Hello Everyone,

On my MY03 S2000, 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!