Anyone still have gear grinding issues?
 

So I bought this car at the beginning of 2014. I love the car, however since I got it, 2nd gear and 5th gear grinds like crazy. 2nd gear just seems like it's crunchy no matter if I let it warm up or not. It mostly doesn't grind but just seems hesitant to get into 2nd, and would almost 99% of the time make a crunchy noise. 5th gear is usually a hit or miss, I would have days with it being perfect and days where it would grind more than once in a trip. At the end of 2014 I brought the car back to the dealer where I bought it and they tested it out and says "normal, nothing out of the ordinary," so I thought maybe I'm not driving the car right. I swapped out the tranny fluid to Motul, but the problem STILL persists. This transmission is bugging the crap out of me at the moment to the point where I want to trade cars. I don't know if I should take it in to another dealer and complain more, or call SoA or just last resort trade it in and buy a WRX. Could anyone give me some valuable advice?

Much appreciated!

Never

hesitant to get into 2nd when cold started until gearbox warms up slightly - common for all. No problems soon after, and it just takes a bit more effort to get into 2nd, not accompanied by any extra mechanical noise.
As for rest, never experienced such. Grind at 2nd & 5th .. maybe synchros issues? Maybe clutch not disengaged fully when switching gears?

Exactly how it is for me. Hasn't grinded for me at all.

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I gotta admit, this transmission is pretty hard to drive with.

A friend with a 2015 FRS has this issue. We both are ready to replace the clutch as we both feel the factory clutch is at fault. I personally don't have anything nice to say about the toilet paper clutch that I removed when I upgraded to a turbo and a heavy duty clutch installed. Even at 10k miles I had massive dust everywhere with light driving.

Imho for stock NA power stock clutch is adequate. And did i say 'maybe clutch gone bad'? Just that maybe it's not fully disengaged for whatever reason, try yourself switching gears with not pressing clutch all the way (which can often happen for ones driven manual less) with loud mechanical grind noise as result :)

Goshem! Go and get your transmission replaced under warranty.

Had that same 5th gear crunch almost every time i shifted - with the clutch fully flat on the floor. It hurt my soul every time i shifted..

Took it to the dealers, less than 5 minutes and they said the tranny needed swapped.. Car had 14,000 miles. Its a factory known malfunction in the tranny and MANY of us have had to go in and get a tranny swap. Good thing is its FREE and you get a free rental for a week that you can take to your local auto x event..

Edit: Just read that you already took it to the dealers.... Sounds like a shady group or they don't know what they are doing if they wont replace it.. Try a different dealership..

I understand there are legit transmission issues out there. but because our shifter mechanism is all levers(is that the right word?) and not cables, you get to feel everything going on in the transmission, the syncros speeding up or slowing down etc. I actually really like that. I've always wondered if people were mistaking that for the crunch though. 2014 here and i quite like my transmission to the point where i'm downshifting and rev matching, and heel toe'ing, during my daily commute haha.

This is all I got.

I would suggest that when shifting, wind up the last gear pretty tight (>4,000 rpms) before shifting into the next higher gear.

Also, when shifting from 1st to 2nd, pull the shift lever slowly and firmly into 2nd gear ....... same for 4-5 (except push it .....;)).

It's not a toggle switch ..... the lever is moving heavy transmission parts.

I suggest you not "lazy leg" it and push the clutch pedal all the way to the floor.

If these techniques don't help, you may consider bleeding the clutch system and/or adjusting the clutch.


humfrz

humfrz: yes, rev matching will often help and reduce load on gearbox/synchros .. but imho no grinding should be heard even without rev matching on properly working clutch and gearbox. Not always it's driver fault, sometimes really there can be mechanical issue :)

That's true ...... however, eliminating pilot error is an easy and economical thing to try ..... ;)

Yep, driving a MT car when gear changing is a "grind" is no fun.....:thumbdown:

Y, I remember, back in the day, when a transmission had a bad 2nd gear synchronizer, we would gently nudge the shift lever up towards 2nd till the grinding subsided, then push it into gear ...... :popcorn:


It MUST be my nap time ......


humfrz

Why did you wait so long to do something?
Why did you wait so long after taking it to the dealer to finally post this and ask for advice?
Is this your first manual transmission car?
Take it to another dealer.
Buy an automatic.

DANG, @swarb ....... are you off your meds ..... again .... ?? ..... :eyebulge:


humfrz