Was wondering if my 2003 automatic has a problem or whether it is just a characteristic of cold weather. Seems that when it gets below 15 degrees out, it takes about 6-8 miles of driving before I get OD to kick in. Is it just cold mollasses fluid that needs to get heated or do I have a potential problem? No noises involved, just will not kick into overdrive for awhile.

 

My 03 screw tranny is cold-natured when it's around 25 degrees or below. I think that there may be a few things to consider when it comes to trannies shifting slower in cold weather. First, these new trannies are electronically controlled, so the shift points are based, in part, on the temperature of the tranny AND the engine. Also, if you have a cooler on your tranny, it will take a little more time to warm up the fluid. When you start driving with a cold engine, the tranny will shift at higher RPM's than if the engine is warm. This will accelerate the warmup of the engine. Remember, this is all controlled by the computer to some extent. In my experience driving several different brands and kinds of vehicles with automatic trannies in the last 15 years, this has always been the case during cold winters. They have all shifted at higher RPM's when cold especially in this type of weather.

My 2 cents

 

I live where it gets really cold and sometimes you have to wait for the tranny temp.to come up before it will shift into od.I always put my truck in neutral for 5 mins.and let her warm up before driving (seems to help loosen up that cold tranny fluid).A buddy of mine has a 2002 Dodge and when it gets colder than -30 deg. c his tranny will not upshift to od at all.

 

Exactly there is a transmission temperature sensor that does not allow overdrive or lockup until the transmission is warmed up.
Alan

 

Thanks for the input. I was wondering if it was normal. I remember a 1970 Ford Galaxy 500 I had, it had a hard time getting out of second on really cold days.