I have a 2000, I had the TSB's done, no more grinding! (that was at 12K miles) now at 20K I can't get the car in gear when it's cold outside!

I brought it to my dealer, told them to test it when it was cold out, they didn't. Now their telling me there is no problem. The Service manager was supposed to get in touch with the local honda rep and get back to me early this week.

It's friday and he hasn't returned any of my calls and I just got off the phone with AHM and they said that if the dealer called the local rep there's nothing else for them to do.

Am I getting the run around? Am I paranoid?

questions? comments? criticisms? ---thanx!

 

Passleft:

It sounds like the clutch is not fully coming disengaged when it is cold.

Try this: When you experience the problem, turn off the engine and see if it goes into gear easier. If it does then it is the clutch.

The other thing you can try:
With nothing in front of the car (in a level parking lot) with the engine running open the door and take your foot off of the brake. Now when putting the shifter into 1st watch the ground to see if the car creeps forward any. If it does then the clutch isn't fully disengaging.

The only way to fix this is to take the transmission out and clean the splines of the mainshaft and clutch disk. The problem is that if the splines are dirty they get cleaned off when the transmission comes out which destroys the evidence of dirt/etc on the splines.

Hope this helps.
Woodwork

 

If i remember from before, Woodwork works for(?) Honda, and while he rarely posts, he KNOWS what he is talking about. I hope his idea helps diagnose the problem.

 

Passleft,

I had the same problem, at 32k miles, prior to having TSB-054(noisy clutch during decelleration) performed. Every morning, I would attempt to run through the all the gears without any success. I would repeat the process and would find "3rd" gear most of the time. Once I get into "3rd" gear, I could get it into Reverse so that I could back out of my garage.

Does this sound familiar? I would think that it's clutch related since mine doesn't do that anymore. Try pumping the clutch a few times too..

Good Luck!

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Woodwork
[B]Passleft:

It sounds like the clutch is not fully coming disengaged when it is cold.

Try this:

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Woodwork
[B]Passleft:
The other thing you can try:
With nothing in front of the car (in

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Woodwork
[B]Passleft:

It sounds like the clutch is not fully coming disengaged when it is cold.

Try this:

 

Welcome to Honda service ... or a lack thereof ... I had the TSB done on my 2000, too. Or at least the car stayed at the dealer long enough for them to do it ... still has a 1st to 2nd grind from time to time ... the Honda service manager reports that Honda has no fix ....
It will (in my opinion) take a group us armed with data to puch this one through to those who can force a fix.

 

when i do 1st gear my car inches forward. i have to put in 2nd then reverse to get out in the morning.

I had the tsb done twice b/c my car kept grinding, and now according to this info my clutch isn't disengaging. The only way I figure that it would get so dirty is from a botched repair job again or a bad transmission...my second gear still grinds often. Guess it's time to save up for that spoon tranny.

Thank you very much AHM.

 

Well, 3 weeks later and I just got my second call from the service manager...

According to him he has been researching this issue (as hard as they looked at the car?). AHM has nothing on physical record that would relate to the trouble I am having. The TSBs do not relate to this issue. yada, yada, yada...

So, the only recourse is to get my car in their shop and try to reproduce the problem. Of course, this was the first thing I asked them to do and they were unable to do it then. I told them the problem happens when the ambient temperature is low (50 - 60 degrees) and they said they would look at the problem first thing in the morning; they didn't touch the car until almost 2 pm (almost 70 degrees).

Oh yeah, they can give me a rental car, but I have to be there by 5:30 to get the car; a 2+ hour drive from work.

So, with woodward's information and some recommendations from some fellow S2000 owners in the area, tomorrow I'm going to make an appointment with a different Honda service department.

Wish me luck...