99 auto trans no lock up when cold

[AlFuzzolini]

I have a 99 with the four cyclinder and auto transmission. For some reason my torque converter does not feel like it locks in when the car is cold. Transmission shifts through all the gears fine and the fluid was changed a few months back and everything was clean. Usually I can drive the car doing around 50, let off the gas, and feel the converter lock in and the tach drop about 200 rpms. However, when the car is cold it feels like the converter won't lock in and instead if I let off the gas it feels like the car drags. Like I said, this only happens when the car is cold and it was fine all summer and last spring and winter after driving 2 minutes or so down the road. I just don't remember the car doing this before and I have been driving it for the last 6 years. Is this normal or could I have a problem starting? I have about 112,000 miles on the car. Thanks in advance for the help.

[bronzemaxell]

Originally Posted by AlFuzzolini

I have a 99 with the four cyclinder and auto transmission. For some reason my torque converter does not feel like it locks in when the car is cold. Transmission shifts through all the gears fine and the fluid was changed a few months back and everything was clean. Usually I can drive the car doing around 50, let off the gas, and feel the converter lock in and the tach drop about 200 rpms. However, when the car is cold it feels like the converter won't lock in and instead if I let off the gas it feels like the car drags. Like I said, this only happens when the car is cold and it was fine all summer and last spring and winter after driving 2 minutes or so down the road. I just don't remember the car doing this before and I have been driving it for the last 6 years. Is this normal or could I have a problem starting? I have about 112,000 miles on the car. Thanks in advance for the help.

i think it is normal, if your car doesn't do this, then something you should worry. it is a protection mechanism for the auto transmission.
but always need to avoid going to over-drive gear when the fluid still cold, and keep the rpm below 3k if possible.

[csaxon]

Normal, until engine coolant reaches normal operating temperature.

[fenixus]

yup it's normal. it can be observed in cold weather (especially during Winter). however 5s-fe are quite quick in warming up fully (less than 5 minutes in Winter usually), so you will see trans reacting normally half way through that process usually.
Noways however it takes like 1-2 minutes to get almost fully warmed up.

V6 are a bummer in terms of warm up time ... mine takes good 10-15 minutes in middle of NJ Winter ... so my trans cannot lock to O/D for first 5 minutes, but that's in Winter.

Now (late Summer, early Fall), it usually warms up pretty quick in less than 10 mins.

However, if your car has driven through the same temperatures in past and now it behaves differently, perhaps your problem is in fact the coolant warming up slow? that would make sense if you have an old thermostat.

I can imagine you would see the effects of that affecting trans shift points when cold (namely until it passes 140F on coolant temp). does the car take longer nowadays to reach the fully (past 180F) warmed up state?