I have a few concerns and I think they're all cold related.

1st. Since the weather turned cold here in Indy, there is a very strong fuel smell near the tank, especially when the tank is near full. Are there seals or something that have shrunk due to the temperature or????

2. My steering wheel/steering column is very noisy since it turned cold. It's not a groan like low fluid. It's more of an intermittent rubbing sound when turning.

3. Before the car warms up, it is very hard to shift, especially into 1st and 2nd and 3rd a little. I assume that's because the tranmission oil is thick due to the temperature. Would changing the old oil out help and maybe go to a different weight or type, or is this just something to live with?

4. I drove through a Mike's car wash, which I hate to do but it's too cold to wash it myself and the 1 day I drove it last week turned it into a white car. A lot of water came down on my head through the sunroof. When I got out and looked the left rear corner of the sunroof was dropped down a little bit. Is this again due to shrinking seals because of the temperature, a bad seal, or ??????

 

Coming from the land of "Gee - I wonder if it's warm enough for my car to start this morning", I'll try some answers....

1. Not sure about this one......

2. Don't know much about the "rubbing" noise, but I can attest to the cold weather causing power steering to make noises. Does the sound go away as it gets warmer?

3. As I drive an auto, I can't help with the stiff gear problem.....but my past car was a standard 944 and it would exhibit stiff shifting at first in the cold also. Fluids don't like cold.

4. This is not temp-related. What has happened is that your sunroof is out of adjustment. If you remove the three screws that hold on the sunroof panel (and carefully remove the panel), you will see adjustment screws to the left. Adjusting these screws will move the roof back so the gap goes away.

 

Hard shifting when cold is sometimes due to clutch drag. Perhaps cold thickened greas on the intermediate shaft won't let the clutch disks slide freely, and they are dragging...

Does the rubbing sound like the bearing at the top of the steering column?

There is a vent hose that runs from the filler neck to the top of the tank - perhaps it is loose or cracked.

 

Mine also suffered from hard shifting when cold (1991 GT, 5-speed manual), changing the gear oil cured it, I was actually quite amazed of the improvement.