Cold Transmission

[MIPS]

We're going on day 3 here of -25c during the day and I'm finding if I start the car in the morning the transmission makes a heck of a racket until I put it in Neutral to move fluid better.
The 3-speed was rebuilt 60000km ago and I topped off the fluid level last week before the weather rolled in and crippled us so are these just normal sounds from a frozen automatic transmission? Runs fine once I let everything warm up.

[86Woodgrain]

Hooboy I'm used to that kind of cold LOL.

I thought I read somewhere recently that in the extreme cold like that you should start your Eagle in Neutral?? I checked my owners manual but did not see a mention of it. I did spend some time in the Eaglepedia lately too though...

Try starting in Neutral and let it run a few mins. If that fixes it then I guess it's OK? I really wish I could have found that note about the cold neutral start...

Can you shoot a short video of the transmission noise upon startup? Are you checking your trans fluid when the engine and trans are fully warmed up?

[MIPS]

Yeah the fluid check is on level ground, in neutral and after the engine is warmed up.
Nah I can't do a video as it's cold enough in the morning but the fact it goes away is reassuring that it's probably just cold. :v

[Illeagle1984]

Well, there's not a lot of possibilities in a case like this.  I have a couple theories.

Does it whine like a power steering pump when its low on fluid?  If so, could be the front pump having a hard time moving the required amount of fluid.  Since in P there is no pressure the volume increases as it is continually dumped right back to the pan as fast as the pump can move it.  Do you have full synthetic trans fluid?

If it's more of a metal sound, like a dry bearing spun with air, it could be a weak bearing in the converter or input shaft area.  It's about the only other thing that changes between P and N, and charging the converter could load the bearing and quiet it down.

I'd love to hear a clip of the noise.  I haven't heard any noise from mine down to -28F, something's not happy.

[MIPS]

Well now that it's warmed up (I'm sure -10c is not "warm" but it was better than -30 lol) the noise has gone away entirely.
Yes it was more of a whine than the sound of a dry bearing and the wine instantly went away when you shifted into neutral. I did notice a bit of fluid loss when it was really really cold but the leak went away again once it "warmed up" outside.