Car: 1994 850 Turbo with apx 185,000 (odometer stopped at 140, yes I know I could fix it just don't want to spend the $50), just did the whole PCV system 2 weeks ago; yes I cleaned the PTC nipple. I cleaned every orofice and hole in the intake manifold.

The problem is with shifting and it predates the PCV system repair but it seems to have gotten worse since. When I first start the car if I drive off right away it will clunk into what feels like 3rd gear and then be very slow to accelerate and use high rpms to get what acceleration it does. The arrow starts blinking with this clunk. If I let the car sit for a couple of days and then start it up the arrow goes away and the car runs as normal. The only thing I can do to make it run normal is to start the car let it run for ten seconds, then gently put it in neutral, wait 3-4 seconds while the arrow light comes on then goes out, then put it in drive and it will shift as normal.

I normally run it in economy mode. If I try to put it into sport mode this clunk and bad shift happens. Sometimes if I start it up and do the waiting anyway it will clunk and do the cycle of hard shifting if the first gear I put it in is Reverse. When it does happen on Reverse there is a really hard kachunk sound going into R and the car jerks. Then it will run in R ok. But when I shift to D it does the same thing of not accelerating properly and having to get up to say 2500 rpms to get moving at all. For this reason I usually try to park at night so that in the morning I can drive straight out.

It usually only has this problem in the morning. And not every morning; maybe once every other week or so. But is seems like if I'm not gentle on it it will act up again. After the first trip of the day goes off well it will be fine the whole day.

A couple of times I have shut the car down to see if it will self correct sooner than a couple of days. When this happens the car won't start for ten minutes. Turn the key and nothing, no crank, no solenoid movement; nothing. But wait ten minutes and it fires. If during the down time I disconnect the negative lead on the battery for a couple of minutes, after the car is started it will usually make the flashing arrow go away and start shifting normally, but not always.

Don't ask about the fluid, I changed it about 9 months ago and it is still nice and pink. I change is regularly.

I live in Central Florida so it is not affected by cold weather and the roads around here are mostly flat. It's not hard shifting because of being on an incline at night. I park completely flat at night and usually in the morning I can drive straight out.

Any ideas on why it hard shifts? More ideas on why it will sometimes self correct? Is there a ghost in my car?