My car seems to take quite a while before it warms up. Probably 10 minutes before it's completely up to temp. The tranny doesn't seem to want to shift smoothly until after about 15 or more minutes of driving. It's on a fresh fluid change of MT-90 as of last week. The MT-90 seems to help once the car has warmed up but it can be brutal when it's cold. Especially the 1-2 shift.

My question is, does everyone's car take a long time to warm up and is it normal for shifting to be hard when the tranny is cold? Are the manual trannies in these cars just not very good quality or is mine just shot?

 

Use a good synthetic for smoother shifts when cold. Other than that Id say your syncros are going. My old 16V VW used to be hard to shift when it was cold but became much easier when i started to used a good synthetic tranny oil. Id recomned lybro mole not sure the exact spelling but i think thats it.

 

I noticed that in my car too. On really cold days if I go outside to start my car I can let it sit for 15 mins and it never really comes up to temp. If I drive, it will do it in a few mins though. The same for the shifts, th first couple seem a little morehesitant than normal, but everything is back to normal after a couple mins. I just had my fluid changed too (whatever the dealer puts in)

 

Yeah my car takes about 5-10 min to warm up depending on the temps outside. Its a little rough getting into gear until its warmed up but then it shifts smooth.

 

yeah my car takes a while to warm up too, i put a piece of cardboard on the radiator so it warms up a bit faster and actually get to center, without itll get close to center but never dead on, and yes iffy synchros on our car, GM synchromesh is probably the best remedy, i switched the oil last season to mobile 1 and it helped a bit but this winter i switched to GM synchromesh (pennzoil actually) and its a lot better, although if oyu go with pennzoil even though its apparnetly the same thing its said it dosent last long, ive had it in for about 3k miles and its good and wood_e had it in for 20k plus until he sold his car.

 

Yeah my car takes for Evvvver to warm up in the mornings. I will be driving in first and go to shift into second and my gear will just block me off. But after Ten min of just sitting or a couple min of driving it will shift smooth as butttta.

 

I actuallt just switched to Redline MT-90 which was highly recommended on this site. I've also read that the Amsoil replacement for Synchromesh is good and it's what seems to show up when I do a search for "GM Synchromesh." Has anyone had experience with two or all three of these fluids? I'd be willing to try GM synchromesh if it actually is better than the Redline oil i just put in it. Where does everyone get GM Synchromesh? Dealer? Also, can anyone tell me what the weight of is?

As far as the slow warm up goes, it sounds normal. The only comment I would make is I don't see putting cardboard in front of the radiator as being helpful. Unless I'm mistaken about the cooling system of these cars, the thermostat doesn't open until the car reaches normal operating temp and without the stat open, the motor wouldn't be circulating coolant through the radiator anyway.

 

ive only had experiences with gm synchromesh and mobil 1, personally synchromesh was better overall but it dosent have a weight nor does it tell me if it gl-4 certified which is what our cars need, but i contacted several people here and they said just to try it so completly on faith i did and it so far its great.

oh yeah it available at any gm dealer, like i said i used pennzoil synchromesh which is supposedly the same thing, i got that at autozone.