Second gear clunk/difficult engagement
 

I have a 2017 Subaru BRZ. I bought the car a few months ago and right out of the blue. It has developed a clunk and difficulty engaged in second gear. It more or less goes away when the engine/transmission fluid is warm but not entirely.

In this video, the car was partially warmed and so was able to go into second quite a bit easier but even then you can see how much more difficult it is than third or fourth. The car has never grind second gear and is always fine downshifting the second it’s just the 1st to 2nd engagement that does that. Any help would be appreciated.

https://youtube.com/shorts/G8tmG65-e...59FFovCpy0DR8l

Normal stuff on these. Switch trans fluids, there are a lot of good options and preferences. I prefer Redline Mt-90. Available at most box parts stores.

Second gear in these cars is, by design tradeoff, clunkier than the rest. If you enable the GSI in the cluster settings then you should be able to shift into it smoothly when the GSI tells you to; or, if the engine is warmed up but the transmission isn't there yet, when you're accelerating towards redline in first at 6.5-7k. Once the transmission is fully warmed up, it'll be more forgiving, but ultimately second gear is definitely representative of the 'two kinds of engine in one' design choices that went into the car: Either you follow the gear shift indicator (GSI) from 1st to 2nd to maximize fuel efficiency below the torque dip; or, you shift late in the curve near redline so that you end up in 2nd [i]above[i] the torque dip.

It’s because the syncro’s in these transmissions are finicky, and possibly made of aluminum foil from the dollar store.


Oh, and the detents like to pop out of you are hard on the shifter and you end up with a “why is this little steel ball attached to my magnetic drain plug” moment.

Oh, and they will occasionally kick the circlip off 4th gear.

I love everything about these cars except the engine and transmission.