I was driving my 1996 civic with a jdm b16 and was moving at about 50 or 60 mph in fourth gear and went to shift to fifth, but instead shifted into third gear. After this my trans was shifting fine for a little bit but then it became very difficult/impossible to get in gear while the car was at road speed. I initially thought that my input shaft bearing had completely detonated as it was making some noise prior to this incident. The next day I pulled out the trans. The clutch looked fine, no broken springs, no broken pressure plate forks. I bought a used GSR transmission and installed it the next day. The GSR trans is in good condition/ checked fluid and rotated the input shaft, no noise. When I put it back together and took it for the first drive, everything seemed fine; it went through all the gears just like it did when the car was turned off sitting in the garage, until upon downshifting and moving at road speeds. I came back to the shop I was at, it went in first gear fine upon coming to a stop. I then decided to bleed the clutch, there is no apparent leaking of clutch fluid. After bleeding the clutch I went to drive again, it was fine shifting great and downshifting. I went out again later, same symptoms back again! My question is, if the clutch system isn't leaking and I have a relatively new slave cylinder, what am I missing?, what other places can a hydraulic clutch system take in air without leaking? Another thing am I completely wrong in my diagnosis of whats wrong with my car? Thanks. any help is appreciated!

 

It sounds like you could always get into first and take off from a stop though? That usually means the clutch is OK.

Avoid downshifting just for the heck of it, it's murder on your clutch and transmission.

 

yea I can start off But it won't even downshift and now it's hard to up shift

 

any ideas?

 

Broken clutch springs. 94

 

Found a leaking master cylinder. Going to change this and see what happens. So I bleed the clutch, it drives fine, shifts fine gets up to speed and downshifts for about a mile or two and then I can't get it into any gear. At a stop with the clutch pushed in and I rev the engine the car creeps forward. So the clutch is not disengaging properly. If it were broken clutch springs wouldn't I here a noise from the bellhousing when driving? Broken clutch springs that wouldn't explain my "intermittent " shifting problem. What do you think? The thing is my pedal feels like it has enough pressure it doesn't feel that soft.

 

Is there an adjustment for the clutch pedal?

 

Have you changed the master cylinder yet? Sounds like you need to.

The push rod on the master cylinder is adjustable. You want to make it as long as it can, but not let it push the cylinder piston in any when the pedal is not pressed.

 

Not yet. I'm going to do that tomorrow.

 

Broken clutch springs may not be noisy but they can not be intermittent, fix the leak bleed the system and you should be good to go. 94

 

I'm actually going to replacing the master cylinder and bleed it tonight, ill update on how it goes. Thanks for the advice!