shifter hard to take out of gear when cold out?
 

I always leave my car in first gear with the ebrake on, but lately now that the temperature is dropping to around 20 degrees it feels like shifter is "frozen" and its hard to to get out of gear. Any ideas on what could be done to fix it?

By the way the car never did this last winter so it can't just be the cold.

park in the garage ^_^

lol.. Problem solved :cssNET:

No garage to park it in, any other solutions? ;)

My car does the same thing theres been plenty of post about this search for it

Build garage!

lmao. not much you can do about it, just let the car warm up but it's probably something outside of the tranny freezing or getting close to freezing.

Temperatures are about the same as last year and I never had this issue last year... :confused:

Could be your clutch fluid changing viscosity as the temperature changes.

ive had this issue lately this year too. and this is my first year IN a garage lol. its usually like this till after a few mins of letting the car warm up/get some heat in that thing for the girlfriend to stop complaining.... lol

You park in 1st, is it because you are on a slight incline or decline where you're parked? If you have to park in gear, try a different gear to see if it's a linkage issue. park in reverse, the next highest compression gear (I think, g2 be higher than 2nd) unless of course the balt can go 60mph in reverse :lol:

See if that changes anything. Otherwise, it's most likely a fluid thing. Can you shift no problem once it is warmed up? How many miles on the car/trans?

about 23k on the car. I will try the different gear thing.

dude just leave it in neutral, it happened to me first couple days it actually got cold then it stopped, its jsut the tranny fluid freezing, cant do anything about it except let the car warm up.

Actual issue can be related to the fluid but only if you can get it into gear with ease. because you can actually put it into gear just is harder to get in gear. if the shifter is rough to get into gear like its frozen then your linkage or your actual shifter ball is frozen a little.

at your leisure, take a little grease and lube the shift bracket on top of the trans where the cables meet the case. as the previous poster mentioned, the fluid will be denser when cold and make the shift tougher, but not impossible like it's frozen. if you are having that much trouble shifting, i'd check your cables for signs of slack at the shift bracket on the trans, and by your shifter.

pop out the cup holder by the 12v outlet (wait wtf, why am i explaining where the cupholders are, we only have 2! :LOL:) and check underneath. press the linage sideways, like you're plucking a guitar string. any play?

when u clutch in then start the car, you're not engaging the trans, so the likely hood of the shifting problem changing is rare. try this as a test... park in gear, clutch in, start, then very lightly take the clutch out to slightly engage it and move the car. this will move the syncros and gears internally in the trans, perhaps freeing up any backlash or pressure on the gears or linkage. that'll let you know if it is a parking in gear/linkage issure versus fluid.

metal shrinks when it's cold, it's a very good possibility that something is indeed frozen. grease all the linkages and report back

I just put it in neutrual all the time. never had an issue and in wisconsin it gets dam cold and i park outside alot lol.

Seems to be more of a problem with the LNF and different gear doesnt matter wouldnt recommend reverse as its pretty damn far to wait for it to unfreeze and more chance of breaking the fucking thing best is to put it in 1st

you can switch to full synth trans fluid, i did in my LSJ and the trans loved it... smooth as butter shifting.