I have a 1993 Custom Buick Lesabre with just over 100,000 miles on it. Recently I had a lot of work done on it including a 50,000 mile transmission service at the dealer. Now, the transmission won’t go into gear until the engine has been running for a couple of minutes. Depending on how cold it is outside, this could take anywhere from 2 to 5 minutes. I checked the transmission fluid when this first started happening, and it looked fine, though the fluid on the stick looked clear instead of the red I expected. Anyway, once it first warms up and goes into reverse, no problems the rest of the day. Very tight money right now - am I okay to let this be awhile until I can afford the shop? Should I recheck the fluid, what?
I have to assume you had no complaints about the operation of your transmission before this “transmission service” was performed. If that’s true there is something wrong. Your automatic transmission should work as soon as the engine is running. You should not have to wait 2 to 5 minutes.
Did you ever wait 2 to 5 minutes before?
I would be a bit alarmed by “clear” transmission fluid. Are you sure about that? Pull the dipstick and put a nice healthy drop of it on a little chunk of white plastic or something. Still clear? I would be back at the dealer either way.