zeroptzero

I didn't do the undervehicle part either, I believe that is just if you have been getting water in the shifter system, so not always necessary and I saw no signs of rust to indicate water penetration.

Moly grease should be okay, I don't know if you'd get anything better with the Honda grease, though the Honda grease is high quality. Did you lube the contact surface where the shifter boot rubs, using silicon grease. Silicon grease is used on the shifter shaft so that it doesn't harm the shifter boot material. As long as you got proper lubricant on the important parts you should be good to go. Did you do the lower pivot ball and upper cage ?, I packed the grease in the parts prety good. Did you clean out the old stuff that was on the contact surfaces from the original installation ?. I cleaned the old stuff out with carb cleaner as it was pretty dry cruddy looking stuff. That way it would be as smooth as possible. Then just lube the contact surface where the shifterboot would rub and that should be all you can do.

billiardboy904

I saw the water i suppose so I will need to go underneath the car then to do xheck on the second part

badboy00z

I used brake cleaner to clean off the old stuff and greased it up pretty good.

zeroptzero

the only other thing I can suggest on the notchy cold temp issue is to hold the clutch in a bit longer between the shifts to help it out. Sometimes small changes in your shifting routine can help too. With the 1st to 2nd shift the shifter wants to move towards center, so you have to keep pressure on it to keep it to the left of center during the shift. Sometimes small things like that help.

Don't feel bad, you get brand new BMW's and Nissans experiencing the exact same problem right off the lot. It's just something that is inherent in performance trannies with lots of feel passing through the shifter. Cold weather 1-2 shifting is an issue on many vehicles. My Neon SRT4 had the issue from day one and it never went away, on some days it was impossible to get it into 2nd gear without babying it.

You can use the Shin Itsu grease for the convertible seals and pretty much all other rubber seals on the car, it works great to keep them in new condition. The Urea Hi Temp grease is good for the clutch slave cylinder and shift fork if you're up to doing that maintenance, works well too.

zeroptzero

one thing you might want to try on the shift notchiness is to extend your clutch rod just a tad, maybe 2 turns. It is simple to do, all it takes is a 12mm wrench, loosen the locknut under the dash at the end of the clutchrod, turn it clockwise a couple turns and test drive. The clutch will disengage a bit sooner in the pedal travel as you push down, and engage a bit later as you lift up on the clutch pedal. This gives the tranny a bit more time between shifts and may help smooth things out. If you don't like the end result, then just reverse it back, simple enough to do. I extended mine a bit as my clutch was engaging with the pedal really low to the floor, I adjusted it because of the pedal height issue, but it resulted in more smooth shifts as well.

Gernby

I've just had my '08 for about 6 weeks, and I'm pretty sure it has the OEM Tranny fluid. However, I plan to change it pretty soon to GM Synchromesh Friction Modified. It was by far the best fluid for my '02 S2000. I was grinding 2nd gear multiple times per day with the OEM fluid, and tried about 4 other fluids before finding one that worked well. With GMSFM, I was able go several months between a 2nd gear grind, and the notchiness was greatly reduced. I haven't had any grinding problems in my '08, but it is pretty notchy when it's cold.

starchland

some of you experiencing the 1-2 grind it may also help general shift feel as well is changing out and bleeding the clutch fluid.

INTJ

I did exacly the same thing and the GMSFM was much smoother than the OEM MTF II.

turbo_slug

i'd be careful when using sychromesh...i tried that stuff in a protege5 and it didn't work well because it was too slippery when hot. for the first week, the shifter was buttery smooth. after the 1st week, cold shifts remained smooth, but it then became very hard to into any gear once the tranny heated up. by the time hot summer weather rolled around, it was impossible to get the shifter into any gear without double clutching. everything worked ok again after changing out the synchromesh.

zeroptzero

synchromesh is also a thinner fluid than Honda MTF last time I seen the viscosity specs on both. In hot temps it will be thinner, which I wouldn't want. There will be temperatures at which one fluid will seem to work better than others based mostly on viscosity, but it's hard to find a fluid that perfect in all conditions. I'd rather stick with the Honda fluid and just change it more often. It's a personal decision that everyone has to make though, I doubt any of us have exact data to suggest what works best.