Rough shifting

It sounds as though you may have a syncro that's starting to go. You don't give many details about the car, but I had a '90 Loyale that had a bit of grinding when going into 3rd and 4th. My mechanic said not to worry about it, and that it was normal for a car of this type and age. Someone in this group told me their Loyale did that for 100,000 miles with no problems, and I never had a problem with mine.

You can start by changing and inspecting the tranny fluid for metal bits and wear. Just changing the fluid might solve the problem. If the clutch is a cable type, an adjustment might also resolve the problem.

Actually I checked the service records before purchasing and the clutch had been entirely replaced at around 60,000 miles. I bought it with 78,000 on it. I'm thinking tranmission fluid flush will go along way to help. The vehicle just turned 90,000 miles two days ago and I'm driving in like 7 miles a day (God bless home office) and hopefully within 1-2 weekends will have my 90k service done on it.

I actually have the same thing shifting into 3rd. It almost feels like a small *crunch* against your hand, right? You can't head it, just feel it in the shifter. My car is around your mileage too... so my guess would be the syncros. I just changed my fluid to Uncle Scotty's cocktail (2qts of Castrol HypoC 80w90 + 1qt of Redline Lightweight Shockproof + 1qt of Pennzoil Syncromesh) (search nasioc.com for more details) and it seemed to help a bit.

Bradley Walker wrote:

You are exactly right in that it can't be heard, only felt through the shifter and only when upshifting into 3rd. I have however been able to avoid it all the time if I Press the clutch in far as it can go, hold it an extra quarter of a second before shifting then shift. That seems to aleviate most of it.

How much does it cost to fix/replace the synchros?

Btw - What exactly is a synchro and what does it do??

I have the same issue with my new 2006 Forester. I only have 1`500 miles on the car so I was going to see if it worked itself out. I haven't tested waiting a fraction of a second to see if that helps.

-- Vic Roberts Replace xxx with vdr in e-mail address.

The synchromesh gears align the transmission gears when you shift. That is, when you mesh a new par of gears. Before synchromesh was developed, drivers had to use the throttle to gently bring the gears driven by the engine to the same rotational speed as the gears attached to the wheels before the two sets of gears were engaged. A rather difficult task.

-- Vic Roberts Replace xxx with vdr in e-mail address.

Vic,

I played around with shifting today on a 1.5lane wide country backroad with ups and downs and a bit of a spirited sunday afternoon driving. I tried shifting up into and down into 3rd at various speeds, turns, and motions. I discovered that shifting down into 3rd never once presented a problem as was shifting into 4th, 5th, 2nd or 1st. It was when I would upshift into 3rd around 3200-3500rpm when I could "feel" a bit of grinding through the gearshift. As the previous poster mentioned, you can't hear it, but can feel it.

What I discovered is that if I shifted into 3rd with the rpm being around

2700-3100 that the grinding was barely present. Also when at a higher rpm going uphill and shifting, if I pressed the clutch in all the way and waited a fraction of a second longer, before placing the stick into 3rd gear, it seemed to cause that grinding to go away and become unnoticed. I'm waiting to see if a transmission fluid flush very soon will solve that or cause it to subside for several thousand more miles.

How much does it cost to replace a synchro setup? Does it required the transmission to be pulled?

Perhaps I should clarify, My Forester gears do not "grind." When shifting from 2nd to 3rd, and only when shifting from 2nd to 3rd, I can sometimes feel the gears hit or touch right before they engage. This happens just once per upshift. I would not call this grinding.

I don't know what it costs to replace the synchro setup, but perhaps 5 years ago I had some "ticking" gears replaced in the manual transmission of my 95 Legacy and the bill was over $2000.

-- Vic Roberts Replace xxx with vdr in e-mail address.

I would try a Redline gear oil. Forget the exact name/number, but some soob guys claim it helps the synchros spin up faster. Supposedly you WANT a little friction in the MT and many folks have had trouble switching to gear oil with incorrect 'friction modifiers'. perhaps the oil has just gotten 'tired'.

Carl

I agree with your definition better. I was having a problem accurately describing it, but you described my situation to a T.

Is this the same as the transmission fluid when I get my 90k transmission fluid flush? Or does this oil pertain to something else with the transmission?

same, if it was done at the dealer, you got OEM oil. Some folks say redline is better. you might ask around at

and

Carl

Try mashing your foot down faster on the clutch. On my STi, it's extremely sensitive to the speed at which I depress the clutch, to the point where if I do it too slow I'll have to double-clutch to shift it properly back into

*any* gear, let alone the one I was trying to get it into.

Those lazy mornings when I haven't had enough sleep the night before are particularly troublesome.. I just want to take it easy on the drive to work, dammit, and meanwhile the car is cold and needs encouragement to shift from 1st to 2nd, so I've gotta be violent with my foot.. :)

A mechanic friend said that in almost all cars he's driven and raced, they all had that same weird fraction-of-a-second judder in the stick when shifting into 3rd. My STi has it as well, even with the clutch fully depressed, so if there is something wrong, there's a tonne of people out there who don't know it.

=]