so as you may or may not know, for a long time now i think i have had some bad syncros. all of a sudden one day i just DIDNT have second gear. so for about a month ive been going from first to third...which kinda sucks. but today, i start the car, pull away, and go to put it into third, and it wont go, which it does sometimes when its cold, so instead i pull it back into second, and it works! then i keep driving, come to a stop sign, pull away, and second is gone again. im stumped.

 

call a perist and get alot of holy water dude

 

im new to the site, so i dont know if youve mentioned what year and model you have, but a buddy of mine has an 87 TII, still on the original clutch and tranny, and he was just saying yesterday about his second gear acting up too. does anyone know if this is a common occurence?

 

try changing the transmission fluid, see if that makes a difference

 

how do you change the tranny fluid in an 86 n/a? just so i dont have to scour the internet.

 

my tranny hates cold weather too.

theres a drain hole wotwards the back/middle. Just remove adn recap.

Then theres a fill bolt towards teh front and up about 1/2 to 3/4 the way up the tranny, fill till the fluid is level with the fill bolt and recap.

 

is this pretty hard to do, do i need a lift or anything like that, will a jack work? mind im 17 with no daddy, so i gotta do all this **** myself :-P

 

jack will work fine, its easy as pie once you get under the car and look at it for a couple minutes.

 

youll need a pump

 

My 88' GTU has a similar problem man. For some reason mines wont let me downshift to 2nd but driving normally I'm able to shift from 1st to 2nd. So the only way I can downshift is to shift from 1st then to 2nd. I'm getting it checked out tomorrow I'll definitely share with others how it goes since this problem seems to be occuring frequently among other FC owners.

 

Remove the fill plug BEFORE pulling the drain plug. It would suck *** to drain it only to have no good way to fill it up again.

Use Royal Purple or Redline fluids as well. I had 2nd gear synchro problems until I switched to the Royal Purple gear oil and now it shifts very nicely after warming up and I only get a little chirp in 5th if I'm screaming down the on-ramp. Double-clutching eliminates that though.

BTW, I want to check my fluid levels again, but do you guys know what kind of harm would be done by overfilling a little? It's hard to get the fluid level perfect because it says it should be at the top of the fill hole on a level surface, and my jack puts that car at a 20 degree angle. I know it's not a pressurized system, but I just want to make sure I don't kill it since it's being so nice to me.

 

You Downshift To 1st Gear?!?! Dude! Thats A Big No No

 

Allow me to clarify that. What I meant is say for instance I'm rolling down a hill on neutral and I come to a VERY VERY slow speed and I drop it from 3rd to 2nd by going into 1st WHILE stepping on the clutch and never removing my foot till I'm in 2nd again.

 

i do this all the time after double clutching it...NA and it's lack of torque...

 

IIRC the gate won't let you in unless you double clutch to rev match the flywheel. I don't think you can just shove it in and expect it to take well...

 

I rev match 1st all the time, and it loves it (something about having this thing called torque). 2nd is grinding pretty well on mine, though, unless I rev match (Used J-Spec TII trans).

 

sounds like a shift fork and or detent problem not a synchro.

 

whats the point of downshifting into first again? i did it once, even rev matched, and my rear end slid out from me

 

well today i tried to get 2nd to work again. no go. and on the contrary to a previous post, i dont even get 2nd when going form first to 2nd, let alone on the downshift. oh, it might help to say that the shifter goes into second, but when you rev, it doesnt move, its not like the shifter wont go....mmmm..it also will go into the spot where 2nd should be when the clutch isnt pressed, and to get it into first i have to pull it into 2nd, then go to first several times before 1st gear goes as well. 3rd, 4th and 5th work perfectly fine.

 

My tranny would go into the gears fine...but sometimes would get stuck over in a gear. I had to move the shifter (while in gear) to the left or right and then out of the gear sometimes to get it out. I think it was before I replaced my bushings, though this doesnt sound anything like what you are dealing with.

Also....sorry for the n00b question...but what is IIRC? I see it all the time on these forums and cant figure it out...I also searched the web for an explanation but got nothin.

Thanks.

 

Like 6 months after my sister got her Protege 5 sometimes when she would try to shift from 1st to 2nd while excelerating, the car would not go into 2nd gear. Could it be a result from downshifting to 1st (she does) or just a crazy thing?

 

yeah, and downshifting into first would kill the syncros hardcore. i think my mother did this once in my car, or maybe the previous owner had done it, i just wanna get an idea of what it is before i get charged out the *** to have someone put it on a lift and look at it and then have it only be that it needs new fluid.