So I woke up this icy-cold morning and, since I park my car outside, it had a sheet of frost over it. No biggy, I take the layer of frost off my windshield and begin to drive it as usual; **** taking the ice off the windows and the back, real men don't need anything but a windshield in front. Then I notice that the transmission is sluggish, lazy, and almost... sticky? It's usually really smooth and there's not much power loss, but here it felt like the car was bucking forward when I would upshift, and once the gear caught on, there was no power. Even the higher RPM's were a bit shaky; I tried to warm it up a bit by putting it in second and taking it to ~ 4K RPMs, but it was choppy and didn't feel good, so I proceeded to drive the car as soft as I could. I'm not sure if it's the cold Seattle mornings that frostbit my poor ol' tranny, or the tranny fluid needs to be changed; anybody have any suggestions? I drive a 2000 1.8T Tip, so any help from those of you who are experienced in tiptronic transmissions *cough* auditech *cough* would be much appreciated.

 

What fluid u running and how old is it? How cold was it outside.

 

I have no idea what i'm running, or how old it is. It was ... cold outside.... cold enough to make water turn into ice... I don't really know, haha. I'd venture probably ~ 30*F

I bought the car a month ago, so I haven't really done anything. Haven't even changed the oil.

 

If the fluid is old,crappy or it was really,really cold outside it should be somewhat normal. It shoulda smoothened out to normal once the car got up 2 operating temp regaurdless of fluid type or age if it was overly viscous fluid.

 

When's the last time you changed the spark plugs and air filter?

 

No help. See if it goes away when warmed up. Grab a vagcom and check for codes in the engine and TCM.

 

Yeah i would say its normal until you get the fault codes checked like dave here said. Cold transmissions do some wierd s***.