Transmission in My Car Takes a Long Time To Shift

Hello I have a Cadillac STS. I recently had a transmission overhaul on it because it had problems shifting and no power.

The mechanic did a transmission fluid change and when doing so there was a lot of metal shavings. He requested to do the transmission overhaul. After completing the overhaul, now my car doesn’t shift right when the car is cold.

Once its warm its okay. But on the time of me running errands I had a problem getting it into gear after parking meaning no reverse nor drive gear. After playing with it for a couple of minutes it caught on to gear. I would appreciate your advice. Thank you

Hi there

If you really did get a complete overhaul with a new torque converter and all clutches and solenoids I would probably flush out the transmission fluid first and see if that helps.

Sometimes dirt and metal shavings get stuck in the transmission cooler and flushing the cooler and the lines to the cooler can remove the debris. If that does not help you will need to remove the transmission pan and look inside and read the transmission codes. This should all be done under warranty by your transmission mechanic.

The transmission cooler lines send transmission fluid either to the radiator (where the cooler is internal to the radiator) or you have an external cooler in front of the radiator. The cooler does as the name imply, it cools the transmission fluid before circulating back to the transmission.

Since you said you had metal shavings inside the transmission when doing the flush, if they did not properly flush out those cooler lines you circulated that metal debris back into the transmission.

There are a lot of small fluid passages and solenoids inside the transmission and that metal debris can get trapped inside and cause a valve or shift solenoid to stick.

If that does not help, I am afraid there is an internal issue inside the transmission and they will need to redo the job again. Reverse gear is usually the first gear to go out or slip and when the transmission and the fluid is COLD it is harder to pump through out the transmission system.

The fluid gets thinner when it gets hot so it is easier to pump, and the internal transmission pump (front pump) is worn out it has a very hard time pumping the cold fluid. So, without looking at the vehicle myself I can only assume they did not replace the front pump or there is some kind of restriction or damage inside the transmission itself.

Now there is a chance that this is a linkage adjustment issue, since you said you had to play with the shifter to get it to move. I would also ask the mechanic to double check all external shift linkage as well.

Keep me posted

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Austin Davis