Cold Transmission issues

Hello all I did do a search on the forums to see if any others are having this issue? Not much was found, besides hard shifting when cold, i don't have that problem.

My issue is when it is cold out and the car hasn't been driven for several hours & I first start driving, the motor revs a bit higher than normal. The typical RPM's at a steady state of driving (like @ 65mph on the highway) are between 1200 & 1500. But when cold and driving normally the RPM's stay around 2000-2200 for about 1-2 miles. The trans fluid temp will raise quickly (But not too high about 1/3 up the gauge). After the 1-2 miles, everything goes back to normal and it runs normal RPM's and the trans fluid temp goes back to about zero on the gauge, then slowly rises after several more miles.

I don't get in my truck start it and drive away, I usually start it, wait at minimum 1-2 minutes to get the engine oil pressure up & flowing, then drive off.

To me this almost seems like this is intentional to quickly warm up the trans fluid and get better performance mileage wise? But could there be something wrong that could manifest itself with more severe trans problems in the future?

I had my 10K service done today and mentioned it to the service advisor and he didn't think it was normal, but they couldn't evaluate due to it being warm and not having the issue.
Other than this issue the truck is working well.

Has anyone else experienced this issue?
What are your thoughts.

Any help would be greatly appreciated
Thanks Mike

 

This is normal. I noticed this same thing in the Gen2. Until the temp gauges on the trans start moving up, it will not shift as early to the next gear.

 

I have noticed the same thing on cold mornings. As you mentioned, it's either intentional to get the trans fluid warmed up or the fact that the cold fluid is thicker and not flowing as well until it warms up.

I don't think that it's an issue to worry about.

 

The ecu has a cold shif program until engine reaches about 176 deg. After it warms it will switch to its normal shift programing.

 

The oil temps is slow to come up without load, and at idle in neutral or park, the transmission temp doesn't seem to budge. I have noticed that the engine RPMs are high when cold, and tend to drop down in a few minutes based on water temp. Shifting does improve as the transmission warms up. I suspect a large part of it is emissions related. Cold starts are very hard on emissions, and getting it warmed up is important to meet emissions requirements.

 

This is a shot of the shifter in my old Taco. We will sadly never go back to those days. Sigh.

 

I don't think the high idle on a cold start up has anything to do with emissions.

Haven't any of you owned a vehicle with a carburetor?

 

Hi All thanks for the input, it gives me a little better feeling about the odd behavior of my transmission.

 

Normal - even my 01 4runner does the same and has a higher 2-3 (the 1-2 is normal by design) shift until it reaches an eng temp of 125.