Recently got the car It's a 2003 w/ 51k miles all stock. When I go through all the gears, 5th and 6th are very hard to engage. Doesn't matter if the car is moving or not also doesn't make any difference if car on or off. It feels like 5th and 6th gear gates are locked. It does go into 5th and 6th but with a lot tries. I removed shifter and there was hardly any grease and it looked like the prevouis owner had tried to remove shifter but didnt grease anything. I greased up everything and replaced the plastic pieces and made sure I put everything back in correctly.
Now it goes into 5th gear much easier but 6th still hard to engage. All other gears and reverse work perfect. Also the motor and tranny mounts are good.
Anyone had any similar issues like this? What could be the cause?

 

Maybe, the shift lever was put back in a reversed position.

https://www.s2ki.com/forums/s2000-un...-gear-1098353/

 

Thanks, but I made sure I put the shifter in the right way with that little metal tab facing the driver side so it can't be that.

 

What oil in in the gear box? Not seen this issue here before (but there are 17 years of messages to wade thru!) but an oil change often results in better shifting.

-- Chuck

 

-Park on level ground, engine off, ebrake off
-row the shifter back and forth from 5th to 6th, about 100 times

see if anything changes. Cold rowing has completely cured this in some cases.

 

Awesome thanks Bill, I'll try that.
Yea the first thing I did was change all the fluids and used pennzoil synchromesh for the trans.

 

Where the heck do you come up with this stuff? You are a font of esoteric knowledge. You need to write a book.

 

I tried that method I think it helped a little. I'll do it a few more times. So I'm guessing it's not a good idea to do it while the car is hot.