Okay, here's my story, about a month ago I went to a club and in my moment of stupidity I got valet parking, searched for a hour .. no other choice. When I came back, I caught them driving my S around After a lot of yelling and cussing, I left and went home. Next day I noticed that it was harder to get into first gear while driving. I talked to a friend of mine, and he told me they prolly grinded the gears while going on their joy ride.

When I finally had the free time, I took it to honda to have it looked at, told them that it was difficult getting into first sometimes. They looked at it and called me back.. told me there was nothing wrong and that it was normal. Also noted that first and reverse gear doesn't have syncros, so I have to release the clutch a bit if it gets stuck like that again. Should I go out and get a second opinion? From what my friend was telling me, they have to realign something. What you guys think I should do?

 

The dealer told you that the "S" has no first gear synchros??? And you believed them????

 

i think the first gear has dual synchros while 2nd gear has triple synchros. your dealer is retarded.

 

You need a new dealer. This one doesn't know what they are talking about, or even worse, they know what they are talking about and don't want to fix it.

Either way, I would find another service department.

 

Once in a while I have trouble gettin into first gear, and does anybody have any problems gettin into reverse?? sometimes I have a difficult time gettin into reverse.

 

Reverse is not syncronized so it's going to be a little more difficult to shift into reverse. The easiest way is to be at a complete stop, shift into any forward gear(I use 5th) and then shift into reverse. It's still a stiff shift but at least it won't grind.

 

It's normal to very occassionally have to double-clutch it to get into reverse, since reverse does not have synchros. But you should not have to double-clutch to get into first. Period. If they say otherwise they are FOS.

Try this:

Park on a completely level spot, put the car into neutral and release the clutch (engine running of course). Now depress the clutch and try to put it into first gear, slowly. Watch carefully to see if the car tries to move forward at all while you still have the clutch depressed. If it moves, your problem is the clutch is not disengaging fully. If this is the case, you're screwed, because no one will believe you.

This happened to my car, the dealer would not fix it, and I had to pay $1300 to have them replace the clutch, which was not worn at all when they removed it. The only thing wrong was the splined shaft was never lubricated at the factory and it rusted, causing the clutch to not release fully. (it was rusted when they removed it, and it's supposed to be lubricated for life) It worked with the new clutch because standard procedure is to re-lubricate the splines when you install a new clutch.

Mine had gotten so bad that one day my wife had to push the car out of the driveway to get to work because after 10 minutes of trying she still could not get it into reverse.

 

So I'm not the only one having problems getting into 1st rite? I've noticed the other gears aren't as smooth as it used to be too, although it might be in my mind since I think there is something wrong so I'm looking for something to be wrong. I just want to be sure, cuz I don't want some retarded dealer to cause harm to my S.