OK so most, if not all, 06+ Si tranny's are plagued with 2nd/3rd gear grinds when the car is still warming up. My car's 3rd actually isn't bad at all, but 2nd is horrible for the first few miles.

Lately i have been going 1st -> 3rd -> 5th to avoid going into second gear, and partly cause i am lazy in the early mornings

My question is: does skipping gears have any negative effects on the transmission? I'd take a guess and say no, but i am no mechanic.

Obvious downside to skipping the gears is you drop a decent amount out of the power band, but that's doable for me. But does it thrash the syncros?

 

No, changing from first to fifth still wouldn't do anything fatal, it'll just slow down your acceleration (obviously) and probably make your car stutter. But, that's about it. Shifting down from fifth to first however, will cause you to look for a new clutch...

Which, definitally ****es up the synchronizer's by stripping them.

 

It won't be a problem to skip gears. If you want to take the stress off of the synchros, let the engine rpms drop a bit before slipping it into gear. However, if you are going to do that, you may as well do that for 2nd gear as well.

If you are hammering from 1st to 3rd, and so on, that is putting stress on the synchros. Probably not as bad on the si since the ratios are pretty close. I think the ratio gaps on my POS nissan pick-up (I use it at work) are longer going from 1st, to 2nd than the Si from 1st to 3rd

For the other comment about going from 5th to 1st...it's more on the synchros than the clutch...unless you are implying that you use the clutch to rev the engine (or slow the car depending on your perspective), then yeah, it will be hard on the clutch.

 

Cool guys thanks for the replies!


That's freaking HORRIBLE lol. Is it a full size truck? If so, it must have some decent torque?

Another reason i like skipping gears while up-shifting is cause the car can actually struggle a little, and it's just fun to me in it's own way..

 

That's quite an odd way of entertaining yourself while driving, Ben. But, as they say, "whatever floats your boat..." lol