Hard to shift in cold weather

[cool_canadian]

Whenever my car is cold its hard to shift gears, any ideas?

[nemohm]

Cold as -2 or as -30?

The first thing I'd look into is the gear oil grade and type.
What do you have in your transmission?
How was shifting last year?
Do you have a garage or park outside?

[K04-S4]

Suggest replace fluid with OEM spec 75W90 full synthetic gear oil and see how that does. Note that the quattro vehicle center diff shares manual trans fluid so drain both trans and center diff plugs, fill trans, spin drivetrain thru a few gears, then check level (it will be a little low) and top up to fill plug level.

[cool_canadian]

Cold as -2 or as -30?

> -15

The first thing I'd look into is the gear oil grade and type.
What do you have in your transmission?

> I have a manual transmission

How was shifting last year?

> I bought it this year

Do you have a garage or park outside?

> park outside

[nothing77]

At anything below -20 my MT is really stiff to shift until the gear oil warms. I am using redline 75/90. I ususally warm the car for 5 minutes before driving, so the cold gear oil isn't really an issue. I would not be concerned

[nemohm]

MT- 90, I believe?
or 75-90NS?

MT-90 is a great stuff if your transmission could take it (GL4).
Even better with add "LubroMoly for gears".
My 20 years old 4000Q shifted as a charm always..

At -15 hard shifting indicates that there is a wrong grade of gear oil - perhaps 80W90?