Slamming into gear?

[steve_2020]

Curious if any of you have experienced your transmission shifting hard when you first shift into gear? Both forward and in reverse.

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[sk47]

Hello; Sounds normal if you go into gear when first started from cold. The cold start function of the programing does what a choke did on the older cars. The fuel mix can be some richer at start up. The RPM's are some higher for a bit. If you can wait till the engine RPMs die back down that should lessen the clunk.
you could also have the AC turned off at a cold start. Running the AC can have the engine RPM's up some.

My old car, a 2001 Sentra, revs over 1000 rpm's at cold start. Takes a bit for the revs to drop down to normal. My 2004 Silverado drops revs much quicker. I think one difference may be the O2 sensors. There have been improvements with the O2 sensors over time. The goal being to get them up to operating temperatures quicker is my guess.

 

[steve_2020]

That makes sense. Had not thought about it immediately after a cold start.

 

[sk47]

Hello; At the risk of opening a debate, this is what I do. With the auto trans truck, I tend to let it run for a while from cold start before putting it in reverse. Not a long time tho. Probably less than a minute. A bit longer on a bitter cold day.
I figure it allows for two things. One is to allow the cold start enrichment to start to drop the RPM's some as mentioned before. I do not let it sit running a long time tho.
The other is to let the pump inside the transmission circulate the trans fluid some. Especially on those bitter cold starts.

To your question. If the trans goes into gear with a hard clunk after the engine is well warmed up that may be something to have checked out.

 

[MAGS1]

Curious if any of you have experienced your transmission shifting hard when you first shift into gear? Both forward and in reverse.

Manual or automatic?

 

[sk47]

Manual or automatic?

Hello; good question. I have been assuming an automatic which is dumb on my part.

 

[MAGS1]

I assumed automatic as well but wanted to confirm

 

[steve_2020]

Manual or automatic?

auto

 

[Zooks527]

With the manual transmission, there's a "thunk" when you first slide it into gear from stopped (with the clutch out) as the transmission input shaft stops spinning when first or reverse are engaged with the car stationary and the momentum of the input shaft takes all the slack out of the driveline. May be something similar in the automatic.

 

[MAGS1]

auto

It’s likely either with it being cold or you might be a tad low on fluid. Does it do it on a warm start or just cold?

 

[FO 2/11]

Curious if any of you have experienced your transmission shifting hard when you first shift into gear? Both forward and in reverse.

Try revving the engine just a bit before you put it in gear and see if this eliminates it. I have an '18 GT that does this, and tapping the accelerator eliminates the hard shift.

 

[steve_2020]

It’s likely either with it being cold or you might be a tad low on fluid. Does it do it on a warm start or just cold?

Both

 

[GrabberBargeCaptain]

Try revving the engine just a bit before you put it in gear and see if this eliminates it. I have an '18 GT that does this, and tapping the accelerator eliminates the hard shift.

seems like that would indicate a problem with one of the clutches in the transmission

 

[sk47]

Both

Hello; Another bit of information needed. What is the resting RPM of the engine when fully warmed up? I am assuming the cooling fans are electric. If so do, they run a lot or even all the time?

 

[Mike Pfeifer]

Don’t forget about parking on an incline, this can also lead to this type of sensation as the driveline can be preloaded one way or the other, and cause the parking pawl to bind as it releases.

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