Gear Stubbornness
 

ok, so i have ~280 miles on my brz, and noticed right away that the car doesnt like going into 1st, 2nd, and reverse cleanly, but thought maybe its a "new car thing" and have waited it out... and now its starting to bother me. ive tried searching and have only found people reporting difficulty moving the shifter into 2nd on cold days.

reverse gear: on the first try (clutch fully engaged, dead stop/parking space) the shifter does not want to move into reverse, feels like hitting a wall - i could probably ram it in there, but havent, and dont want to. so ill clutch out and back in, and itll go in, but not freely. so i back it out and usually on try #3 itll go into reverse gear smoothly and freely. i then reverse as normal.

first gear: itll be a little stubborn to go into first gear, i want to say it feels "grindy" but its not harsh, usually takes until the third try to go into first smoothly. this is all while the clutch is in, im not talking about actually moving yet. this makes stoplights a pain in the ass, as im usually putting it in and out of first three times to get it to accept the gear smoothly

second gear: often does not want to go into second after first, sometimes double clutching helps. once again, i could probably force it into second (and have had to, but often ill just skip to 3rd bc of it) but im looking for smooth entry into the gates. second gear isnt all that bad compared to the problems im having with first and second

im still in the engine break in phase, haven't abused the engine or transmission whatsoever

im going to take it in to the dealer i just wanted to ask on here first

Many of our cars feel this way. It sucks.

I'm learning manual with mine but as far as I can tell I haven't really had that issue too much. Getting into reverse is smooth. There have been a couple times when shifting into first with clutch all the way in felt funny or like it didn't go all the way in and made a small odd noise/feeling but that was it. It's been fine otherwise and smooth.

It gets better with time. Can take 1,000 or more miles to loosen up with some.

Feels much better with Pentosin MTF-2

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16604

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=105654

I would not recommend doing anything right away and let the car finish breaking in. If you are still frustrated by stubborn gears you can try some different gear oil. Motul Gear 300 has made my gearbox quite a bit better but only once it warms up.

This other gear oil seems to work for quite a few people. http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16604

i sure hope so. i bet i have gotten some odd looks with my reverse lights flashing on and off three times before pulling out of a space

Well I am just relaying what a lot of guys have said. I personally have never had a single issue with any shift on mine even when cold. I appear to be in the minority though.

On cold days my 17 resists a bit but as soon as the transmission warms up, it smooths out. If you shift into 2 and then 1 its smoother than going straight into 1 from a cold start. I haven't had a problem with reverse. I'm going to switch to Motul gear 300 sometime in the next few months so we'll see how that goes.

I waited til 5K miles before changing my tranny fluid. It never got better with time, I regret not changing it earlier. If yours isn't smooth by 1-2K miles, I'd go ahead and change it.

I have changed out my tranny fluid as well. I was told that the resistance is normal and just a bi-product of tight tolerances. Once everything is warmed up, everything is buttery smooth. I've learned that the gearbox really prefers to shift at higher rpms.

Different fluid can help. Sometimes mileage can help. I've found it can get better with more miles. I've also found that after the transmission is fully broken in with fresh quality fluid it can still suck to get into gear. I have experience driving a few transmissions in BRZs and FRSs and they have all been like this.

so no one has problems with it going right into reverse gear, which seems to be the biggest problem with mine. it really doesnt like doing it on the first try

and yes, im pulling the lockout up, lol

I have that problem. Many do.