flight240

yesterday, i take my car out around 3pm.
shifting was everything i expected, nothing to report for the first couple stop signs and lights.

by the time i hit the local movie theater, my S2K is warmed up (3 bars) and i'm stopped at a light. i play around with the shifter and try to slip the shifter into first. i notice some significant force stopping me from engaging, but i add a little more force and it goes right in. put it in neutral, light turns green, shift into 1st no problems.

a couple stoplights later i'm waiting there in neutral. light turns green, try to shift into first. IT WON'T GO IN! i didn't really wanna try and force it so i put it in neutral, wiggle the shifter, try again... won't go in, wiggle in neutral, try again, won't go in. at my third wiggle in neutral, i manage to get it in, but with still some significant resistance against me. the people stuck behind me were pretty nice about it though and didn't honk or anything. lol

after that last incident at the stoplight, the problem didn't occur again, 1st engaged like it always did.

i would just like somebody to try and explain what possibly could have happened? i checked the clutch fluid level and it was inbetween the minimum and max bars. and i'm fairly sure i was holding the clutch in all the way as i also have a "good" seating position.

i have an '03 S2K.

^EDIT^
forgot to add thanks for reading and trying to help

slalom44

It could be several things. If you have air in your clutch line, it could have prevented the clutch from toally disengaging. Bleeding your clutch would fix this problem.

But I'd be inclined to think the problem may lie in your tranny. I had the exact same symptoms in a Civic I had. A clutch bleed didn't change anything. The problem tended to be worse in hot weather. If I put it in second gear, let off the clutch a little, then put it back in first, it would usually go in fairly easily. It was a real PITA.

I concluded that I had a worn 1st gear synchro. I bought my Civic used with 167,000 miles on it and I knew the previous owner was hard on it. I checked around and found this to be the likely problem.

If you had been grinding your gears a lot or real hard in the past, the tips of the teeth on your synchro gear get ground flat and mushroomed, preventing you from being able to get it into gear. You might find that depending on how the teeth are lined up, it may or may not be hard to get into gear. But if you force it hard, it will eventually go into first.

When I changed the tranny fluid, the problem lessened but didn't go away. I determined that for a '97 Civic, it would be cheaper to replace the tranny than to have someone tear it apart and replace the synchros. With 203,000 miles on the car, I decided to just get rid of the car.

BoostLE

I'd say the clutch slave (secondary?) cylinder is dying. My '03 is starting to shift notchier and notchier. I've flushed the fluid with ATE Blue by it remains the same. It seems like a quick stomped on the pedal works better than a smooth/slow push. The next time you run into this shift into 2nd or 3rd first to slow the gearset down, and then try first again.

114_ap2

my friend had a problem like this that happened on his RSX-s, i helped him flush his clutch fluid and problem solved, i don't know if its the same for s2k but worth a shot

TheDonEffect

A lot of owners experienced this problem. Try going into another gear first and then shifting into first, I usually go into third and then into first. Also, try shifting the gears when the car is off and see if there are any problems.
The slave cylinder seems to be the likely culprit (or even the master).

flight240

thanks a lot for the replies guys!

i've experienced something similar in my MR2 (bless its soul, it's gone now =[ ), but the problem went away and didn't come back.

i'll look into the possible explanations you guys have given.
thanks again!