Hello all, I've noticed that when shifting into drive or reverse that there's a hard shift or engagement, I mean it really jumps into gear hard. Now it is only happening when the engine is cold, once its hot its smooth. Checked fluid level its good and no leaks I did the conductor plate and plug replacement, filter and fluid replacement about 25K miles ago. Im not to worried about it because other than that it shifts as it should, but I wonder what is causing it?
Thanks

 

Maybe your engine idle speed at startup needs to be reset.

 

Right it does seem a bit high don't know how to adjust it but will look into it. I know that the fluid temp has to have something to do with it, its thicker when cold thinner when hot.

 

If the idle is too high, you sure will have a "jerky" engagement.

There is a limited range of idle speed adjustment using the STAR diagnostic tool setup. Dealers had this ability at one time and some still might. Tuners (Needswings, Rudy COmpart, The Mercedes Swap Shop) as well as a few of us on here who work on the cars a lot have these devices.

If your idle speed is high, I'd suspect a small vacuum leak somewhere that is allowing a bit more air into the throttle body, a flaky Throttle Body or MAF or that a previous owner/tuner has played around with the idle setting.