It's a wonderful transmission that happens to be a little quirky. Most importantly, the quirks seem to go away with mileage, which is why I recommend being easy on it for the first 2,500 miles.

All performance cars have their quirks. Ours is the transmission and tendency to snap-oversteer.

 

Number of miles doesn't mean much.. it is the number of shifts that smooth it out. After 10K shifts and a lube change it should be pretty smooth.

 

I had the first true 1-2 cold grind this morning. The other times was minor crunching noise. In the first 4-5 minutes of starting out going into 2nd is my fear. It isn't consistent, sometimes it goes in 2nd fine, then another it is tough to engage and other times you get a weird sound or vibration when it goes in 2nd. All this happens in the first few sets of shifts when it is cold. I shifted a bit quick this time and a minor grind occured. I'll start rowing the gears as a part of warm up before I leave now. I even did a bit this morning. Ahhh.....

Hopefully, you guys are right when you say it will get better with number of shifts or milelage. This paranoia ruins my excitement for the car. I went from one questionable tranny in the Prelude and it will be sad if I have another questionable tranny with the S.

 

I also noted that sometimes it's just down right "impossible" to get into 1st gear (hot or cold, don't matter). Had the exact same problem with my Prelude . Everytime it happened I had to find the neutral, then move on to 2nd, and finally downshit to 1st!...quite annoying especially when it happens when the light just turned green on a busy intersection when guys behind you are just looking for an excuse to honk at your behind!

 

Almost 1800 miles on a 2002 model, 2-3 shift is usually just a bit notchy, i.e., I can feel a crossing of the two distinct positions, but is never accompanied by any audible gear noises. I do shift fairly quickly, usually with no pause at all inserted between gears.

 

I've posted this info before, but maybe it will help a few of you -

SHIFTING

Technical Service Bulletin 00-055 (Transmission/Driveline) for Grinding When Shifting into 2nd Gear. Honda says this applies for certain

 

2,600 miles on MY2002 and the only times I've grinded, it was due to misshift. I have noticed notchiness when the tranny is cold, at which time shifting needs to be extremely precise (ie make sure the shifter is pulled all the way to the left from neutral before pushing forward for 1st or back for 2nd), as well as a clunk (engagement?) when going into 1st from a stop/neutral. Nothing is severe enough to make me guess something's defective (yet).

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by dlq04
[B]I've posted this info before, but maybe it will help a few of you -

SHIFTING

Technical Service Bulletin 00-055 (Transmission/Driveline) for Grinding When Shifting into 2nd Gear.

 

My 02 requires a soft touch when cold. I always double clutch my 1-2 shifts until I get on the freeway. I travel appx. 15 miles until I exit and the transmission feels much better after it's experienced some miles.

The double clutching on the upshift when it's cold really takes the notchiness totally out of the picture.

 

I have an MY02 with a bit less than 4,000 miles. From my experience, the transmission has became more smooth over the last couple thousand miles. I have never experienced any grinds in any gears even with 9K shifts. This is the best transmission that I have ever had the pleasure to shift. Period.