Rickkerr

Drove to Louisianna 3 weeks ago to pick a 2015 Z51 Laguna blue with black rims, stunning gorgeous car noticed an issue with the tranny on cold starts. Put the car in reverse to back out of the garage no problem, put the car in drive problem. The tranny bumps into gear way to hard to be normal happens every morning. The local dealer tells me it is normal, something about fluids rushing in, the fluids settle as it sits all night. This cannot be normal is the dealership full of it? The car was a CPO still have a year of bumper to bumper warranty. Any insight would be appreciated.

767guy

When you say " bumps into gear" are you talking about the first 1-2 shift of the day being hard or abrupt?
If not can you be a bit more specific ?

Rickkerr

yes the first 1-2 shift of the day, from then on drives perfect

767guy

[QUOTE=Rickkerr;1597240265]yes the first 1-2 shift of the day, from then on drives perfect[/QUOTE

My 2015 had the harsh shift 1-2 first drive of the day.
That is a characteristic of the part # torque converter that is installed in your car if it is the factory original. By about late 2016 or early 2017 the third version of the TC was being used. My third TC replacement was Feb 2017 and that was with the newer TC that resulted in a much smoother 1-2 shift first drive of the day.
How many miles are on the car now ?

Rickkerr

[QUOTE=767guy;1597240322]58,000

767guy

[QUOTE=Rickkerr;1597240370]Rick,I assume you are talking about the A8 transmission.Your dealer telling you that the harsh shift is normal is partially true as many 2015's, some 2016's etc had this issue. What he is not telling you is that the TC was redesigned to deal with this and other issues and the TC currently in your car is superseded by a redesigned TC with a different part #.
Some of the other characteristics of a faulty TC are;
*sometimes harsh upshifts in higher gears, not consistent smoothness in shifting
*a feeling like driving over rumble strips during steady state driving
*sometimes a harsh downshift from 3-1 coming to a stop or rolling stop.

There are other symptoms of a faulty TC described in this forum and a sticky that talks about A8 transmission failure tracking.
From your avatar I see you are not too far away from Plant City FL where you will find Stingray Chevrolet. You still have power train warranty so I would call Justin Lawson, the Director of Maintenance,tell him your symptoms/snag and ask for an appointment.They have a lot of experience with this issue.

Squeaky Wheel

Your dealer is correct. It’s a very common and well documented characteristic of the A8. Simply make your first shift of the day between 1st and 2nd in the manual mode using the paddles, and if you have no other issues, my guess is all will be well. With 58k miles on the car, I’d think any other torque converter issues would have shown up by now, but for added peace of mind I’d invest in the Range device to keep the car from going into the V4 mode, which appears to be the cause of most of the torque converter issues.

walker3

mine did that - also had the surge when in V4, etc. brought it to dealer, he did his thing with the fluids - problem gone - runs / acts normal now

Rickkerr

Thank You 767, Squeaky, and Walker for you insight, feel a little better about my issue. I think I will make an appointment at Stingray Chevy.

Thanks Again

767guy

Good luck with the shop visit and let us know how everything turned out

Squeaky Wheel

There’s no question that the first shift of the day can be a real attention getter. Just use the paddles for it, and maybe the next couple shifts, and everything should be buttery smooth, with or without the paddles.

You failed to mention if there are any other tranny issues. When driving in the full automatic mode (ie, not using paddles), do you experience any warble, vibrations (like driving over rumble strips) or RPM fluctuations when the car is in the 4 cylinder mode? Those are some of the indications of a torque converter issue, and thought to be related to the AFM system putting the car into the 4 cylinder mode. The Range device disables that. If all you have is that 1st hard shift, I wouldn’t be to concerned. FWIW, even my former 2011 C6 GS with the A6 occasionally had a hard 1st shift of the day.

Patman

That doesn't sound normal to me, my 2018 never shifts hard into any of the gears during cold operation, even when I was driving it in much colder weather over the winter months.

joemessman

Never have hard shifts on mine either. 66,000 miles. Smooth as silk.

767guy

Same here, 2018 first 1-2 shift of the day always smooth.
The 2018 has a different version TC/FLUID/TCM software than did my 2015 which had the hard shift and other driveline issue. When the TC in the 2015 was replaced with the newest version & fluid Feb 2017 the hard shift issue went away.

Red C8 of Jax

Take your car to Stingray Chev. They have replaced enough torque converters to know if your problem is your TC. I have a 2015 A8 and my TC was replaced at 10K miles and I did NOT have the hard shift between 1-2.

davepl

Normal (well, let's call it "expected" and say it's normal for these cars. Mine really only does it after sitting a few days, so I've never bothered with it because the fix is invasive.

If the trans had to come out for some other reason, or if my car was really bad, then I'd have it done.

Squeaky Wheel

Exactly. Guess that's the point I was trying to make. If there are no other symptoms, I wouldn't go tearing into it. It's just one shift, and the problem can be eliminated by simply using the paddles.