This is my tale of transmission destruction.....

early '98...miss-shifted while trying to go to 4th...I grabbed second...BOOM...don't ask...warranty covered my error.....

traded trannies in early '00 with a '97 which had a JDM FD and a KAAZ LSD....previous owner had some wicked driving problems I wasn't aware of and here is goes....

2nd grinds at high rpm....3rd CRUNCHED....4th was ok....5th there was a scratch....
I was about THIS

then about 3 months later....I found out my car DID suffer bent valves from the 1st miss-shifting episode in '98....still with me? Code 74....missfire in cylinder number 4....compression test...not good.....

Tore it all apart....decided not to FUQ with the old tranny and BOUGHT A NEW ONE from Acura....had it all reassembled with the goodies JDM FD, KAAZ, added in new clutch....new bearings... new flywheel "might as well" upgrades.....this was all courtesy of A&J Racing as they put everything back together for me meticulously.....

I then trucked the tranny back to my friend's shop and jammed it in back into the car.... This was about January of this year....

fast forward to April.... finally got the funds to get the car back on the road....cyl. head got all finished up.....

take it for driving...absolutely beautiful..... May, I hit the drags....power is back.....June I did a lapping day in Seattle.....

August.....WHAT THE FUQ!?? Why does 3rd scratch going in from 2nd? Change the fluid....seemed to have helped...bled the clutch....decent.... 2 days later...it's back....and this time it's here to stay.....

just changed the fluid again tonite in hopes it woulda solved the problem...no luck..used MTL per somebody's recommendation WITH Ford Friction modifier....

My tranny makes a strange howling noise when cruising highway speeds when you let off the gas.

The fluids went from Castrol GL5 to Amsoil 80W90....previously I tried KAAZ's own oil....and now I just changed to the MTL w Ford. Shifts really smooth....LSD does not sound like popcorn around slow corners....

but third still grinds...and the howling noise is ever more prominent.....

ANYBODY HAVE ANY ideas?? The howling is really pissing me off...... some have stated that the ITR trannies have inherent weak 3rd gears....!?

 

Ahh yes..and to add insult to injury...sometimes it won't even go into 3rd.....

clutch fully depressed.... and not shifting anything like greased lightening.....this is all high rpm ofcourse...
anything below VTEC is all OK.....

 

I agree w/ the weak 3rd gear, I had mine replaced for being notchy going into, sometimes grinding...no problems since...and this was at less than 10K miles

 

I'm having the same general problem with my Civic's tranny, I mis-clutched more than one shift from 2nd to 3rd while learning how to shift for racing. For the time being, try double-clutching and see if that smooths it out a little...

 

When I had a B16 tranny, it took all the bagging fine until some other unrelated mishaps. Now with the ITR tranny, my 3rd crunches, and 5th scratches when engaging. I've heard other people having problems with ITR 3rd gears, but there's gotta be some sort of fix instead of having to replace the syncho/gear every-so-often.

 

I have had 2-3 gear grinding a couple of times. (shifting at redline) I figured I was too quick shifting or releasing the clutch, but after this discussion, I'm not sure anymore. Mine has only 13000 miles on it.

 

All Honda B series Trannies have inheretly weak synchro's. It's a common trait in all GSR/SI/ITR cars.

 

Hmmmm,

Funny you mention that. In the past two times I've driven my car, with a brand new ITR tranny (5000 miles), KAAZ LSD, JDM FD, ACT clutch, Spoon flywheel, I get the same 3rd gear grind at high rpm unless I shift very slowly and deliberately. Only in 3rd too...

Nothing to add, just wanted to let you know you're not alone...

FB

 

It's hard to tell what's going on. The symptoms you describe could be related to clutch problems too.

For example you have a noisy clutch or unable to engage or disengage gear. This could be due to the torsion dampener stopper springs thrown out of side plate or stop pins worn. The usual cause to this is improper driving practice (ie. "dropping" the clutch whie engine is turning at extremely high revolutions.) Downshifting of gears (ie. 5th to 2nd by a low speed/high driving hear method. (we already know this to be the cause of the first problem which you solved) Overtorquing the clutch plate or just a simple misalignment.

Funny that seems to almost describe all of your problems, but it could also be weak synchros. ???

 

berkel: what kind of clutch are you using right now...nevermind just reread the thread...ACT....HD? Xtreme?

ILoveRacing.... Well I'm not one to blow my own horn, infact I certainly won't....I have been driving standard for about 7yrs now (maybe only a fraction of what many have put down @ honda-tech by comparison) I was fortunate enough to have a lot of racing buddies....the kind who love bikes and who competed in AutoX.

I had no idea about double clutching, revmatching, heal-toe (I thought it was a dance....?) but in my 1st 3 months of driving I learned what these things were and continued to hone my skills to this day. I went from driving VWs before I got into my Type-R....

Currently I am using a Spoon pressure plate and an ACT S-Organic disc combo. This made for a very high friction point engagement compared to my previous stock setup. Could this be the reason? But wouldn't it be the case, that all gears would suffer the same problem if it wouldn't disengage properly thus...all gears would grind? Just a couple of honest questions before I have to open up the wallet......ai......


This is rough pissing me off......

 

right now at this moment i have no 1st gear 3rd gear and 5th gear 2,d is good 4th is good nd reverse sometimes werks

pickin up an LS trans this friday

 

Ack, didn't know the history with all your woes Pat. Sorry to hear.

On a side note, I sold the car along with the H&R coils (sorry!).

 

I wasn't trying to question your skills nor your friend who installed the tranny. Like I said, on the computer, I can sit here and guess a lot of things that "could" be wrong but I would never know unless I actually had a chance to test drive it. You are dead right when you said that the clutch should affect all gears instead of just third. I am no Honda Engineer and I wouldn't know how strong or how weak the synchros really are. Like you, I'm just as confused. But you might want to check the obvious and single out the problem.

 

Hey Tim, it's no problem about the H&R coils....u know I had to try..... anyhow, glad you got rid of the car....what's next on your list for a ride?

IloveRacing: it's no problem.... just trying to get some opinions on what could be wrong or if others had similar experiences....

slowly bit by bit....seems like there are a lot of us around....

Profile GSR: how long have you been driving on your tranny for that to happen!?

 

Hey, you're starting to catch up to me! What's up with that? I'm on 32k working on 33k. I almost always double-clutch on downshifts and my syncro's have been nice to be so far even with all the indicated 9k rpm shifts from 1st to 2nd to 3rd. No scratching or crunching gears over here.

 

I too have a problem with shifting into third with high rpms though it only happens occasionally. I also sometimes have a problem with getting it into first and reverse. No problems so far with fifth thought. I've taken the car to Richmond Acura but the service manager himself went with me on a test drive and didn't experience any of the problems (problems always seem to go away when I take the car in) and said everything seemed normal. I also have a howling noise but I was told by the service ppl at Burrard Acura and Richmond acura that the noise was normal.

 

I am driving an 1988 Mercedes 300E right now. It's a monumental difference from my other car, but I enjoy the low profileness of this car, and the fact that it's a dull colour!!!



As for future cars, no plans, no plans...

 

This is what I don't understand.... how can it be normal when all the other Rs I have driven don't exibit this symptom??

what's up with that? How many kms do you have on your car right now?

Tim....what are you still doing in this forum...you should be BANNED....a NON Type-R owner in a Type-R forum!..NEverheard of such illegal moves..!

HAhaha....j/k.....glad you like the new car!

 

The car is a 97 with ~62000 km on the odometer. The problem with third is pretty rare but is annoying and the first/reverse problem occurs with my sisters 98 prelude as well. My car is still on extended warranty but I don't think there's much of a point in taking the car in to get it looked at for a third time cuz I know the problem will not be reproduceable.

 

my itr had two problems very similar. at 10.000km the first owner went to honda and they replaced the whole tranny.
when i bought the car, in Feb of this year same problem again, all synchros gone, and honda changed them all again.
right now the 3rd gear scratches at low/mid rpms. at high rpms everything's ok.

 

Wow, "de ja vou" for me too!... Just turned 10K miles, and yesterday while driving home I tried to downshift into third and it just would not go at all! I actually briefly hit first in frustration, but since I let the clutch out slow I knew by the rev's that I wasn't in third. No scratching sounds, it just seemed like there was nothing between first and fifth to shift into!?

 

Yeah, I blew through my syncs in 30,000 miles, that caused the trans to go KAPUT! haa haa.. well it is covered under warrenty, but is there a way we can "beef up" the trans so it does not happen again?

 

I have had 2-3 gear grinding a couple of times. (shifting at redline) I figured I was too quick shifting or releasing the clutch, but after this discussion, I'm not sure anymore. Mine has only 13000 miles on it.

 

Yes, is there a way to beef up our trans? Mine is described above about 342 times.

 

I was just out last night testing all of the gears and shifting the car at different RPMS. At Full throttle it is grinding into 3rd every time. Normal driving all of the gears are fine. Downshifting, all of the gear are fine. Looks like I'll be rebuilding my tranny.

Mattj