1995 E320 W124 transmission downshift problems

[kidMoBile]

Hi and thanks for looking!

I've had the car 5 years, I've lived with this issue for three of the five years because nobody I take it to (3 places....2 of them were dealerships) knows how to deal with this:

When cold, the car has trouble downshifting (nope, not upshifting...the upshift delay feature of my car works as designed).

When the transmission is cold (and this is worse in the wintertime), when I get to my first stop sign the car will not downshift fron 2 to 1 for several (two or three) seconds. I sometimes take off before the car actually downshifts to first gear, and this results in either a second gear start or sometimes a clunky downshift to first while in motion. This symptom will mostly (but not entirely) go away after I have driven around for several minutes and the trans has had a chance to warm up.

Upshifts are normal. The cold downshift is really the only issue.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks very much

Brian