I have 1300 miles on the car and feel a notchiness or "catch" when shifting into third (no grinding). High RPM shifts are smooth, but at lower RPM's I feel this. Drove a new car in Charlotte before getting mine and felt the same notchiness going into third, so I thought it was normal. Is this normal? Does it fade with time? Any info would be helpful...

 

Normal. I switched out MTF at 3k and again at 9k and it got somewhat better each time.

 

that's pretty normal, as far as i know. that's basically your synchos at work. the closer your input shaft speed is to the "speed" of the gear that you are selecting, the less resistance or "notchiness" there will be. on upshifts, i usually disengage the clutch right before i let off the throttle. this way, i end up doing a mini "blip" right before i shift so that by the time the input shaft engages the next gear, the speed of the input shaft does not drop too low compared with the "speed" of the gear, and thus a smoother shift. also, by disengaging the clutch right before you let off the throttle, you avoid accidentally having the engine's compression slow down your car right before you shift...

 

My shifter has gotten smoother over time. Also try vectoring the shifter slightly to the left after passing neutral when going into third. That has made shifting into third smoother for me.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Friday03
I have 1300 miles on the car and feel a notchiness or "catch" when shifting into third (no grinding).

 

I have the same feeling in my car (2K miles) from 2nd to 3rd. It does seem that the tranny takes longer to warm up than the engine oil. I baby the car for 5 minutes after I see 3 bars. Shifting is usually smoother after that. As with my experience with other cars, I figure that the shifting will get smoother as time goes on.

 

Normal on some cars, not on others. Here's some things that will help:

1) Have the transmission fluid changed when you do the first oil change. It doesn't cost much. Stay with Honda MTF fluid, it's as good if not better than most and it keeps your warranty in tact.

2) Rev match when shifting, especially when upshifting or downshifting into 3rd. Just give the throttle a good blip while the clutch is in between shifts.

3) When shifting into 3rd I find putting slight pressure from the right on the shift knob does wonders.

4) Be patient. As it breaks in, it gets better and better. I'm not saying you'll never have it again but it will be much less frequently.

5) Or, you can trade it in on a '04 model which will have brass syncro's with carbon fiber inserts and Honda claims that solved the problem. We will see.

Hope this helps some.

 

No, I don't own an S2000. I joined your board seeking advice as to whether I can gain enough legroom to fit into an S2000 by fitting an aftermarket seat.

But, I have owned a grillion Hondas and Acuras over the past two decades, and I can tell you that what you are experiencing is very common in the "sports" models. (Check the ClubRSX.com board, for example.) It will resolve itself with use over time. Do not use force to overcome the resistence. All that will do is wear out the synchomesh cones. If you know how to double-clutch, adopt that habit while you are running in the car. That will help a lot, particularly when the transmission oil is coming up to temperature. As others have said, it is normal and it will resolve itself if you're patient during the first few thousand miles of new-car ownership.

 

I've driven stick shift sports cars for 40 years, I broke my car in without ever forcing it into gear, I didn't bring up double clutching in my list because it not something the average S2000 driver does/will do, but I must say I have over 15 thousand miles on my car and it's not totally resolved itself. Anyways, it interesting to hear it's not unique to the S2000 since this was a clean sheet of paper gearbox.

 

I've got the same problem on my '03. The funny thing is that it doesn't do it all the time and it's second or third gear only. I just turned over 6000 miles.