My wonderful car decided to not move this morning. For the first time in its life, it has been parked outside for the last month - think cold. When my daughter came home with the 5th car, I have been parking across the street because that house is for sale and the driveway is empty.

Last month, when it was -17F, I started the car and rolled down the driveway. When I put it into drive, there was this terrible racket from the tranny. So, I shifted to neutral and let it warm up a bit until the service light turned off. When I put it back into drive, the noise was tolerable and went away as soon as the tranny shifted to 2nd.

This morning I let the engine warm up for 2 minutes, it was +25F, shifted to R and did not get the familiar clunk. I backed down the driveway and turned the car to nose into my driveway. The car would not climb the incline. Fortunately, the streets are fairly level so I drove to a cul de sac and the tranny shifted to 2nd. When I came back to my driveway, it pulled right up.

I checked the fluid for color, nice and pink. I don't know if the PO had flushed the ATF. None of the streets are level enough to check the level of the ATF, but it hasn't been leaking anything. The ATF is not synthetic.

Is this a sign of impending doom? The tranny has always made pump noise (high pitched whine) when cold, until the shift to 2nd gear. It has never slipped before. Should I bite the bullet and flush the fluid with synthetic, around $100 for Mobile 1 ATF?

Klaus
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Always willing to listen, just not able to take direction.