S2Gizzle

I was driving my car yesterday and all of a sudden the third gear started to grind. It grinds bad. There was no gradual grind either, it just happened and now it wont go away.

The car is a MY00 with 12k so it doesnt get driven much but i do drive it hard sometimes. I have never misshifted and never overrevved it, which is why the grinding seems wierd to me.

I changed the oil yesterday to GM synchromesh and the grind is still there.

Please let me know if you guys have any ideas on what happened to my tranny and whether or not I need a new one. I didnt think this would happen with just 12k

xviper

Did you go with the "friction modified" type? If not, you should give that a try. Also, have you changed your clutch fluid ever? That might be worth a try before you go out and drop some big bucks taking the tranny apart.

S2Gizzle

I thought about the clutch fluid but kinda ruled it out because it only does it in one gear.

How much better is the Friction modified stuff?

xviper

You just never know till you try it. It may only mean that the shifting in other gears is OK with the existing clutch fluid and your style of shifting or the way that your 3rd gear has changed now makes the clutch action no longer adequate. Would you rather spend a few bucks to get it changed or spend BIG bucks tearing your tranny apart only to find out it didn't fix the problem? The choice is yours.

Non friction modified has been found to not last long and its affects unproven. As for how much better the FM stuff is, again, you'll never know till you try. And again, a few bucks or BIG bucks. Yet another choice you must make.

ps. How is the 4 to 3 shift? Any grinding? Have you always "cut the corner" in the 2 to 3 shift? This is not a good habit and as the syncros wear from this kind of shifting style, continuing to do this may simply aggravate the situation. What I mean by this is the habit of going in a diagonal when moving the stick from 2 to 3. It is more of a distinct direction change than a diagonal ....................... move stick up, then to the right, then up into 3rd.

S2Gizzle

very good insight xviper and teh only time i ever diagonal shift it is when i shift hard which is not very often.

Thank you very much
Rovin

S2Gizzle

The 3rd to 4th shift is normal and very smooth
but the 4th to 3rd shift grinds just as much as the 2nd to 3rd shift

xviper

Ahh, it may be that your 3rd gear syncros are toast. I doubt you'll get this fixed for free by Honda, so I'd still try those other things before tackling the tranny itself.

S2Gizzle

If it is the synchro, which im sure it is.....would I have to buy factory synchros or are there any stronger ones that can be used.

I was told that the ap2 transmissions have stronger synchros, but do those work in the ap1 transmissions?

thanks
Rovin

xviper

I'll have to leave your latest question to someone else. I have no idea.

S2Gizzle

Man i thought the famed xviper would have known for sure