I am a women,79 years old with a 95 Chevy Lumna: 4 door 8 cyl. with 78810.4 miles. Very little driving-church, shopping.
My problem,
I have difficulty shifting gears in cold weather.(No trouble during the summer)
I have the oil changed every 4 months.
I have spoken with mechanic’s about this. I asked if I needed the gear shift oil changed, transmission changed or more fluid. The claimed “No”.
Please help!!
Mary Cain
Cleveland, Ohio
Presumably you have told the mechanics of the problem. What have they said in response, and what have they done - if anything - to try to fix it? (And they are right in that this doesn’t suggest a need to change or add fluid, and especially not to change the transmission).
Possibily shift linkage needs to be lubricated, you don’t mean you have trouble getting it out of “PARK” do you.
Never saw a Lumina (sedan or APV) with a V-8
You did not say, but I will assume it is a manual shift car.
If so there are two suggestions I would make. The linkage could need adjustment and/or lube. I also could benefit by a change of transmission fluid going to a wider rage synthetic lube. You may have say 90 weight in there now and replacing it with 80W90 will make cold weather shifting easier.
If it is automatic, I would suggest linkage adjustment/lube.
The very little driving, would tend to suggest the linkage adjustment and lube.
You might want to try a different mechanic.
Your mechanic is full of it. This gear lube is 13 years old!! Change it. It will make a world of difference. Also, like Joseph mentioned, try a synthetic. It will hold up longer, especially since this car sits a lot. I think thios car should be spec’ed for 75W90. Double check in the owner’s manual. I tried a thicker oil before, and winter shifting was horrible.
While I agree that getting the tranny fluid changed may help, I have to ask you where you live. When I lived in North Dakota and the weather got cold manual tranny fluid would get so thick I couldn’t even feel the gates. Moving the shifter was like dragging a stick through concrete mix. In extreme cold even a brand new manual tranny will get this way.
All Luminas (sedans 2dr or 4dr) are automatics FWD. No V-8’s