Phantasea

My S wont go into 1st or reverse after being parked for sever hours, usually overnight. I leave it in neutral with the parking brake up when its parked (I dont know if this has anything to do with it) After starting the car and fully pressing down the clutch, I try to get it into 1st or reverse and it just wont go. If I put it in 2nd or 3rd first, then it will go into 1st or reverse. It drives and shifts fine otherwise, and has no problem going into 1st or reverse after being driven. Its only when the car is parked and rested for several hours that this happens. Whats the deal with this? Any help is greatly appreciated.

jasonw

Sounds like bad synchros to me... Do you drive it hard? What happens if you try to downshift above say, 4000 rpms? If you have to rev-match to get it to go in to lower gear, that's a sign you need new synchros.

Might need a tranny rebuild...

Phantasea

Do I drive it hard? Hellz yeah I do, what do you expect, its an S2000, I drive it like it should be driven. Not like some old mid-life crisis dude or a prissy ritch girl. Im addicted to driving it hard and fast. Im just kidding...well sorta. Anyway, as far downshifting above 4000rpm to slow down or to speed up, its fine no probs. I think this is a commoin honda problem. My civic does it and my 97 Prelude did it too. Thanks for the advice

xviper

I see yours as being a double issue. (Note I didn't say it is a problem because I don't believe it is.)
Sounds to me like your clutch is not letting go when you push the pedal to the floor. Having to put it into another forward gear before reverse is pretty normal as any forward rotation of the tranny will make this difficult. Either putting it into another forward gear or holding the clutch on the floor for a few seconds for the tranny to stop spinning usually does the trick. However, if you normally drive the car hard and then park it, the clutch plates can tend to stick a bit. Parking it in gear will break these apart when you start the car because the tranny is still connected the rear wheels (which are not moving). In neutral, if the clutch sticks (and they do a bit anyway on a cold start) the tranny just spins with the clutch so it can't break the friction plates apart easily.
Also, when selecting 1st after a cold start and you have the tranny in neutral, it takes a couple of seconds of the clutch pedal being on the floor for the tranny to slow down to a near stop. When cold, the 1st gear blocker ring makes this necessary. Not so much when the tranny has warmed up. As long as your clutch and tranny function well most of the time, it's no crime to have to engage another forward gear before engaging 1st or reverse. The blocker rings in the other forward gears are not so invasive. That's why it's easy to get into those. Once you stop the tranny from spinning in this fashion, 1st and reverse is no longer a problem.

phillys2k

If you got a new clutch it might have been iniitalized right or lubircated right. my brothers nsx had the same problem

Phantasea

Hey guys you have been a tremendous help and I really appreciate it. Thanks so much for making this an awesome forum!