ok so i was driving my 03 civic si tonight and i noticed that if shifting from 2nd to third above 3800 rpms, it would grind terrible, i drove for about 15 mintues trying to figure out what it was heres what i found out

shifting from 2nd to 3rd below 3800 rpms is fine, you can pull the shifter out of any gear at any speed with out the clutch no problem, you can down shift from 4rth to 3rd or 5th to 3rd no problem, no other gears have this problem, i checked the clutch fluid it is at max, and i read in my manual the tranny fluid should be at the level at the bottom of the fluid check bolt, when i opened the bolt about 4oz of fluid came out, will chaning the tranny fluid to pourple power fix this issue? is it a gear or a suncro, a cable or buching maybe? any input will help it has 41000 miles on it how much will it cost to fix? thanks

 

ATTN : Any noobs with this problem (like i was once!)
read this entire thread...

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=2155139

95% of the time, that cures it!

here's my 3rd post on that page...
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by WyldRice &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">my 2nd to 3rd grind would happen at ANY RPM-
with no way to take off looking cool- EVER!

...about the tipping- (overfilling MTF)
after looking through days/weeks of threads about our tranny and the 2-3rd GRIND, i decided to try it.

(i also tried the PRE-SHIFT WARM-UP trick = start car- clutch full in... shift in sequence 1,2,3,4,3,2,1,2,3,4,3,2,1 then take off!)

they both seemed silly thing to do, but the funny thing is- they worked!
others have sworn by it, and it worked for me... </TD></TR></TABLE>
after the MTF change i've only had a few grinds...
AND IT'S USUALLY WHEN I FORGOT TO DO THE PRE-SHIFT WARM-UP TRICK! /\

Good luck


Modified by WyldRice at 5:40 AM 7/7/2008

 

My friend, this is the most common problem with these. I am experienced in this, and see it a lot in these cars. Especially in mine, I had a buddy learn how to drive my EP3 about a years back, and he started off great but had some trouble pulling off from first when he was ready to go. However he had no problem shifting other gears. Later, I experienced this noise from 2 to 3 and would not go away, knowing that I am a mechanic, I could not get the jist of this problem. I brought my car to AMCO, the tranny specialists. I told them what had happened previously, and they said there is absolutely no way this could happen stalling at first. Only if you were to pull off from third but, who would do that? They had found some metal scraps in my fluid, and they flushed the system, refilled it with royal purple on my account and now works great. Also, they told me if i race my car a lot this could happen too! -Note my friend still stalls at first but I do not experience the problem anymore. Hope this helps

 

i guess i didn't grind mine enough to get metal shavings...
some here have tried the magnetic plug... but i haven't.

like we said- this is the most common problem, easiest to fix!

 

change your tranny fluid and quit ripping it into gear.