QuestionMy 2008 Accent will turn over fine, and has no problem accelerating in reverse, but when I haven't driven the car for a while (a day) it will refuse to move or accelerate forward from a starting point until it has been driven for a few minutes, and then it is fine to start from a stopped position. I find this is worse when it is really cold...
Thanks for the help
AnswerThe following answer presumes this vehicle is equipped with automatic transmission.
This could be an internal problem in the transmission, but could be simply due to low fluid.
Check the fluid level. If it's low, there's either a fluid leak somewhere, or the transmission was serviced and not properly filled.
To check the fluid, drive the car for at least 20 minutes, park on level ground, set the parking brake, and place the gearshift in neutral. Open the hood and remove the dipstick and check the fluid level. It should be between the full hot and low hot marks.
If this issue is indeed caused by low fluid, it's important to get it fixed quickly. Continued driving on low fluid can damage the transmission. If there's a leak causing a low fluid level, it should be covered by your warranty, presuming you're in the U.S. and have less than 60,000 miles on the car.
Additionally, if it's caused by an internal transmission problem, it could indicate more serious transmission failures to come, potentially causing the car to become undriveable.
In either case, you should repair the issue quickly to avoid undesireable situations or other problems.
