Hey, so I have a 2001 Dodge Intrepid. In spring, summer, and fall it runs great (3 out of 4 isn’t too bad I guess). The problem is in winter when it gets down below 40. The car will start up fine first thing. Then when I’m driving to work if I stop at a stopsign or red light it doesn’t want to move. I have to really punch the gas to get it to go and it’ll finally jerk into motion.
The alternative is to hold my foot on the brake at the stopsign while still giving it enough gas so that when I let off the brake it will go.
I don’t know if this is related but I have no heat. AC works fine, but the heater won’t produce heat unless I’m going over about 50mph.
How many miles on the car?
Is there any fluid in the transmission? Has it ever been changed?
What about the radiator? Any coolant in there? Does the engine warm up quickly, and reach normal operating temperature?
About 80,000 miles. Yeah, transmission was one of the first things I checked. It has been changed. There is coolant.
About the temperature it’s hard to recall since it’s been a while since it did it, but I want to say it seemed to running cooler than I’d expect.
The transmission is slipping when it gets cold out. This is a situation where Trans-X should be used to see if it will eliminate the slipping.
Tester
When you say it doesn’t move, does the engine rev up but the car doesn’t move, or does the engine have a hard time revving up, like it’s bogging down?
Re. the heat–if the coolant is full and the temp gauge is reading normal and not over or way under, it sounds like you may have a trapped air bubble in the heater core.