940 not shifting out of 1st gear
 

Hello all!

I have a 940 non turbo, auto tranny, that when I drive it first thing in the morning, it takes a little bit (3 or 4 mins) before it will shift out of 1st gear.

The rest of the day, no issues at all...works flawlessly.
Except yesterday...it was a much colder day than it has been all fall, and when I left from work, I had the same issues.

It obviously appears to be related to the engine/tranny being cold, when it is warm, it works fine.

Any suggestions as to a fix?

Thanks!

How long since the last transmission service (ATF flush, pan clean, filter) ?

is the throttle-to-shifter cable (often called 'kickdown' cable) properly adjusted ? Should be just a hair of slack when the throttle is at idle, and the little crimped on stop on the cable should be like 1/16th inch outside the plastic end on the adjuster ferrule

I am not sure about how long since the last tranny flush. I got the car in January, and I believe they MAY have flushed it when I bought it, but not 100%.

I will also check the cable, but if that were the issue, would the problem resolve when the car was warm?

my kid's 940SE, the cable was misrouted after he did a hackish heater core repair... it had symptoms much as you describe, very late shift out of 1st when cold, not so bad but still late upshifting when warmed up. turned out the cable was being pushed down in the middle because he ran it under the heater hoses. I managed to reroute it and readjusted it and phew, the car shifted perfectly (until I figured this out, I thought we were going to be into major tranny repairs, and the car was probably headed for the scrap pile).