Automatic Transmission

[lj123023]

Just wondering if anyone has experienced hard shifts (between 1st and 2nd) during the cold weather. The problem does seem to go away after the car is warmed up. Perhaps it's just way too cold, but if that's the case the car takes an awful long time to warm up then (>10 minutes). Alternative is to leave the car in 1st and drive slow for a bit.

 

[Captain KRM P5]

a friend of mine here, Thaddeus, was having that problem. She took it to the dealer and they basically told her to, uh, deal with it for lack of a better phrase Defientely NOT the answer I would have wanted to hear personally.

 

[dugrant153]

Go back to Mazda and tell them to give support... otherwise go and complain to Mazda USA (or CAnada... or whereever)

 

[CitizenPro]

That happens if you just start your car in the morning and take off without warm up. It takes awhile to shift into second, and when it does it shifts hard?

 

[ChopstickHero]

this happens when the car is not warmed up. warming the engine doesn't warm up the tranny that much. so during the first few minutes after a proper warm up, go easy on the tranny. i found that after switching to Mobil1 synthetic ATF, that it's alot smoother than the stock tranny fluid, even when it's cold.

 

[taylor5]

cold transmission

Hey,

My P5 did the exact same thing till it warmed up....approximately after five minutes or the 3rd full take off from a stop. That is just a characteristic of Mazda auto transmissions. Just go easy on that first take off and second one until that gear oil warms up...then it should be smooth. It always worked for me and makes you drive easy til "whole" car is up to operating temp.

 

[ZippityZoomZoom]

I have had three cars from three different manufacturers do that. You mean it's not supposed to?

 

[mp5jeff]

Hey, That is just a characteristic of Mazda auto transmissions.

any automatic tranny will do this when cold/just started, not only mazdas..

 

[rodslinger]

Yes it's pretty much standard characteristic with all autos. I had an 84 Buick Skyhawk in High School. It had a mighty 80 something HP 1.8 liter motor and a GM TH 200 auto tranny. That car and it's mighty 80 hp would bark the tires on the 1-2 gear change if I took off immediately after starting it in cold weather. But once it warmed up, it was back to total suckage.

 

[PhreakV]

an auto tranny (or any tranny for that matter) doesn't heat up with the engine. the fluid in your tranny and torque converter is still really cold if the car has been heating at a stand-still. there is only one spline that is spinning while that happens so it doesn't get warm until you put it in gear and run all the gears for a bit. a synthetic fluid will help because most synthetics have better cold characteristics and heat faster.