Good morning guys!

I was on my way to work today and from a stop light shifted into 1st...brought it up to 15mph then into 2nd...where i felt my car slowing down but the engine revving higher.
I was like WTF? look down and it looked like the shifter was in the right place...but i guess not. I grab the stick, tried sliding it into 2nd again and all i heard was a very unplesant
"grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr" sound. Given this is my first maual tranny car i understood it as a dumb mistake.

I think this was the 3rd time i grinded gears...could this cauz a big problem in the future?

-SS2K

 

All cars are different, but a few light grinds won't hurt. I understand the cars have tripple cone synchros in the first three gears. I tested two cars before I bought mine and noticed that when shifting into second or third with a light touch you could feel the gears sliding over the synchros. It would be easy for a novice who doesn't know the fell to stop part way and think they are in gear. When that happens, depress the clutch, return the shift lever to neutral and then re-engage the gear you want. You may want to make firmer shifts. I am a newbie to the S2000. This advice comes from years of driving other cars and two days with my S2000, so someone else may have more, relevant experience with this problem.

 

The earlier S2000s (MY2000 and 2001, I believe) have a known issue with a grind going into 2nd from 1st. It only happens occasionally, and usually when the car and/or outside temp is hot, and the shift is done at high revs. Check the Library for the TSBs (technical service bulletins). I think it's TSB054 or 055.

If you're grinding at non-VTEC revs, or have a newer car, it might just be more practice required, and make sure your clutch is in all the way!

 

I did this sort of thing a time or two on this car but going from 3-2. I still do it from time to time when I'm a bit lazy, too distracted and/or too fast and careless in my shift. This may be a poor way to describe it but I think it's sorta like a "false neutral" that you see with motorcycle trannies. In our case, we put the tranny in a position where the "dog teeth" is just in front of the intended gear. There is a "detent" (or resistence) of sorts at that point where the gears aren't quite mated. If you let off the clutch and rev it, then notice your mistake, put in the clutch and ram it all the rest of way, the synchros may not be able to help you then because the input and output gears are spinning at vastly different speeds. By this time, the synchros have already "tried" to do their thing. Now it's too late and ................. GRRRRRRIND! Unless you held the shifter right at the point of grind for a while, you should be OK - maybe put in a bit of "rounding off" of the teeth prematurely.