Hello Everyone,

On my MY03, I've noticed a shifting problem.

I do a lot of "skip shifting" when just tooling around. You know, 1st to 3rd to 6th, or various other gears. Don't end up using 5th very much.

Noticed a couple of weeks ago that when doing this and shifting into 6th, I get a little grinding. If I blip the throttle in neutral between the shifts, it usual goes into 6th fine. It'll go from 4th to 6th pretty much fine.

At "around" the same time, I realized I cannot shift into 5th. It's as if it's blocked out. No combo of throttle, engine speed, tranny speed, etc. will allow me to get into 5th.

I've had the car from about 65,000 to its current 84,000mi. These symptoms did not happen after any missed shifts or anything. Since I had the car, 3 times I've downshifted to a too low gear by accident and the revs probably hit 10,000 or so, but I never fully engaged the clutch before I realized it, no wheel lockup, etc.

As far as I know, it's still the original clutch. When I first got the car, even though I know it's not made for it, I tried 3 standing starts. Dropped the clutch when at 5-7000rpm. Each time, couldn't break the rear tires loose, and it seemed as if there was clutch slippage, not the kind when the clutch is completely slipping and you can vary it with your throttle, but more like it was a CVT transmission, where my speed gradually increased as the revs gradually dropped, and then it "hooked up".

The previous owner I know for sure babied the car. He never even brought it to redline, let alone to about 7,000rpm.

Other than all this, shifting seems perfect. I changed the tranny fluid to the newest Honda MTF about 3 months ago.

Please tell me I just need a new clutch, and it's not my tranny!

Thanks everyone!

 

Sad to say I think it's your tranny but I could be wrong

 

do you have trouble shifting into other gears too? have you looking into lubing your shifter with urea grease or checking to see if your clutch master cylinder is leaking or checking the slave cylinder pin is clean and lubed (and pressing the clutch arm correctly)?

 

im not sure, but this may be a common problem ive seen with a few s2000's.
ive previously owned 2 s2000's and always had trouble shifting in the winter time when its under 40 degrees or so.

In both cars, the shifter would absolutely refuse to go into gear until i warmed it up for about 20 mins, and even then I would have some problems engaging in gear.

I havent had any serious problems with either car though. my clutch never slipped.
but in your case, you live in Cali. idk how cold it gets around your way..

 

Sounds like the synchro is done on 5th.

 

that is ur tranny son... and u should change it cuz u can crack ur tranny! sorry

 

listen to what your dad said.

 

Yeah, based on some other posts on the s2ki.com forum, I think my skip shifting ruined the sychro for 5th-6th gear. Just didn't know it was wrong...Six other Honda/acura's, all run to 100,000mi, one to 186,000miles and none of them failed. Oh well...

Here's a qoute from a post of an American Honda employee who inspects returns from warrantee issues...pretty much describes my situation exactly.

So tell me...are there any aftermarket sychros that are stronger, perhaps from a later model s2000, or from the CR?


Added 5-2-03:
Skipping gears:
I have seen many 6th gear sleeves that have been damaged.

The typical story is this: Stop light, 1st gear, engage the clutch, rev to 9,000 RPM, shift quickly to 2nd, rev to 9,000 RPM, same into 3rd, look down and find the car going 80 MPH on a city street and the engine noise is screaming, recognize that any cop is going to write a ticket. Shift to 6th quickly to lower engine noise.

Dragging the mainshaft speed down from 9,000 RPM to 4,000 when going from 3rd to 6th takes time. 6th gear has only a single synchro ring and it doesn't like it. It will grind if you are shifting hard and fast. By shifting hard the synchro ring does not have time to slow down the main-shaft and the sleeve will slip over the synchro and grind the gear. If the sleeve is ground enough in 6th then it will not slide the other way to engage 5th.

So if it is hard to get your car into 5th or 6th it may be because the sleeve is being damaged by skipping gears. Hope this makes sense.