest of days (single digit mornings), at the first stop sign, it won't go back down into first at a stop, and will try to take off in 2nd. Sometimes it will go to first when taking off, sometimes it will just sit in 2nd.
This funky behavior is only when it is cold, on mornings where it is above 35-40 degrees, the car behaves perfectly. This transmission came from a junk yard and at first I thought it was just tight from sitting, but when it got cold again this fall the weird behavior started again. I'm reasonably sure that the fluid is at the proper level because I was checking it daily until it got cold out and never saw the level drop. (Turned out to be power steering fluid. I was wondering what a persistent puddle was on my driveway and was baffled that the tranny fluid level never changed.)
Are there any ideas on what this could be? This is my 2nd winter with this transmission and this behavior, so I'm more curious than anything.
No posts from me recently because my Acclaim has been running awesome, but I do have a question.
The transmission in my car seems to hate the cold. When I start it up in the morning on cold days (or after work if it's really cold), it is a little slow to shift up into 3rd the first time. It will stick in 2nd until 40-45mph, float at that speed in 2nd for a few seconds, shift into 3rd a little hard, and then be good the rest of the drive. When I leave work, if it was a cold day it will do the same thing, but my drive starts in the city, so I only have one opportunity to go fast enough to make it go to 3rd, otherwise it will stay in 2nd. After this first hard shift, it shifts smoothly (the lockup even works on the converter).
A few other facts: On days where all of my driving is in town, it will eventually go into 3rd at city speeds. Also, on the very coldest of days (single digit mornings), at the first stop sign, it won't go back down into first at a stop, and will try to take off in 2nd. Sometimes it will go to first when taking off, sometimes it will just sit in 2nd.
This funky behavior is only when it is cold, on mornings where it is above 35-40 degrees, the car behaves perfectly. This transmission came from a junk yard and at first I thought it was just tight from sitting, but when it got cold again this fall the weird behavior started again. I'm reasonably sure that the fluid is at the proper level because I was checking it daily until it got cold out and never saw the level drop. (Turned out to be power steering fluid. I was wondering what a persistent puddle was on my driveway and was baffled that the tranny fluid level never changed.)
Are there any ideas on what this could be? This is my 2nd winter with this transmission and this behavior, so I'm more curious than anything.