Hi everyone !

I got a 2002 S2000 a few weeks ago and sometimes when I shift into the 3rd gear I can feel the pinions in the stick and I feel like I am slightly damaging the gears when that happens.

This only happens when I shift from the 2nd gear and I don't rev at 5000 rpm or higher. If I downshift it never happens. If I rev up the engine at around 5k rpm it only happens about 20% of the time.

I've been trying to figure out how to shift into 3rd without this happening but I don't have a 100% solution yet.

Shifting in any other gear works fine.

Do you guys get this thing also ? Am I doing something wrong ?

Thanks.

 

same things been happening with my00, like you said, happens about 10-20% of the time when shifting into 2 and 3rd. havent figured out why or how to avoid it. my shifting seems fine

 

Thanks jbird !

Sometimes I shift directly into the 4th gear just to avoid this.

The thing is that it's not always safe to rev up that high in the second gear since the car might go faster than I want it to.

If the driving conditions allow me to rev it to 5k I might as well shift into 4th ;-) ...

 

no no no. dont skip shift your transmission.

OP, the reason why its harder to shift into 3 when you rev higher is because the engine and transmission speeds drop faster. If you're revving higher, shift faster than you normally do

 

It's actually the other way around. I only get this behavior if I don't rev higher. If I rev higher and shift really quick it usually goes smooth.

What's the problem with skipping gears when you shift as long as the rpm is high enough for the next gear ?

The gears on the S2000 are close enough and the rev range is so wide that I see no problem doing this with this car.

On a normal car you have a narrower rpm range and the gears are further apart so it's a bit harder to do.

 

Nice pic BTW ;-) ...

 

Xviper and Woodwork have covered this topic in the past.

 

3rd gear grind is common. Change your tranny fluid.

 

This happened to me after I bought my 2002 S2000 three years ago. It was running the same transmission fluid as it was born in Tochigi with. Changed the tranny fluid and the problem immediately went away.

 

You say you've had this car for a few weeks right? Just take our word for it. High RPM + brass synchros + skip shifting= notchy transmission + . High RPM + brass synchros + skip shifting habitually over time= gear lockout + tranny rebuild + BIG $ + .