Motul 300 2nd Synchro Grind
 

Hey guys I installed Motul 300 in both my trans and diff about 600 miles ago with the car only having 20k miles on it.


I first have to say this fluid is far better than OEM when it comes to noise reduction and it's smoothness into the gears but... some issues had arisen since then.


I live in Ontario Canada, and right now the temperatures are about 15C or 59F. Every gear is smooth when shifting (even into first now) unlike before but my 2nd gear is giving me the most annoying issue.


On startup I struggle to get it into 2nd gear, giving me a lockout or if I do manage to get it into gear it would make a loud clunk with a physical roughness when putting it into gear... (hard to give an analogy... but it's like a rough pull into 2nd with some resistance feeling dry and rough).


Once the car reaches operating temperature... it takes about 5 minutes more before it becomes smooth but occasionally I would get a light clunk into 2nd with shifting on a turn and or random times (feels like your old OEM fluid clunk).


My question is... are these symptoms normal with this fluid? I feel like the trans is getting hurt when it does that clunky rough shift into 2nd. I was debating to try Redline down the road but would it be fine to run Redline in trans and leave my diff with Motul since it hasn't been giving me a problem?


supporting mods when I did this was...
-Perrin rear shift mount
-whiteline trans insert


thanks in advance guys!

Edit: I guess this is the best visual and audio I could find my own video wouldn't do it justice...


In video my case is "Scenario 1" when it's warming up and "Scenario 2" occasionally when at operating temp


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHJDNyDze_I


This is exact problem you can say timestamp 1:21


https://youtu.be/QHFXXRkDEcI?t=81

It's normal with any fluid. I'm also in Ontario and I've tried OEM, Redline and Motul. With the OEM fluid, that second gear lockout you described felt the worst, but it can show up with all 3. Conversely, it could be due to lack of familiarity with the car (I bought it in winter so it was my first winter with it, combined to low mileage as the car was brand new and still breaking in). Now I'm at 55K km and no problems at all. Running Motul.

Have you tried swapping back your stock mount and insert and see if the problem still exists?

thanks for your input, was about to buy redline to test. This is my first manual car so I guess it does need getting use to in winter time


would you have any tips on getting into 2nd gear smoothly? or should I just accept that the grind is gonna be there when cold

When you first start your car, try rowing through the gears a couple of times before you take off. This helped reduce my 2nd gear grind a lot in colder weather. I find I have no issues when ambient temps are 20C+.

I'm also running Motul 300 and don't plan to switch to anything else.

It seems to be pretty common that the 1-2 shift has some issues for people. I still find it to be the most difficult shift to be "smooth" without a clunk... Usually because I'm letting the clutch out too fast.

I've been running motul 300 for a while now and I had issues with 1st and second for a while, until I learned that when its cold (my area isn't even close to as cold as canada) but still I noticed some resistance. What I do now is I just rev match the shifts, give a little blip and as the revs fall put in gear and it goes right in with no problem. Once its warmed up for me, I don't notice any resistance for any of the gears. However Im in California so cold here is like 60F lol. I imagine it would be more of an issue the colder it gets.

basically what wolffbite said, before you take off, go back and forth between first and second gear a few times. That seems to help. Also it's very rpm dependent, you just have to find that sweet spot.

To avoid 2nd gear grinds I usually need to just shift faster. Like, clutching in and shifting at pretty much the same time. Works smooth for me that way. If I pause before shifting it will act lumpy.

It also helps not to short-shift into second when things are cold. It's tempting to do so when the engine is cold, but if you hang on to first gear a little longer to get the rpms a tad higher, it seems to help with the crunch.

I've had my car for 6 years and I've never had the transmission shift smoothly into 2nd when the car is cold. I figure it's normal.