Recently my 04 TL 6MT has gotten hard to shift.
The gears used to slide right in, up till a couple of week ago, but recently it's been nothcy going into gears and sometimes it doesn't let me in.
1st to 2nd has been really notchy getting into.
Sometimes 5th wont go into 6th, it'll stop me in the neutral position.
4th to 5th was sliding right in EASY, not it's getting a bit notchy.
MTF is 6 months old, honda fluid.

Is this a clutch issue somewhere?

 

sounds like syncronizers to me

 

I really hope not, I can't afford any tranny work...

 

I took it to a shop, they said I need a new clutch.

 

did they explain why it was the clutch that was causing the problem?

 

I didn't ask why, I did get the clutch swapped out.
Got the car back on Friday. Drove it home and noticed I was still displayed the same symptoms. The new clutch grabs much better, but I did experience some lock out on reverse and 2nd, which is somethings that has gotten more common lately.
Sometimes it feels a bit odd going into second, kinda like it's wiggling in.

I guess the clutch was not the real problem. I'm not sure what to do when a shop recommends the wrong fix...
I don't know much about clutches and flywheels, I asked for the parts back, they look fine to me.

 

make the shop pay for the proper fix. you paid a repair for nothing

l

 

Step 1 would be to swap out the trans fluid. NOT a $1000+ clutch. Replace your trans fluid with either new Honda/Acura MTF or General Motors Synchromesh "Friction Modified" version. Both will help the sychros to work better, but the GM stuff lasts much longer. Expect to pay ~$15 per quart and you need 3 total. The Honda stuff is ~$6/qt. This is a common issue with Honda 6MTs. If you didn't know, check out the 3G Forum over on Acurazine.com.

GM SM FM (must say Friction Modified on the bottle)


It's also sold in an AC Delco bottle and part number if the local Chevy dealer can't find the GM part#:


Honda/Acura:

 

I did synchromesh, it's smoother and has helped a BIT. Yesterday I swapped out the slave clutch cylinder for the check valve delete.
Its much improved, but I 2nd gear still feels odd going in here and there.
The dealer said it's the synchros. Dealer wants like 2.6k parts and labor for it, I'm not paying that. That's a huge portion of the cars value. I'll ride on the GM fluid banaid fix in the meantime.

The shop that did the clutch, that was a lengthy mess I had to deal with them. They are never touching this TL ever again. They scrapped up the bottom of my bumper and that was a mess that took 3 weeks to resolve. Even then it ended up at 50/50 cost. I shouldn't have had to cover any of that, but I wanted to be rid of this shop and move on with my life.