- I have a 2003 Mazda Protégé lx with a 2.0L inline 4 engine with 157,000 miles and it has an automatic transmission and when I start it up cold I have to wait for it to warm up for about 10-20 minutes depending on how cold it is outside. I’d I put it in reverse it will move like normal most of the time but when I put it in drive it revs the engine and moves very slow. If I idle in drive before it has fully warmed up the O/D OFF light starts to flash then I turn of the car and turn it back on and it goes away. After a while it starts to run like normal and the O/D OFF light doesn’t come back until the car cools down again and if I idle in gear before it warms what could be causing this problem and what can I do about it?
It sounds like your transmission may be dying. Does it have enough fluid? When is the last time fluid and filter were changed?
I bought it almost 10 months ago and it has a little to much fluid and I don’t know if draining it will mess it up but it looks clean and doesn’t smell burned but I don’t know when it was last changed or if they changed the filter, But it only acts up when the engine and transmission is cold
If you're lucky it might be something like a shift solenoid acting up when it's cold. However to properly diagnose the problem would require a transmission expert using a high-level bidirectional scan tool. That's just the way it is with electronically-controlled transmissions. It is not unlikely though that the transmission is just wearing out after 20 years.
Okay thanks I’ll take it to someone to have it diagnosed