2023 Yukon Denali Transmission Issue

[Mister421]

Hi – We picked up our 23 Yukon Denali XL last week. It came with 3 miles on it and we still have under 100. When accelerating at slow speeds, like you would pulling away from a suburban stop sign or just in traffic it seems to hunt for a gear coming out of 2nd gear. Sometimes it’s coming out of 1st gear. When it finds the next gear the vehicle jerks. Since there is a pause in momentum and you are pushing the pedal down further, when it finds the gear the RPMs are higher and you get a jerk. Not like a shift kit (I’m old school) but enough to make passengers ask why did you hit the gas. It makes it impossible to drive smoothly. My wife is experiencing the same results. Under medium throttle the problem goes away but you can’t drive like that everywhere.

Do others have an issue like this? Do we need to break in? Did the General forgot to do something? Is there a TSB? Just trying to get a handle before I call the dealer.

Thank you in advance.
Mister421

 

[Suburban2024]

Hi – We picked up our 23 Yukon Denali XL last week. It came with 3 miles on it and we still have under 100. When accelerating at slow speeds, like you would pulling away from a suburban stop sign or just in traffic it seems to hunt for a gear coming out of 2nd gear. Sometimes it’s coming out of 1st gear. When it finds the next gear the vehicle jerks. Since there is a pause in momentum and you are pushing the pedal down further, when it finds the gear the RPMs are higher and you get a jerk. Not like a shift kit (I’m old school) but enough to make passengers ask why did you hit the gas. It makes it impossible to drive smoothly. My wife is experiencing the same results. Under medium throttle the problem goes away but you can’t drive like that everywhere.

Do others have an issue like this? Do we need to break in? Did the General forgot to do something? Is there a TSB? Just trying to get a handle before I call the dealer.

Thank you in advance.
Mister421

It's the same very common problem with Ford's 10R80 tranny, which is the brother of GM's 10L80. It seems transmission is learning and trying to adapt to your driving style, considering the low mileage of your vehicle. You may refer to: https://www.expeditionforum.com/forums/4th-gen-2018-present.110/ and search "transmission". You are going to find a lot of complaints on 10R80 transmissions, including the symptom just like yours.

 

[Tahoered]

Same for me my first 1k miles in my 6.2 Tahoe. It gets better. I truly believe these transmissions learn your driving style and adjusts. It used to annoy me so much but then got much better. There is a possibility I've adjusted how I accelerate also (possibly) but I do not think so.

 

[Mister421]

Thank you for the reply. I hope it just takes time. Took it to the dealership and got the standard line that the tech and also the service dept head took it for separate rides and of course could not replicate. They checked fluid and codes supposedly and all was good. I offered to take them for a ride as I was 100% sure I could replicate but they refused. They said the problem is the trans is trying to learn driving from two different people since both my wife and I drive it. Pulled out of lot and it did the same thing right off the bat. I guess time will tell.

 

[Tahoered]

Yes, give it a little while. It's hard to explain. It's as if the 1st gear is an extra low, short gear and the 2nd gear just abruptly jumps in and accelerates. Unless you are very docile it feels as if you stomped the accelerator, lol. Trust me, I know how you feel..
.but it did get much smoother after about a thousand miles or so.

 

[SuperDenali]

My 2023 Denali did the same thing. We had less than 400 miles on it, rounded a corner and it hesitated and searched for a gear. I put it in neutral and back to drive and there wasn’t a problem. I took it in because it was ”jumping” from first to second gear. The dealership didn’t find anything wrong. I’ve now got 11,850 miles on my Denali and have not had an issue since, plus the transmission has smoothed out to where I don’t even notice it shifting.

 

[TVSS]

Hi – We picked up our 23 Yukon Denali XL last week. It came with 3 miles on it and we still have under 100. When accelerating at slow speeds, like you would pulling away from a suburban stop sign or just in traffic it seems to hunt for a gear coming out of 2nd gear. Sometimes it’s coming out of 1st gear. When it finds the next gear the vehicle jerks. Since there is a pause in momentum and you are pushing the pedal down further, when it finds the gear the RPMs are higher and you get a jerk. Not like a shift kit (I’m old school) but enough to make passengers ask why did you hit the gas. It makes it impossible to drive smoothly. My wife is experiencing the same results. Under medium throttle the problem goes away but you can’t drive like that everywhere.

Do others have an issue like this? Do we need to break in? Did the General forgot to do something? Is there a TSB? Just trying to get a handle before I call the dealer.

Thank you in advance.
Mister421

We have experienced the same thing, Along with complete engine failure and leveling system went out. No the start stop shuts the vehicle off and you have to put vehicle in park, shut off and then restart. This vehicle has been in the shop for 4 times with accumulative of 35 days. The vehicle is a lemon and GM is fighting us every step of the way on doing a buy back.

 

[ChrisYukon]

I went from a '17 Denali to a '23, and the 10 speed transmission is WAY smoother than the 8 was.

 

[Antonm]

Interesting, please come back in a few months/ few thousand miles and let us know if it smoothed out.

I haven't noticed any transmission shift issues with the same transmission (ours was delivered to us with 6 miles, so I'm guessing the trans hadn't done to much learning by that point).
...

 

[MB///HRV]

Interesting, please come back in a few months/ few thousand miles and let us know if it smoothed out.

I haven't noticed any transmission shift issues with the same transmission (ours was delivered to us with 6 miles, so I'm guessing the trans hadn't done to much learning by that point).
...

Curious - Anything further in this?

Just had my ‘23 Denali towed this weekend after similar symptoms unfortunately it got to a point where traveling up a hill I had no power transfer to the wheels. Trans temp got up to 181. We’ll see what the tech says.