Hi my 2005 s60 2.5T has a couple of cold weather problems.

1. The drivers door sometimes won't lock. The only way to lock it is to push the button down and hold the handle as i shut the door. This only happens when the car is cold.

2. Today it was cold (for NC) 20 F and the car would not shift from park to drive for a couple of minutes. It was like it was locked in park. Then after a couple of minutes warming up it shifted nicely. Is this normal?

Cheers and thanks!!

Rich

 

For the shifting, have you checked your transmission fluid?

 

I agree with Tiny and checking the fluid level. It may also be a sticking component in the transmission.

 

I'll check the tranny fluid. But it only happens when the car is cold and revving high when it just starts up. If I start the car later in the day, even if it is cold, it doesn't happen. I think it is some switch or something that is not activating.

I had wondered whether the car was designed this way. So that when the engine is revving high (at initial cold startup) it won't shift. It easily shifts when the revs drop below 1000.

 

we got down to -26 F (-57F windchill) last week and i must say, not rattles, no problems at all! car started and ran great. let it warm up a couple min when cold. and what i do when it gets really cold is after i start the car, i put the tranny trough a lil exercise by going from P-L and letting it engage every gear in between.

 

I think I know what you're saying. When you start the car, and it idles at 2k rpms, you can't shift out of park. While I would recommend waiting for your rpm's to go down, you can try to influence that by using a little gas. There may be a built in feature about that. I know the car shifts at higher points while it is cold to help warm everything up.

 

My guess is that the fluid is just old. Check on when it was last changed. 20 degrees is still plenty warm...it should be going into drive within a few seconds. What you can try is more slowly passing it through neutral before throwing it straight into drive.

 

UPDATE: Ok I took the car to the dealer - here is what is wrong.
1. The door lock motor is worn - so they'll replace it.
2. A previous owner had spilled something into the gear shift and this was freezing when cold causing it to lock up. They cleaned it all out and it should be good.

They also went a changed the tranny fluid as it was pretty dark...

Thanks!