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Transmission Problem
I've been babying this 86 from the first day I got it and the 2nd gear no longer shifts smoothly no matter how slowly and delicately I do it. There's always a nudge when the gear locks in. It never used to do this but all sorts of funny stuff started happening after 400 miles for me (including pet crickets in my engine and rattling rear end).
It also occasionally makes funny slushy noises like I'm grinding glass slowly in a power blender. This happens often when I'm going downhill or uphill. Shift knob also feels tacky and stiff. My dealer insists that it's all ECU and that everything is ECU related. :iono: I just can't wrap my head around regarding how a small chip would make it all go away at once. What if the car just has a bad transmission and engine to begin with? What are they gonna do, replace the whole car for us? (rhetorical question) Anyway, my real question is, anyone else here experiencing noticeable increase in roughness in their transmission? |
Try changing the transmission fluid,, worth a try
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I have had a crunchy 2nd for a long time. The perrin rear shift bushing fixed it completely (except for the first time I shift into 2nd when everything is cold). Definitely try it. It's a $40 upgrade. The stock bushing is pathetic and now every gear for me is smooth. Also I swapped to motul fluids in the transmission and that helped too.
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Same here since day 1 its always "clunked" into 2nd when normal driving. After 4000 miles iv noticed once its warmed up, it goes away.
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My 2nd gear was notchy at the beginning, but now is smooth as butter. I haven't changed anything on the car, so not sure how it happened. But now my 5th gear is getting notchy, feeling the "nudge" every once in a while going into the gate.
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Having the same problem with 2nd at times. I'm finding that shifting into 6th can feel like a chore, like there's something blocking me from shifting into gear. Started feeling it just this week. I'm a little over 2000 miles now, but I'm doing a lot more inner-city driving while during the first 1500 I did mainly freeways. It's good to know I'm not the only one, but it sucks having the problem.
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From the sounds of it you guys seem to be experiencing some syncro issues. Maybe an expert can chime in here. Good luck guys.
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http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13451 Quote:
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8112 http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8344 Quote:
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I have no shifting problems at low RPMs. At High RPMs it seems 3rd and 4th gear almost always grind with a quick shift. To prevent grinding, I pretty much have to wait a full second after clutch in before shifting.
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What annoys me is that it won't go into 2nd smoothly even if I rev-match downshifts perfectly.
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How much of a reaistance does it give. Its normal to have a little and is it ever smooth
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My 2nd gear gets better the warmer it is. When cold it's much harder to get in and sometimes make strange sounds :D
But since I got warranty I don't really bother about it. I think every manual sportscar i've ever owned had harder 2nd gear shift. I've always thought that they make the syncros or something harder/tougher on 2nd gear, because people tend to WOT in 1st then fast shift to 2nd alot more often/faster than full WOT 2nd to 3rd for example? Atleast I do it quite often since i mostly do city miles. |
P-E-N-T-O-S-I-N
Seriously, worth the upgrade for transmission fluid. I don't know if all high performance transmission fluid makes it feel this good, but I'm telling you, every gear is buttery smooth whether its cold or warm. |
Mine doesn't make noises unless I fuck up the shifts, which does happen. 2nd gear doesn't FEEL good when cold, especially when it's been cold out at night. It sounds like you're having problems beyond that though.
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My FR-S has the same shifting problem... with 1,450 miles the notchy shifting is getting worse. When I went to the dealership... the first thing he said was..." we need to charge 95 dollars fro a diagnostics to see if the car has been abused".
Starting to wish I bought a Camero instead. |
I took my BRZ to the dealership for notchy shifting into 2nd and 3rd gears.
The tech drove the car with me, and said he couldn't feel anything funny. Of course, as soon as I'm back behind the wheel, I felt the same thing I'd been complaining about, but they weren't going to do anything. Changing the fluids to Motul here soon, hopefully that will help. |
A sports car that cost 28 grand should not need any additional after market parts, or work. If the dealership mechanic acts like nothing is wrong during my Tuesday appt. I will file a complaint with the state.
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Same dealership overfilled my engine by over an inch above the full dot on the dipstick. When I took it back, they told me they normally overfilled these engines and the high level was just fine and nothing to worry about.
I asked them to remove the extra oil anyways. |
I never had a problem with 2nd gear, but I did have once in a blue moon 5th gear scrunch... I replaced the oil with Motul 300 and it has made my transmission buttery smooth
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I think the key word for this transmission (outside of magazine reviews) is "unrefined".
I don't think you'd be that much happier in a Camaro, they have similar if not worse build quality issues. But you wouldn't be the first or last to trade in your Toyobaru for a Chevy. http://www.camaro5.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=70 |
Motul 300 + rear shifter bushing = fix. Cold starts the gears are notchy but after 20-30 mins of driving it is smooth.
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@frosty86 how's your car feeling?
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6 speed
Went to a second dealership... the service manager was great. We went for a test drive, then he kept my car over night in order to drive it with a cold transmission. He told me a number of FRS owners had notchy shifting issues. He did not think my car has a problem. At least I have a service record.:. Stating my shiftin issues. He said not to install an aftermarket transmission mount insert. Synthetic oil is my next step. Found a good "how to" on u tube... a guy named Gino, with a white FRS has a number of posts.
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It's the synchro design. I have a trans apart on my bench and I've never seen a more needlessly complex but stupid design before. I'm not sure what aisin was thinking but this will become a more wide spread issue mark my words
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk |
@Dipstik-sportech guess you're talking about the triple-cone syncro design. pics?
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Bump for pics?
I recently just ran into a bit of an issue this morning. I was leaving work and came to a light so I put it in neutral and let the clutch out, but when the light went green, I pushed in the clutch and tried to select 1st but couldn't. It's like it was physically blocked and so I tried 2,3,4 and finally got 3rd to bite. Than was able to select 1st. I also have a clutch squeak when depressing the pedal near the end of its stroke. I have 46000km and a tranny fluid change at 10k. I'm thinking it's my throwout bearing or pilot bearing, thoughts? |
FR-S transmission problems
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20k miles mines 21k |
I don't mean to offend you but I hope you aren't the one doing the rebuilds ^
(many don't even know what a synchro does or where it's located on a car so I am just teasing you 'bout the spelling ;) ) |
Same here notchy shifting into 3rd (noise)
Any fix for this ? |
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Lots and lots of complaints about a rough transmission and it will be next to impossible to assess over the internet, no video or data log will show a problem (unless there is a terrible noise) so objectively speaking all people can do is assume either you are exaggerating or the transmission is totally broken, there is not much in between when it comes to transmissions. If it's subjective (I mean your transmission is not broken), you shift style can greatly change how it feels, smooth deliberate shifting action while nailing the timing relating the appropriate flywheel rpm to transmission rpm will make this transmission feel like a freshly zambonied ice rink. Being sloppy will reward you with resistance, jerkiness and strange noises. There's also a matter of perspective, what was your prior MT experience? A FWD car will have a cable actuated gear lever that will eliminate a lot of feedback from the transmission, whearas the 86's gear lever is rigidly attached to the transmission. In other words the roughness of the 86's transmission is amplified and may have existed in your last car but was numbed by the design. My advice to transmission roughness complaints is to play with your technique and put some miles on the car, I'm at 40k miles and everything is smoother than it was at 20k or 6 miles. And sometimes even now when I'm out of sync the transmission will kick me in the face with a nice big "chunk". Some people swear by changing the transmission fluid to Motul or Pentosin (although Pentosin seems to have garnered less followers recently), after switching to Motul at 30k I did feel (note: feel, not strongly objectively observe, it could be entirely placebo) that the transmission was smoother, but not smooth enough to try and convert everyone. I felt the improvement solely due to driving the car and adjusting to it as well as breaking it in was much greater. Just my 2 cents. |
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My son in law jumps in mine and try's to bully the shifter around like he does in his Mazda while complaining every minute about how bad it is and that it fights every shift (he attended the Vin Diesel school of shifting I think). He then rides and watches in awe as I gently push or pull it into every gear with the tips of my fingers or palm of my hand. No matter how many times I tell him to do it right as soon as he is back in the seat he starts trying to force his will upon it and loses the battle. If he were on here he would probably be screaming about the "crappy" trannys they used. |
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I'm hoping my car gets written off so I can buy another in a manual, given I have a work truck I commute in, so the FRS has literally become a weekend toy for me, and my ankle doesn't give me shit unless I'm in stop and go. That is rarely the case when I'm driving the car now. |
I fought with this same issue for a while. I looked all over this forum for fixes and tips, and other sites as well. I kept seeing "check the warranty" and most of all "change to motul fluid", or "cold shifting is hard" but the one thing I found to work and I wish I could find the thread again to post here, it's all about learning how to drive the car. There is nothing wrong with the tranny. Fluid won't change anything much. And I know it will be hard for us "car guys" to swallow our pride and say we know how to drive, but seriously it's how you drive the car. I have had mine for a few months now and when I first got it I thought the same thing as everyone else on this thread and many others. But then I put sometime into learning the car and I found how to love it and drive it smoothly.
Here are some tips if you wish to try them. 1. let the car warm up when you get in. Wait till you here the revs drop and the oil and fluids kick in. Takes about a minute. 2. Drive a 1/4 mile or so down your street in first gear to get the fluid moving around and tranny warmed and ready to move. 3. Take first up to 4000-4500rpm before shifting into second every time. It's a high revving engine designed to be drifting or on the track at high revs. 4. Always shift every gear between 3500-4500rpms for a smoother shift. 5. Never down shift this car into first unless completely stopped, and never into second unless under 10-15mph while street driving. On track down shift when needed at higher revs to keep power up. I know it sounds silly but this car is built like a racecar, and racecars do not drive like all your other street cars. Hopefully you get your car figured out and love it as much as I love mine, and no one buys a Camaro instead...:burnrubber: |
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Do not take your driving tips from Vin Diesel. There is no need to hammer the shifter through the gears. Loosen up your grip on that knob and guide it into place with your fingertips and base of your palm. I have never once felt mine was hard to shift under any conditions. |
Mine does that same exact thing. It's almost like its grinding into 2nd and notchy into third. I've read that these transmissions eat up the fluid and flake the metal off very easily. Ive been reading up on it and it said about every 20k to 25k miles you should get your gear oil changed and why not upgrade to better gear oil? I'm gonna do mine soon too. If y'all are super worried and it's still happening after a fluid flush, you have a 5 year/60k mile warranty. Tell them you think the solenoids are bad
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On a side note, for people who have switched the gear oil out, what weight did you use?? Thank you ahead of time!
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I've never heard anywhere that these transmissions "flake off metal." It's normal to have some metal on the magnet after break in. There are no solenoids in an MT. |
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