Mitsubishi Colt issue

jonnyburgo

Got an 06 Colt diesel, great little car very efficient got to to the lake district and back on less than half a tank however when starting from cold it is jerky, when reversing off the drive it shoots back about a foot and then goes OK after a little while, same going forwards. Not really an issue but if parked between two cars could have bumpy consequences. Also the engine light comes on intermittently although there isn't any obvious issue other than the above. It's been serviced every 10000 miles since new and has just under 100,000 on the clock. Ideas?

boogieman

Manual or auto? 

jonnyburgo

Its Auto

boogieman

Hmm autoboxes are a bit of a black art, makes it more difficult and potentially expensive to solve. Does it only do it when cold?  If it is, a change of gearbox fluid and a filter change might sort it out. Worth having diagnostics done first though to see if there's any error codes logged. 

jonnyburgo

Cheers Boogie, only in the morning or when coming back to it after a day out etc, drives  fine other than that.

ESBlonde

I'm thinking oil too if it's temp related. Let it run a couple of mins before driving off as a comparison one day.

boogieman

If it's got a gearbox dipstick (big if, not sure how many cars have them now), pull the stick out and have a look at the fluid: it should be a clear and pink colour. If it's dark and/or smells like rotten eggs then it needs changing. 

mike_l

boogieman said:

If it's got a gearbox dipstick (big if, not sure how many cars have them now), pull the stick out and have a look at the fluid: it should be a clear and pink colour. If it's dark and/or smells like rotten eggs then it needs changing. 

The car has 100K on it, the fluid probably needs changing by now.