Hello everyone,
My 94 LeSabre has a problem that only crops up in cold weather (i.e. now).
The car starts and runs fine, but when shifting into any gear, the gear is not engaged (i.e. the car acts as if it is in neutral, revving the engine does nothing), UNTIL the car has warmed up in the driveway for a while (this can take up to 15 minutes when it is cold outside). Then, eventually the gear engages, and everything is fine after that.
I have even taken the time to sit in the car with it in gear, to see exactly what happens. The car just "catches" its gear after a while. No noise, no gradual reduction in slippage, it just goes from nothing to engaged.
I called the local transmission shop, asking if they thought that something in the valve body was sticking. They said "definitely not the valve body, we've seen that problem lots of times, and it is something else inside the tranny and we'll have to tear it apart to find the problem".
Just wondering if anyone has experience with this problem, so when the tranny shop says "sorry...you need a $2000 rebuild", I will know if they're telling me the truth or not.
The Transmission never slips, and once the gear does engage, it is fine for the rest of the day. The problem never crops up during the summer. So it is definitely related to something not passing fluid through the tranny when it is cold. If I could buy a "transmission heater" I would, but it doesn't seem like that is available.
Anyways, looking forward to your suggestions.
Chris