Has this ever happened to you?

[the gamper]

This morning I went out to start my car, no problem there, started right up after sitting outside in the sub zero temperatures (8 degrees with windchill 10 degrees below zero). The problem was when I released the clutch after starting it. It stalled. Thinking I may have forgotten to take it out of gear I checked, nope, it was in neutral.

I started it up again, this time I did a quick shift with the clutch depressed into 1st, then 2nd while idling thinking that the cold could have had something to do with it. Put it in neutral again and this time I released the clutch very slowly and again it started to catch....while in neutral.

I took off thinking that I was going to have to drive to work with the clutch depressed at every stop. First two stops I just checked to see if it would catch in Neutral and it did. By the third stop the problem had gone away.

I assume this is a result of the extreme cold but cannot figure it out since I had made a number of shifts and the problem persisted, at least for a while. What do you guys think.

 

[Tinstar]

Tranny fluid is cold.

The input shaft is running in the cold fluid and dragging the motor down.

Add a little throttle and release the clutch a little slower and you will be fine.

Synthetic tranny fluid will greatly help, if not eliminate the problem.

I've had a few manual tranny cars that would actually move forward a bit when releasing the clutch, even with the tranny in neutral. The cold tranny fluid was able to transfer enough power to move the car a little bit.

 

[automaton]

happened to me all last winter (and once so far this winter). Just let the clutch out slowly. I have had another car do the same to me when EXTREMELY cold.

 

[jville]

happened to me last week. just let it warm up a lil bit

 

[PerformanceRacing]

Simply needs to warm up, or could be a fuel issue, colder weather, less pressure, so car shuts off.

 

[ZUZOOM]

Wow glad to see that I am not the only one. Every morning since Jan 1. Notice that the engine slows down while in neutral and clutch releases. ALSO noticed HARD Sshifting 1st and 2nd.