Is this normal? When I start driving it seems to slowly soften up until it's back to it's normal state again. Does any of your stick shifts do this?

Maybe I have a short throw shifter? How many inches is the average shift lever?

 

I've lived up in the northern climes for most of my stick-shift driving life, and as such, when shifting becomes stiff after a winter cold-start I don't even give it a second thought. Why?

Ummm, anecdotal story alert!

Growing up in farm country with lots of ancestors that grew up on a farm as well, there are lots of stories told about days gone by. One such story took place back in the late 1920s when "Old Man Prescott" (as we called him) was a young lad; apparently his mother instructed him to go out to the barn-loft an fetch some molasses (they raised sugar beets among other crops) for the Sunday morning pancakes. The young Prescott dutifully headed out from the house on that wind-swept sub-zero morning to the barn, climbed the ladder to the loft and turned the spigot; and he waited. As many of you can imagine, they had no molasses for their pancakes that morning.

During the first thaw the following spring, "Pop Prescott" headed out to the barn to shear the sheep only to find the wool completely matted with molasses and virtually unusable. Yup, you guessed it, A) the molasses warmed up enough to start flowing again; right out that still open spigot, and B) "Old Man Prescott" got hisself a trip to the wood-shed to get his hide tanned.

So, what does molasses have to do with stiff shifting action following a cold winter start? Plenty; turns out the non-synthetic tranny lube in our cars thickens just like molasses when it gets cold. But take heart; there is a solution. All you need to do is to drain the tranny fluid from your car and replace it with some good Red-Line tranny lube. Once done you will hardly be able to tell when the transmission is cold, and once it is warmed up you'll probably notice that your car shifts even slicker than it did before.

 

Ummmm..... the last thing I knew, you didn't HAVE a stick shift??

Yes, it is fairly normal, though there are things you can do to improve that situation, but it could be a bit risky.
Running lighter weight synthetic tranny fluid can work well. So can running non-detergent 30w. Depending on the car you are talking about, it may be fine to do so.

Case in point. When I was driving Volvos, the 4-speeds called for the std everyday 75w-90 gear lube. BUT when you added the Laycock electric overdrive unit to the back of the VERY SAME TRANNY (they shared the same lubricant, you were to use 30w. No other changes, so I started using ND 30w in EVERYTHING, and drove them hard too. Never a problem. No noisy bearings, no excessive wearing syncronizers, no crunched gears.

Some manuals call for ATF as its lube as well. It all depends.

In my car I am staying w/75w-90 full synthetic because I am not sure how the trans would react to a lighter weight/different lube. Some that have highly modified 3's, such as an AM turbo system, have reported blowing 3rd gear on a regular basis. It can be a little sluggish for a short time, but I'm used to it as is Dale. Plus, harsh weather of the REALLY COLD variety is something of a rarity 'round here.

 

Used to it, yes, like it no. That's why I'm probably going to put RedLine in my Mazda3 this fall before the snow flies.

 

You guys are funny. It was just a tongue-in-cheek joke. Think about what I first posted with your id, not your ego.

 

Wait.... do I really want to knows haha.

 

Leave it to Jaimie of all people to get a joke over people like Richard and shipo (Dale?).

 

Keep in mind I am the same age as you and deal with more of those sick jokes *not to mention say alot* then all these old farts