[The Rifleman]

hey everyone I was wondering if someone could help me. Recently our weather in Wisconsin has been below freezing for over a month now with most of those days being under 5 degrees. When I'm driving to work in the morning my truck won't shift into overdrive untill after I've been driving nearly ten minutes which is most of my daily commute. What this means is that my usual 15-16mpg takes a nose dive to around 11. Its a 2002 club cab 4X4 with the 4.7L any help is greatly appreciated..

 

[04dodgeroar]

that is normal for any dodge that i own,or have owned.even today it took about 2 miles for it to shift into OD,and i am in GA,and about 58 degrees out.i think your transmission fluid has to reach a certain temp before shifting.

 

[bjones25]

that is normal for any dodge that i own,or have owned.even today it took about 2 miles for it to shift into OD,and i am in GA,and about 58 degrees out.i think your transmission fluid has to reach a certain temp before shifting.

Right on the money, its a safty feature. The transmission fluid has too reach a certain temp before the tranny will shift into overdrive. Mine will even do into 32 degrees for a couple of minutes. Nothing to worry about.

 

[The Rifleman]

I was thinking about trying either the redline synthetic or royal purple fluids, maybe their synthetic lighter weight would speed things up...

 

[CMDak4x4]

It won't shift into OD until the engine has warmed up to a manufacture specific temperature as this helps with the emissions (warms engine up faster). This is the main reason why is it is used.

The longer you allow your truck to warm up before driving in cold weather the sooner the OD will engage. In a ten mile drive to work for me with a three minute warn-up the OD will engage in about 2 1/2 to 3 miles depending on how cold it is.

 

[The Rifleman]

Does anyone know of a little wire here or sensor there that can be "adjusted" to help with the shift? I can remember one morning before I moved (I was driving 190 miles round trip every weekend) driving home on a -2 degree morning where the truck didn't shift into OD until I had driven about 50 miles! Thats real annoying listening to your truck sing the "2300Rpms at 70Mph while I'm gettin' 10Mpg" blues!

 

[lsigrandson]

I hope you guys don't mind a Gen I'er hijacking your thread, but I wanted to add my 2 cents. I live in SE Michigan and my Gen I '92 Dak has done the "cold shift" each and every winter that I have owned it and I have over 243,000 miles on 'er. I had my trans re-built last year at 239,000 and even with the re-build it still "cold shifts". I agree w/CMDak4x4 on the warm up. I do it as much as I can in the winter months.

Sorry to interrupt.......carry on.......

Mike

 

[bjones25]

Does anyone know of a little wire here or sensor there that can be "adjusted" to help with the shift? I can remember one morning before I moved (I was driving 190 miles round trip every weekend) driving home on a -2 degree morning where the truck didn't shift into OD until I had driven about 50 miles! Thats real annoying listening to your truck sing the "2300Rpms at 70Mph while I'm gettin' 10Mpg" blues!

Your thinking of the the torque managment mod. You dont adjust it though, you cut it. But all it does is firm up your WOT shifts by getting rid of torqu managment. With TM your engine defuels on WOT shifts to soften them up, with TM taken away = much firmer shifts and more fun to drive. But this wont do anything to change shifting into OD. Not shifting into OD when its cold is a fail safe feature, thats just how these tranny's are. You dont want to try and get rid of it.

 

[The Rifleman]

Does anyone think switching to a synthetic fluid like red line or royal purple would help? Or has anyone actually used these besides just their motor oils?

 

[dodgefan360]

I was thinking about trying either the redline synthetic or royal purple fluids, maybe their synthetic lighter weight would speed things up...

ATF+4 is a full synthetic fluid. Aftermarket fluids won't perform much better, but they can be less money if you do the work yourself.

I don't drive over 50mph with an engine that's been sitting all night in -20F temps. Even with the block heater the trans still locks out overdrive for the first couple miles. If you don't use a block heater it will take longer for OD to kick in. I forgot to plug it in one night and cruised a good 8miles (13km) before the trans went into OD.