i dont have overdrive in cold weather. i do after the car warms up a little. its kinda freaking me out because on my old formula i had this problem but it was a tv cable problem. the shift kit and it not being adjusted right killed my trans. and this is how it started. my cable looks fine. its adjust right and its strait. ill post a pic tomorrow of it see if theres something im missing. but if its not that cable....what else could it be? im getting my fluid changed after christmas. my car sat for a wile before i got it and ive got now clue when it was changed last.

also..this has only started since its been really cold around here in south nj. could it be a cold tranny would perfom bad? kinda like an engine thats cold?

 

Other than changing the fluid and checking the TV cable your pretty much screwed.

My 700R4 was being a B!+ch and now it seems to be alright after i changed the fluid in it, you may or may not get lucky though. Neither of my trannys like to shift when its cold but here it actually gets cold

 

There's a something (valve in the valve body??) hanging up in the trans when it gets cold. The 700r4 in my old caprice didn't want to shift out of first unless the rpm's where over 3500 when it got below 20 degrees. I had to drive around the block to warm it up a little, shut the car off, and restart it. Then it would work fine. It made for an interesting drive in the morning after a fresh snowfall!!

Not much you can do without figuring out what is sticking.

You might want try driving for a minute or two to warm it up, and then shut off and restart to unhang whatever valve is stuck.

 

Are you sure it's not going into OD? Is it going into OD but the TCC is not locking up? (Sorry if this is a dumb question.)

Not sure about your car, but in mine the ECM won't lock up the TCC until a minimum coolant temp is reached. When I changed the thermostat to a lower temp, I noticed the TCC wouldn't lock up as quickly as what I was used to.

 

i just figured cold weather and cold fluid would just make it shift crappy. its only started since its been under 40 degrees.

 

I've read that your engine wont go into closed loop and lock in the convertor untill your oxygen sensor has reached a set temperature. Allthough with your shutting the engine off, then restarting it and it shifting fine..... Dosent sound like a ECM issue.
Could be though....



Max

 

yeah, u know what ive heard that too. with different cars though.

 

your car sounds like it is behaving fine. The car won't shift into overdrive until its warmed up like myvmax1 said. Its to help allow the engine to reach its correct operating temperature quicker. If it stays in third, it has to run at a higher rpm and so it does exactly that. One way to see this is to start your car one day and just let it idle until it is completely warmed up, then drive it. It should shift into overdrive like if it is warm out. If it doesn't, then you might have some other problem, but it sounds like everything is perfectly fine.

 

Drive it, if it breaks fix it

 

mine does the same thing until i drive 8 miles with speeds over 55 mph or until i take it to about 75 mph the quick shift between neutral and overdrive with light throttle...

 

Wow. I know this is from 7 years ago, but I just wanted to call out this post so anyone who reads this thread will understand how incorrect this information is.

Yes, I see the logic behind this post but the ECM in these cars controls ZERO functions of the transmission except for the torque converter lockup. There is nothing other than an old lazy transmission that would keep 4th from coming on at cold temperatures. Yes, it will shift right away if you allow the car to fully warm up because you have also brought the transmission fluid somewhat up to operating temp by doing this!

 

The tranny doesn't slip or nothing its just annoying cause even around normal operating temp i can be running 60-65mph in third gear with a 3.42 and cruising around 3000rpm in my 2.8 til a few miles down it firmly shifts to overdrive; this is something new cause i thought my governor was going which was replaced last january...

 

mine does the exact samething.... mine has been doing it for 2 years... i decided to live with it.... if it was a bad band or whatever it wouldnt have lasted near this long.... so i will be getting ONE final 700r4 and thats from dana... if that fails its t56 time for me....

 

well 2yrs sounds like a good deal to me just have to go easy on the blue ridge mountains but hopefully i'll have a newly rebuilt one before summer