The syncro on the s2000 is pretty weak. There are 3 inner teeth that end up chipping making it impossible to shift into second at high rpm without first going into another gear. The grinding will not always occur until all 3 inner teeth are chipped. To test the condition of your 2nd gear syncro, just rev up to 9k and go into second. Do the shift slowly, but don

 

you are not supposed to skip gears that is even more damaging for the sychros. As far as the 1-2 grind woodward had a thread here where he described how the 1-2 shift has the biggest difference in rpms than any other shift and the sychros can just not keep up with the quick shift that the wonderful s2k gearbox is capable of. I found that only when Im really pushing the car I will grind second but any other gear i shift as fast as possible without a single grind. Just give it a little before you slam it into second and you will be fine. Redline MT-90 works awesome for me.

 

Skipping gears to perform a simple test to see if your synchro is bad isn

 

No, not likely. A change in final drive ratio will not change anything in the tranny as far as its ratio is concerned nor will it change the relative difference between one gear and another.

 

OMG, thank you so much...now i see what the problem is.

 

so during daily driving, skipping gears is harmful to the tranny?

 

yes skipping gear is detrimental to the gear box especially from say 3 or 4 to 6th. I shift just a little slower going into second but do not seem to fall out of vtec. I thought though however that 1-2 puts you at 5900 rpms but i could be wrong

 

Even though the tachometer may look like you are at 6K RPMs when VTEC engages, it really engages 5900 (depending on the climate). There is also a historesis. I am not sure how large it is, but VTEC will not disengage until the RPMs fall significantly below then engagement point.