Went out for a blat this afternoon on a favourite back country road. Tight and windy, lots of 1-2-3 (occasional 4th) gear shifts and after going for about 15-20km the gearbox began to graunch terribly whilst shifting from 3rd to 2nd. This was high engine speed stuff but not particularly high road speed. I could only avoid it by being much slower and more deliberate about those downshifts and at no stage was I ever in a position of over-revving as I went down into second. Is this the same problem to do with TSB 55, or is maybe it that the syncro cones have failed or are failing on second gear? Does anyone have any idea??
Steve

 

"The Grind" occurs when upshifting from 1st to 2nd, usually when the gearbox is hot and the car is being driven in a spirited manner. It happens despite having the clutch depressed fully to the floor. Your situation is different. The synchronizers should help in matching gear speeds when downshifting, but there's nothing like a little heel-toe rev-matching to smooth things out. HTH

 

If your shifting timing has been histroically off, this could have worn the synchros enough that they can no longer assist in matching the speed of the gears when they are engaged.

 

On my car the grind was much more common on the 1st to 2nd shift but in the last couple of months before the "fix" it sometimes also happened on the 3dr to 2nd shift.

Since it was a triple cone synchro problem with the one/two grind it could be a related synchro problem with your car.

 

Thanks for your advice, guys. I'll talk to the dealers on Monday.
I read in one NZ motoring mag that this gearbox is manufactured (? designed by) a third party and is outsourced by Honda. That article stated that this same 6 speeder is also fitted to the Lexus LS200. Does anyone know this for sure? If so it must be another example of why Honda usually build everything in-house. Maybe this whole tranny thing has been a bit of a headache for Honda.