I've had my car 2 weeks (1000miles on the clock) and have ground 3 times. Not happy about this. I thought this was taken care of. The worst experience was repeatable, 2 shifts in a row. Here is the circumstance: It was after a high speed mountain run, all 2nd and 3rd gear. Now problems there. At the top, I stopped waved good by to my buddy, and headed off on a straight away. The car was hot (weather was nice, but not really hot), the transmission was shifting great, always better when warmed up. I wound it up in 1st to 9,000 rpm go for 2nd and buzz! Grind, when straight to 3rd instead of trying again. I was not happy, thought I missed the shift, so I slowed to a stop, empty road, and started my take off again. No clutch slip, just a slow start then winding it up to 9K. Go for 2nd and grind again! WTF? Again, not happy. After tooling down this less technical hiway, things cooled off and the grind didn't happen again.

Am I due for the TSB 055? Will they do it for a 2001? Is this the sort of trouble others have had? I don't know if I could reproduce it for the dealer unless I took them out for 45 min and got the car nice and hot. Not sure what to do, I don't want the car to do this, don't want my new car having it's trany dropped, and at the same time don't want to continue chipping my gears. Would they fix gears damaged from the syncro problem?

Perplexed,
Andy

PS bayarea owners, anyone had the TSB work done at Larry Hopkins Honda? how was it?

 

I have a 2001 s2k with 1000 miles on it too, and I am having the same problem. I thought this was fixed in the 2001. Obviously not! What should I do?

 

Im having the same problem TOO!!!!

 

Well, first of all break in your cars (over 600 miles) then let us know if you have the same problem. The tranny just has to be broken in properly.

 

The car is more likely to grind when the temperature is hot than when it is cold. I verified this when I was driving all over the West last month. When the temperature was over 100 degrees outside, I had several grinds. When it was in the 60's, I didn't notice any.

One thing that helps me is to remember that it is a very short throw shifter, so it needs more pressure on the shift knob to match what you would get with a longer throw. When I'm accelerating hard, I try to think about making a firm shift and I'm much less likely to grind. It will sometimes crunch into gear under those circumstances, though.

I'm debating whether I want to go to the trouble of trying to get the transmission repaired or just live with it. It seems that it would be difficult to show the dealer the problem, since it is a rare occurance.

Oh yeah, I'm driving a 2000 purchased in 1999.
_______________
S2000 in Joshua Tree National Park

http://www.geocities.com/srnelson_s2000/Day02.html

 

Follow the link for several hundred more...

 

I had the 2nd gear grind on my 2000 (also from 1999) and had the same symptoms. It only ground when it was hot. Also, I did not have to rev high (not even vtec) to grind.

It was basically impossible to shift into second without grinding when the tranny was nice and warm. Only problem is, you gotta go fast and rev high to heat up the tranny.

Make an appointment with your dealer and get the car nice and hot before you bring it in. Then tell the mechanic to let loose and have fun. Tell him to rev high and get things warmed up. (You do it, so he won't cause any more harm than you do!) By the time he is returning to the dealer, he should have trouble shifting into second without grinding.

On mine, I could even reproduce the grind with very slow shifts, as long as the tranny was hot.

The repair took only a few days for me, and the tech let me look inside too. Have had NO problems and NO grinds ever since, so I think it is worth it!

 

to echo scottrnelson, try a firmer "slam-it-home" shift on the high RMP 1-2.

I tried to demonstrate the grind on my '01 to my technician, which of course I could not do. The good news is it hasn't happened to me since I made sure to shift more firmly and slowed down the shifts (half a heartbeat between clutch disengage and gearshift).

$Derek
'92 SE-R, '01 S2000

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by gilcwong
[B]Are you sure you are shifting correctly?