'06 Automatic transmission hard to shift into drive and rough gear change.

Hey guys, been reading about people with the automatic transmission having rough gear changes but the past few days mine has been difficult to change from park to neutral and neutral to drive on the shifter. Also the gear changes have been rougher than usual. Its not the cold temperatures as it was fine last week at -20 and this week its +10 and starts acting up. Any ideas? 121 000 kms, haven't changed the fluid. Don't think that'd cause the stiff shifter though.

 

Take the shifter bezel apart inside the cab and lube everything up to see if that helps . Only a couple screws to get the bezel apart and may be a quick fix for ya !
. A good quality penetrating fluid should work if this is the issue .
Check your ground straps . If your electrical ground straps are loose or rusted , the shifter cable can become a ground strap. I have seen shifter cables actually weld solid due to the fact that the various ground straps on the vehicle were not put back on or became rusted and loose over time . Most people complain that all the gears are hard to shift when the shifter cable welds together .
Servicing the trans may fix up the harsh shifts but as you mention , I doubt its going to loosen the shifter issue .
Clean the throttle body , mass air flow sensor and idle air control valve to help with that harsh shift . Its all fairly easy to do .
Have you had the truck since new ? Time for a trans service for sure .

 

You could also spray a bit of penetrating lube on the selector shaft where it enters the transmission case to see if it helps, I recall reading about a couple of cases on here where shift cables were replaced only to discover the issue wasn't the cable. Rather, there was corrosion forming between the aluminum alloy case and the steel selector shaft starting to seize it up.