I'm posting this on behalf of my S2K-owning colleague (screenname falcosparverius) who has had some difficulty accessing the board:

I'm a S2000 owner, but this question concerns my foul-weather car, a 5-speed 2001 Subaru Forester. Occasionally (maybe one time out of 6-8), I have some difficulty putting the Forester into reverse gear after starting the engine. It simply doesn't want to be put into reverse even though the clutch is fully depressed and even though I go through the correct engagement motions with the stick shift. To overcome this balkiness, I have to either shift to first and go forward slightly and then try again or to use more force than I would like to jam the thing into reverse. Putting stick shifts into reverse is not a new experience for me. I've driven only cars with stick shifts (including the S2000) for decades and haven't had this happen. Anyone have any comments or suggestions about dealing with this problem? Naturally, I can't replicate the problem when I take the car to the Subaru dealer, and all I get from them are shrugs. (Maybe the problem is that I got the Forester rather than the Honda CR-V in the first place.) Thanks.

 

Put the car in first ease out the clutch a little then put it into reverse. This happens quite often in manual cars in a cold start environment.