When my car has been sitting for a while (over 4 hours or so) and I crank it up and start to drive the transmission lets the car go into higher RPM's than usual before it shifts and when it does shift (happens only once when car is started and is always on the first shift) it feels like somebody is ramming the back end causing the car to kind of jolt forward and the gear change feels really sluggish.

Any Ideas? It only happens on cold starts and only on the first gear change. After that it's fine, I can even avoid it sometimes by laying off the throttle when I can feel it about to happen.

 

start by checking your fluid level and inspecting for any leaks.

 

Thanks a lot but there are no leaks from what I can tell and the fluid level is fine and has been since I've been having this problem, the fluid even still has a good red color to it.

However when checking the fluid the dip stick sometimes has a little bit of black crud on it in addition to the tranny fluid. Could this be a sign of something?

 

only first gear? could be the forward clutch or low reverse clutch?
are you positive fluid level is fine? usual black "crud" would be clutch material i think

 

Every automatic car does this even my 08 gt with 18K miles on it; if you start it up and drive it immediately when it's cold.

Best thing to do is start it up, let it idle for about a minute. Problem solved. Cold fluid is denser than warm or hot fluid so it requires more pressure to move. Therefore, cold fluid takes greater pressure to move through the tranny and bump it to the next gear, then when it does shift, it kicks you in the back because of the amount of pressure released.

Another thing you could try (I haven't tried this for my 08 yet but I remembered from past cars) is before you go driving anywhere, run the car through the gears manually while your foot is on the brake.

Start it, Put it to 1, 2, 3, D then R, wait about a second or two in each, then put into the gear you want and go.

 

yea,derf is right,i re read the post, its just a cold start,let it idle for a few mins let the rpms go down then go, that should solve your problem.

 

get a standard problem solved

 

I Agree

 

i disagree lol,im one of the veryyy few people prefer automatic ^^

 

i can't stand autos lol, when i have to drive my moms truck sometimes i catch my self about to push the 3rd pedal coming up at a light except that third pedal isn't a clutch lol.