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

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.

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.

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.

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.

From the sounds of it you guys seem to be experiencing some syncro issues. Maybe an expert can chime in here. Good luck guys.

This car is my 4th car with manual transmission and I felt the same way on the other cars too, so I'm just thinking this is normal.

Hopefully, we get this fixed someday. I'm not getting this fixed just yet because I hear that the noise comes back in less than 1000 miles after the fix.

I'm not sure what kind of noise you're hearing, but I pretty much listed down all the noise coming from the rear.
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13451

If you're talking about the clutch noise, then I noticed it too. It seems like it's normal noise for this type of clutch.
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8112
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8344

I believe my 2nd gear got a little bit smoother after 3k to 4k miles. But it never is as smooth as 3rd, 4th, and etc. I'd say it's not something you should be worried about.

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.

What annoys me is that it won't go into 2nd smoothly even if I rev-match downshifts perfectly.

How much of a reaistance does it give. Its normal to have a little and is it ever smooth

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.