One more question:

Does skipping gears on the downshift cause problems? For example, a 5th gear straight leading into a third gear turn. Is fourth necessary for trannylife?

Thanks,

Hans

 

Caution with Skipping Gears: A Honda engineer indicates the problem with skipping gears is the same as shifting from first to second very fast and making it grind. There are Double cone synchros in 1, 3, 4 and a single cone synchros in 5, 6, R plus a triple cone in 2nd. If you shift quickly from first to second and you don't give the 2nd gear synchro time to slow down and the 19 pound main shaft to match the next engine speed, then you will grind the sleeve as it contacts 2nd gear. All you need is constant pressure and

 

[QUOTE=dlq04,Jun 14 2005, 02:51 PM] All you need is constant pressure and

 

Interesting thread. Last week I drove my friend's MY01 S2000 around town and, being used to the wide shift pattern of my FC, mistakenly shifted from 2nd to 5th gear. I believe the engine was turning roughly 4000RPM at the time in 2nd. There was no grind, and no abnormal resistance either as the shift knob fell into its detent. Of course I immediately realized my mistake and shifted out of 5th straight into 3rd, and there was no difficulty there either.

I also drove a MY02 at a track a couple years ago and couldn't believe how effortless the transmission was. It never grinded and at the time I was not proficient in heel/toe downshifting so the synchros had their work cut out for them.

I skip shifts all the time in my cars (aforementioned FC and an '87 MR2) and don't have any tranny trouble. I did lose 5th once in my MR2 but that was my fault for letting the fluid level get far too low (basically empty!). I do make the effort to let the engine speed drop to the right spot when skipping gears on an upshift, and I rev match when skipping gears on a downshift as well.

Sounds like some people are driving their S2000s with this proper care and still experiencing problems. Ungood.

I'd be curious to know what transmission oils are being used in these failed gearboxes. Redline MT-90 smoothed out the shifting from my worn synchros in my MR2 brilliantly (unintentional abuse by a previous owner).

 

This statement should be embossed in GOLD! Most who skip-shift do not have this concept understood.

Oh, what the heck ........................................
let the engine speed drop to the right spot when skipping gears on an upshift, and rev match when skipping gears on a downshift as well.
(well, orange is as close as they give)

 

If the clutch is disengaged, this won't matter, correct? So, the safe way is to double clutch or somehow get the transmission gear speeds to match road and engine speeds...

 

The idea is to get the input and output side of the tranny to be fairly close when doing a skipshift. Putting in the clutch won't do it if you don't give the input side time to slow down (on a slip upshift). Yes, double clutching will achieve this much more safely and effectively.

I hope we are not getting off course here. The whole idea is to get out of the habit of skip shifting, then rev matching (or the lack thereof) isn't quite such a concern.

 

The other day on the highway I wanted to kick it. I wanted to drop it from 6th into 4th. I accidently hit 2nd!! I tried to match revs w/ 4th, but 2nd is pretty low. I didn't hear or feel any grinding. I was going around 70mph. The tires actually locked up for a brief instant until I quickly realized my mistake and repressed in the clutch. I saw the rpms go all the way to redline, but didn't hear or feel any rev limiter. Does anyone have any idea if any damage might have been done to any part of the car? I haven't had any problems w/ it since the event.

 

Some things that should come out of this:

1. Skipping gears can be a hard lesson learned and people still seem to not learn from others' mistakes.

2. You will NOT hear or feel the rev limiter "kick in" on a mechanical over-rev. Odd that people still have a misconception about this.

3. You won't know if any damage has been done (most likely to the valve train and/or pistons) until symptoms arise and you may not see any symptoms for quite some time as these things don't always manifest themselves right away.

 

Is this an issue that has been addressed in the AP2's or is the AP2 5/6 gear sleeve just as easy to damage?