This is for the automatic xB. It won't give me 4th till the cold light goes off. I leave my driveway and need 4th right away. I don't lilke the high rpms in 3rd waiting for it to warm up. Doesent a manual shifted xB gets to use it's 4th and 5th gear while cold. why not the automatic?

 

this is the way it protect itself from cold. Why not consider warm up the car before you leave the driveway? Me too, I live right off the highway and need 4th gear right away. So I start the car and go back in the house for a coffee before I hit the road.

 

Different fluid requirements between the two trannies.

You're trying to override a safety feature because your worried about running high RPMs for a minute... Which ones going to do more damage? It's there for an engineering necessity, not an inconvenience, deal with it...

Your best bet is an remote starter.

 

I am a sceptic, sorry. Automatic transmissions have been in vehicles longer than most of us has been alive. All without this annoying feature. At most, some have delayed torque converter lock up till warm up but none that I have ever driven lock the whole gear out. Cold transmission fluid might cause a higher line pressure but cold is not the enemy of a autotrans..heat is. So I must figure they are trying to cover up some deficency in the design of the transmission. I just want to know the real reason and if it can be defeated without damage. Warming the motor is wasteful and unneccessary if you drive conservativly while warm, which is what I want to do by putting it in 4th sooner.

 

just warm up yer car longer. sit with yer foot at 1500 rpm or just start it up then go back inside for liek 5 minutes. safer and better.

 

if its that cold out wouldnt it help to do this. its worth it. i loved it instead of shiverin on my way to work before i hit Dunkin Donuts for my choclate milk and SAC

 

Impossible when the temp is in the negatives. I let it sit for 15 minutes a couple weeks ago and the cold light stayed on untill I was at 60 mph for at least a mile. I think that day it was -20.

 

But the original poster lives in Sac. It rarely gets in the +20's

IMO, he's just overthinking it. The difference between 3rd and O/D, if he's driving conservatively, is like 3800RPMs compared to 3000rpms for a couple miles.

I agree it's probably to hide a deficiency - it doesn't run O/D well when it's cold, that's the deficiency and he's going to bypass that to save a few hundred RPM?

 

Yes, it's something I'll have to get used to I guess. I just don't like it! Thanks for everyone's responses. I just wish there was a definitive answer from a transmission technician. Back in the day I rebuilt more than a few automatics (C-4, C-6, T350, T400 and PG's) and have a basic working knowledge of the guts of these things except for modern day electonics. If it effected the 5sp. cars also there would be a extreme amount of disgrunteled owners who like me leave there driveways and go straight to a 55mph+ road.