Ok, here's the deal:

MY00, 60k miles. The transmission is perfectly fine on upshifts and downshifts. However, if I'm stopped at all, and I happen to let the clutch out and shift to neutral, I'm screwed:
- clutch out
- clutch in
- try for 1st... won't let me into the gate
- same for just about every gear except 3rd, which I can finally slot into with some effort, at which point I can row through the entire gearbox perfectly normally.
- same scenario is repeated if I shift back to neutral and then clutch out

The problem lessens as the tranny warms up. The tranny oil was just changed (Honda MTF).
Any thoughts on a cause?

 

maybe your clutch is bad... thats all i can think of, take it into Honda

 

Well, that obviously occured to me as well, but it'll be a cold day in hell before my car goes to Honda for anything other than a total failure.

There's no evidence of anything wrong with the clutch, other than the decel noise. No slippage, etc.

 

Try changing the clutch fluid
I did that with mine when i had a problem shifting into 5th.
But i haven't gotten out to test it enough to see if it worked.
But the bottom of the reserivor was black.

 

I did indeed bleed the clutch as well. Clutch action feels better, but no change in the tranny.

I took the car for a ride tonight, and blasted along for a good dozen miles or more.
The tranny is completely fine once it's warmed up, it's just the cold apparently that's causing a problem.

Is Honda MTF really this bad for cold weather use???

 

I had something similar happen to me the other day....it was 4 deg though....never happened before...couldnt get it into gear lol

 

It's been really cold here too... about 15 degrees or so.

 

Try redline mtf

 

Hmm? I concur with the theory of tranny fluid change ?

 

I have the same prob with my '00 with 31k. When it's cold, can't get into 1st or rev while standing still unless I run it through 2nd or 3rd first. It is fine when completely warm.

I changed the trans fluid at 15k with Honda MTF and then again at 30K with Red Line and it got a little worse so I changed it back to Honda's.

Still have the prob, thinking it may be the clutch fluid, master or slave. I am very easy with clutch, often getting 100k out of a car. Hope it's not the synchros.

Let me know what you find as a solution.