There is no lock out, you have a problem, probably synchro related, possibly fluid related. Do you understand what we mean by rev matching and are you doing it?

 

yes, I do know what rev matching is. It is when you give it a little gas to raise the engine rpm to match the speed of the tranny when dowshifting. I also heel toe all the time in my 02 EP3 with a k20a2 motor. The 1st and 2nd gear is impossible to downshift into at speed of more than 10 mph when the tranny is still cold.

well I still only have the car for 2 days, so I still got a lot of getting use to.

 

what gear are you downshifting FROM when you try to go into 1st or 2nd?

 

usually I tried to downshift into 2nd from 3rd and 4th after I brake down to get ready to turn onto another road.

 

if you're going from 4th to 2nd, cycle through 3rd first.

if you're going from 3rd to 2nd, sounds like your synchros are shot.

to diagnose, try a double-clutch downshift and see if that lets you in.

double clutch downshift:

1 - in 3rd...clutch pedal in.
2 - shift knob to neutral.
3 - clutch pedal out
4 - rev engine to match car speed
5 - clutch pedal in
6 - shift knob into 2nd.

see if that works. if it does, then most likely your synchros are messed up.

 

As far as I know right now, the 2nd gear synchros are shot. When the tranny are cold, that is the worst point. Tomorrow I will try to rev match while the tranny is still cold and see if I can get it into 2nd gear.

and again, thanks for all the advices and inputs, it has been a great help to me.

 

it was mentioned a couple of times already, but for how little it costs it would be worth your while changing out the tranny gluid. i personally use GMSMFM and it removed virtually all of my tranny notchiness both cold and warm

 

There are no syncros on the first gear, it's always locked out on most cars these days. That's one of the reasons why you have to rev match to get into 1st when racing (track or auto-x), but if you can't get into 2nd from 3rd, that's a problem.

It might be that your 2nd and 3rd syncros may need to be replaced.

good luck.

 

but you say you already rev-match?

what i suggested you do was a DOUBLE CLUTCH, not a rev match.

 

you do know what the difference between double clutch and rev match is, right?