As the title says, our S2000 has developed a problem with third gear. Now first off, shifting fast at redline (9K) from first to second has always had a slight grind. If I'd let the revs drop just a bit before shifting into second, the car will shift fine. Same goes for shifting a little early, like say 8K. For years this has been the only issue with the trans, until now.

On our meet last weekend I was driving spiritedly and was using third and fourth gear mostly in the twisties. Well, third gear started to develop a grind, worse than the second gear grind. When driving around nice and easy, the car shifts into third just fine, zero grind. Also I can downshift into third from fourth at pretty high RPM's without any grind as well. The only time it grinds is upshifting into third gear. Once the car was pretty hot from driving hard, it would grind into third even with letting the revs drop first. I have a feeling this could be a syncro problem and was looking for some opinions from others.

Should be noted that the trans fluid was changed this spring. Car has had Honda MTF in it since day one, always changed on time. Car is a 2002 AP1 with 34K miles.

 

Its like you just described my tranny ?!?!?

Happened exactly like you said but on a race track. Same oil from honda as well.

From then i try and take it just a bit slower and it holds just fine.

Probably the synchro like you said

 

This has me worried as the grind was pretty bad, on the verge of not letting me put it into gear. Was the trans was hot, it would grind 90% of the time on the 2-3 shift, high RPM, low RPM, didn't really matter. Every now and then it wouldn't grind when shifting SUPER slow. On the other hand, I was able to downshift 4-3 at ANY RPM no problem, never grinding. Once the car cooled, it would shift fine into third driving "normally". This is a concern for me, as I don't want the trans to end up locking me out if it's the syncros.

Any more insight from others?

 

Exact same thing is happening to me right now. I am suspecting it is the synchros. I've tried regreasing the shifter, put brand new MTF, bled the clutch fluid, and adjusted my clutch rod to zero play. Nothing worked at all.