Does anyone have a problem with their auto transmission not upshifting when cold? Sometimes when I'm first starting out in the morning and going up a slight incline my tranny wont upshift. At 50 mph the engine rpms are at 2100 when normally at that speed I'm at about 1600 rpms. Is this normal or should I have it looked at??

2001 V10, auto, 3.73, 26k miles.

Tony in Alaska

 

I have the same year,motor and tranny as you.On cold mornings my truck does the same thing.After a mile or two its all set.It seems like the torqe converter doesnt lock up.My dealer said that its ok(ya right).I have 47k now and i need to change the tranny fluid.I was wondering if this would change anything?

 

The torque converter won't lock up until the transmission warms up. It was designed that way. Changing the fluid won't reprogram the computer that is doing this.

 

yes, my 99 does the same thing, glad to hear that is normal.

 

Yep, the TC slipping is a way of heating up the fluid. When the fluid is up to operating temp, the TC locks up as it should.

 

Thanks for the replies, I'm glad that it's normal.

 

My 2000 does the same thing as well, once it is warmed up, it is fine.

 

thanks guys

 

My truck seems to be more powerful when it is cold as well.

 

My in-laws live in Eagle River, they have a SD V10 auto and bought an oil-pan heater for the transmission pan. It looks like a flat 5" x 5" piece of rubber stuck to the transmission pan with an electric cord at one end. He plugs both the factory block heater and this transmission heater at night and everything is warm and ready to go in the morning. I know it's kind of a pain to plug these things in at night, but it would fix that problem.