My summer car, 84 Olds with 270k miles on the transmission doesn't slam into gear when it's cold, but it feels like driving through molasses for the first minute at least. That's before we get snow and it's parked but late enough the windows frost up. It shifts harder once warmed up.Wonder if they were just being cute, making idle talk?
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Random thought of the moment--people talk about waiting for rpm to drop below 1000 or somesuch. I don't recall ever waiting for that--nor have I had it "bang into gear". After a few seconds I'm guessing the transmission is pumped up and at pressure, but I think dropping into gear doesn't mean it's banging into gear--the ATF is cold, thick, perhaps flowing in those passageways a bit slower? accumulators doing their thing? not sure, but I don't think I've had an issue with an automatic (and on a manual, it's not that hard to just feather the clutch and take off).
Maybe on the older cars that was a problem, the non-electronically controlled automatics. Or maybe mine are too old, too many miles, and their autos are on their last legs, sliding into gear now.
My 2005 Silverado shifts harder when cold. This morning was -19c. It got 6 minutes of warmup before I had to leave and the transmission fluid temperature was still only 20F. It took several minutes of driving for the fluid to get up to freezing temperature (32f).
Saw a guy picking up large excavator on a job site. He sat in the frigid cabin for a good 7 minutes before moving it. Somewhere around 5 minutes he gently raised the rpm by maybe 400-500 to warm up faster.