ButtonBoy

I only have 3400 miles on my S, but it feels like the 6th gear synchro has gone out already. I get this horrible grinding sound every time I shift into 6th gear from any other gear. I am going in to the dealer later today to have them look at it. (and to get my first oil change...)

Anyone else had such a problem, and what was the fix?

payyourtoll

I had the occassional 6th grind, only when I shifted from 5th at high rpm, and only when the car was young before the first fluid changes. Since I've changed the tranny fluid to Redline, I have not grinded 6th since. Not saying that this is your fix-all, but hopefully you have the same results.

payneinthe

6th is somewhat hard to get into because of its odd location. I always shift into 6th from 5th, and I pause long enough to push the stick all the way to the right hand wall before moving into 6th. It's slow and awkward, but I have not ground 6th in a very long time.

nastinupe1

I never had the grinding problem. I get the 6th gear "buzz" every once in a while.

David1

I had a problem with grinding into 6th at about 3200 miles on my 02 when the trans got hot. I changed the fluid to GM Syncromesh and the problem went away in about 10 miles. I now have about 6000 miles and still no grind. My dealer was willing to pull the trans if the fluid change did not help. Also, they showed a note from Honda stating that shifting from 4th to 6th was not recommended, and that is when my grind to 6th was the worst.

pjkwong

I always shift from 5-6 rarely 4-6.
Never grinded.

2kturkey

I have had my 6th gear synchros replaced but not because of a grind. My problem was that under very hot gearbox conditions (such as a track day) the 6th gear synchro would weld itself to the shaft and not move. I then literally had to break it loose by forcing the lever into 6th - no grinding, the lever simply would not move backward through the gate.

It would then be very stiff moving into 6th for a couple of months. After the last time this happened (2 or so years ago) I took it in and had the synchros replaced under warranty. 2nd, 3rd and 6th were replaced at the same time and no subsequent problems.

RazorV3

dont skip gears on this car, it can cause the synchros to wear out prematurely.

ButtonBoy

In a nutshell, that is what I heard from the dealership. According to Honda's techline people, the tranny must be treated like a sequential shift gearbox. The synchros are designed to operate only when going from an adjacent gear, and if you skip-shift the synchros get "out of sync", and the grinding occurs. Then they proceded to say that all racing style gearboxes are this way, specifically mentioning Jaguars and Corvettes.

Here is where I call BS. I have had lots of street and track time with Hewland & ZF gearboxes as well as a beefier version of the T56 tranny found in C4 & C5s. Thrashed lots of big bore Italians too. Never had a problem such as this.

Yes, doing what they suggest does "seem" to fix the problem, with one minor exception. As long as I do adhere to perfect sequential shifts, all is good and the synchros stay "in sync". Except when I shift into reverse. If I use reverse, that will throw the synchros out and the first 5-6 shift will grind. After that, all is goodness. Do you suppose there is some magical incantation one must perform after the horrible sin of using reverse that will keep away the 6th gear gremlins?

David1

Change your fluid. After I changed mine, I can skip gears with no problem.