Since my car was new, I've had the gear buzzing when decelerating in 2nd and 3rd. It only bothered me when I drove with the top up, so I wasn't in a hurry to get it fixed ( Honda's TSB 54-01 deals with this problem).

I've also had a few odd things happen with the gearbox. The last three or four times when I've been driving very hard as part of a number of group drives, once in a while I've been getting a horrible grind when I downshift from 4th to 3rd (it's happened 5 or 6 times in the past 4 months). When it first happened, I thought I had shifted without depressing the clutch, but when it happened the second time, I knew it was something in the gearbox. I got so spooked by it that I now double clutch all 4 to 3 downshifts, which has eliminated the problem. But if the gearbox is functioning properly, I shouldn't have to double clutch any shifts.

Finally, a few times when I was driving in 4th gear, the gearbox slipped out of 4th into neutral all by itself.

Today, I got a bad grind on one 1-2 upshift., which has only occured once before.

It seems to me that I've got some synchro problems. Until now, I did nothing about these problems because they weren't bad enough for me to want to enturst my car to a dealer -- I've been fearful that the car would come back frm the dealer without the problems properly fixed and damage to boot (I've read too many dealer horror stories on this board)

Today a visit with the Mid-Atlantic club to Jim Coleman Honda changed my mind. Hiroprotaganist organized the event, and we were given a tour of the shop and met the famed S2000 expert, Eddie. The shop was spotless (there must have been at least 20 lifts!) and the staff very professional. Since Hiroprotaganist already had the clutch TSB done at Jim Coleman and was very pleased with the work, I decided to take the plunge and scheduled an appointment to have the work done at the end of this month.

Here's my question. Since the clutch replacement requires dropping the gearbox I thought I should also have the gearbox repaired. There's a new TSB that deals with the problem of slipping out of 4th gear (wich has only happened to me once or twice), so I think I'll have that done. But I'm at a loss about what to do with the 4-3 downshift grind and the apparent occassional synchro problems.

Any advice? What should I ask the good folks at Jim Coleman to do?

 

Anyone.......?

 

Rick i believe you should have the gear box done, honda changed my 5th and 6th gear, the sleeve fork and all. I could n't even shift into 5th gear. But if your worried they only thing to done is to get it done for the sake of mind. I'm gonna take my car in for the clutch TSB too but i didn't have the gear problem like yours. Also the buzzing has gotten louder now in my car. Very loud buzzing at 3-4k rpm.

 

If I recall, the slipping out of fourth problem now has a TSB (apparantly a couple of bent forks somehow made it into the parts bin at the factory or something like that). Definitely get it fixed.

I have a related problem, occasionally I have difficulty moving the gearshift from neutral in the 3-4 position to neutral in the 1-2 position, like there's something in the way. Once I move it left to the 1-2 position, it's fine after that. Anyone else have this problem? Should I risk a repair job to get it taken care of?

 

Yes have it all done. I had my done a week ago . I was not sure if I should do both. Afrer talking to people who know Hondas I decided to do both. The key is to take it to a good dealer who has a expirienced master mechanic who has done this TSB before. My car is perfect now.

 

Rick,

I would have it all done at once. Have you tried Colonial Honda? Colonial Honda replaced my dash and needless to say it came out superb! No problems or scratches. If you want, call them and ask for Larry, tell them I referred you. You won't be disappointed!

 

When I brought my car to Rosenthal Honda, I had all the work done together. I also had the clutch replaced too. I posted my overall experince in the Mid Atlantic Forum

Good luck, I'm sure you'll have a good experience at Jim Coleman.

 

The majority of your symptoms seem to be related to the transmission TSBs that are currently in circulation. It is unclear whether there is any causal relation between the 1-2 issue and the other problems (BTW - On some of our drives I've had the 1-2 problem after we've been going at it a while and the transmission is hot). I would have it all done at once Rick. There are a few reasons for this:

1) Spring is coming - you'll want to minimize the time in the shop for the car.
2) The probability of mistakes occuring on the repair most likely increase if you bring the car back on numerous occasions. I'm not in favor of any shop opening up my transmission multiple times. Since he's in there - let him sort it all out at once.
3) Eddie is very good at investigating non-TSB related issues. I had a mysterious rattle when I first got the car. I wrote out the circumstances under which it would occur in great detail and he was able to track down the cause and eliminate the problem.

Remember to do a walk around at the dealership and when you pick it up.

 

I definitely going to go for broke, and based on what people with more experience than me have advised, and ask Eddie to do a thorough check of the tranny, paying special attention to the presence of metal bits that would be the results of any grinds. I'll do whatever the warranty covers and if I have to pay for some of the work to make it right, I will.

 

Rick, definitely get the tranny checked. There are some mebers that have had their trannys blow up on them, and Honda is refusing to warranty them. I'd make sure they fix the problem. I wish our transmissions were built a little bit better.