I have a 2001 Dodge Stratus ES, and it's an automatic. The last two days, the temperature has been in the negatives with the windchill hovering around -30 degrees.

This morning, I let my car warm up for 5-10 minutes. I was in a hurry to get to class. Anyways, I put the car into reverse, back up, stop, put into drive and attempt to pull forward. The car does not move. I put back into park, then went to drive to attempt to move forward once again. Once the RPM hit about 2000, the car started to move forward. I thought, no big deal, it's cold out, probably has to do with the weather. Well the car did it one more time, and the check engine light came on. I parked my car and found a ride to class.

When I got home from classes, I let the car warm up for about 25 minutes. I drove it to Autozone with no problems. No slipping when it shifted and no jerking. The codes I received were P0700 and P0730.

Do you think I have a major problem or just something caused by the cold weather? I checked transmission fluid levels and they are fine. Any advice or help would be appreciated.

 

I get the same issue when it's really cold and I haven't let the car warm up long enough.
It's due to the way the transmission fluid drains out of the torque converter when the car is off. It sometimes takes a while for it to thaw out again, especially in (-) temperatures, and fill up the converter again. This results in what seems to be a loss of fluid. When it's that cold, getting a ride from someone that has a garage is a nice thing