Hi!

I have a 2001 ES5 (Japanese made 4dr D16W7 for europe/asia) and I have strange problem that affects my transmission (M/T, type: SLW).

Currently I'm waiting for my mechanic to arrange a repair, but until then I'd be happy if I could pinpoint the cause of the issue with a good probability, because I don't want any surprise to surface only when my car is already disassembled.

So the most obvious symptom is that sometimes it's quite hard to shift into first gear from neutral after I stopped (and also to other gears). Months ago, when I first began to experience the problem, it was rare to happen, but as colder weather came, it became more and more frequent to arise.

When this happens, if I hold the shifter at the position where it gets struck half-way to the gear and then try to firmly push it, I can feel and hear (grinding) because the transmission input shaft is still spinning despite the clutch being disengaged.

Sometimes it helps if I wait 4-5 secs after pushing in the clutch pedal before attempting to put the transmission in gear. Because of this, first I suspected the transmission oil, so I already got it changed. Unfortunately it didn't solve the problem.

As weather became even more cold, I also started to experience issues with shifting between gears (grinding despite fully disengaged clutch), and a few times the transmission didn't even let me to put it out from gear after stopping.

Problems always go away ever since, if the whole car heats up completely (15-20km driving) and never come back until I let the it to stand for longer hours to cold out.

The next step was to suspect my clutch. My hydraulics seems fine, as the pedal feeling is always the same and even when I have problems, the engagement point is always definitely at the point where it should be. However, sometimes when I start to disengage it, my RPM drops for a short moment and I feel as my engine struggles with stalling for that moment. But after letting it further out, the "real" engagement point is as always where it should be.

After that I read that a bad pilot bearing can cause these issues and it seems logical: it is between my input shaft and between the flywheel that always rotates at engine RPM. Or the throwout bearing I think, as it is also between the rotating pressure plate and the input shaft.

The conditions that affect my issues:

To arise more likely and more heavily:
- Car standing for days
- Cold weather around 0-15 °C
- Engine is getting near operating temperature, but other parts are probably still quiete cold

To go away or to be present lighter only:
- Engine not running (always takes gears without any struggle)
- Car getting completely warmed up
- Continously using the car without letting it to stand for days
- Racing the engine at very high RPM's while in gear with disengaged clutch (helps for a few minutes)

What I'm planning now, is to get the pilot bearing, the pressure plate, the clutch disk and the throwout bearing replaced. Every one of them is still the original one after nearly 240000km's...

What do you think?

Can I expect that replacing the above components will solve the problem for sure, or can it be related to other parts too? I've heard that in some Civics from these years, there were problems with the input shaft bearing... If mine doesn't make any sound like you can hear in youtube videos about that issue, can I exclude that possibility?

How's the syncromeshes tolerate that increased stressing that they have to take now because of the problem? Should I worry about them if I used the car like this for about 3-4 months?

Also, a few weeks ago I tried to look inside the clutch casing with an endoscope, hoping to see something interesting. And I did, as the surface of one "spring" of my pressure plate is like freshly brushed to raw metal on it's outer half...
I can't even imagine what could cause that, as it should be at least covered with clutch dust, right? I don't think that the endoscope itself could accidently clean it's surface that perfectly... But then what? Nothing should be near it on that side that it could reach to be rubbed to.
Could it be related to my problem?
(I've attached the image which shows it. It's quite dark, but I hope you can see it.)


Thanks!