08 2nd Generation 5EAT LGT transmission in the cold

Its been getting cold here, temperatures below freezing at night and 30's and 40's in the morning. When its cold out like this, the transmission/whole drive train seems to clunk, not shift smooth...it just feels odd. I noticed this on my old 01 Audi S4 too in the cold. Is this a trait for Autos or could it lead to something more... I know when it was warm out 3 months or so ago, I was driving up a semi steep hill one night and the transmission slammed into third. It wasnt a fun feeling at all. I only have ~4500 miles on my car.

when the tranny fluid warms up it will thin out a little and the shifting will be smoother. if you want to try something reset the ecu and when you start the car again go easy on the acceleration and braking for the first few miles, slowly up through the gears 1->5 and slowly back down 5->1 see if that makes it better. i used to do it on all of my autos every so often.

yep, let the car warm up a little.

My transmission started acting up yesterday, which also happened to be the first freeze here. My problem doesn't go away once the car warms up, even on a 30 min drive, so I'm not sure if it's related to the temps or not. I'm hoping it will go away on it's own, but it's been two days now.

 

My problem is that the 2->3 upshift is very harsh. Previously, this has been the smoothest auto tranny I have ever driven. But now it is slamming into third. I'm very disappointed because I was really happy with the car until yesterday. Hope this doesn't turn into something major.

 

I'm at 4,500 miles now, so my mileage is very close to yours, Carter

you both have 08's? interesting.. wonder if this is a problem in the new 5EAT's. you should take the car into the dealer to start getting a history built.

Yesterday afternoon I reset the ECU and the shifting is super smooth now. I'm hoping this gremlin doesn't come back because resetting all my radio presets and nav configs is a pain. Not sure why resetting it fixed the problem, but it definitely seems to be some kind of bad learned behavior.

 

I'll keep this post updated with the status.

but it definitely seems to be some kind of bad learned behavior.

 

exactly! as for resetting everything you dont have to, just pull a few fuses i dont know exactly how many off hand but check both fuse boxes(engine bay and drivers side dash panel about knee hight) for anything that says ecu or tcu.

When it is cold out for the first two or three shifts from 2nd to 3rd I can notice the shifts but outside of that and after driving a couple minutes shifts are seamless with this 2nd Gen. In the summer it was like butter. I remember my first 97 Leg GT, that was a rough shifting auto back then cold or hot.