I been having a notchy shifter, what made me realize how awful it was to drive my car is when i felt one of my buddies shifter on his s2000 and it literally feel like slicing butter with a hot knife, i did the shifter rebuild and regreased it until it was green and it didn't help at all, so far I've changed the clutch, slave cylinder and the transmission fluid, nothing has helped, it's not the normal clunky s200 feeling, it feel like metal hitting every shifting and it's annoying to drive it, i don't know if the master cylinder has anything to do with it, that's the only thing i haven't touched and for some reason my pedal is really hard and stiff to press down, there's no air in the system, just hard to press down if that helps, any idea what could it be?

 

I'm assuming your car is a 2006?

what fluid did you use?

what grease did you use to rebuild the shifter?

did you install new bushings on the shifter?

did you break the bushing while installing it? Its common

Did you try the shift feel when the trans was warmed up to temp? or when cold?

Is your clutch properly adjusted?

What kind of clutch do you have?

What year is your friends car?

What fluid is he using?

 

And, what grease did you use for the new clutch install, and what did you apply grease to?

Who did the clutch job? Where the splines cleaned? Was the release guide replaced?

 

There were some issues early on that Honda was aware of concerning the premature wear of the synchros. I wonder if they are indeed worn and in need of replacement, that might be the cause of metal to metal shifting unrelated to the clutch.

Much of the synchro problems were related to skipping gears and people trying to shift too fast and too low of an rpm. As Billman states, shifting at 5500 rpm makes for very smooth shifting.

 

When I bought my used 2006 in 2014 I asked about this same condition and was told to shift slowly (click, click) or above 4300 rpm. Not sure where that number came from but it worked for me. Oh, and to not to skip gears.

-- Chuck

 

I would say check free play is net excessive and verify hydraulics are working properly. If the gears shift fine without using the clutch this should point to a clutch/hydraulic issue.

 

If you aren’t using Honda manual gearbox oil you will need to. Maybe not your issue, but mine wouldn’t downshift into second and would grind into third right after I changed the tranny oil and used a non oem. I just drained it today and put oem stuff I . It’s smooth like butter again. A total night and day difference. I thought the tranny was shot. Nope… just the wrong lube.