When I shift from 2nd to 3rd, I feel like the tranny isnt sliding is smooth. If I am accelerating from 1st, then to 2nd, then to 3rd, it feels like even with the clutch all the way in, I am sorta grinding gears, but not. I dont hear anything and the shifter doesnt vibrate like I grinded a gear, but I kinda feel like when I shift to 3rd, I can feel some movement through the shifter as it goes into the third... Its kind of hard to explain. I guess my shifts from every other gear are like butter, but 3rd is a little tough in the sense that it goes in, but just not quite as smooth as the rest. Make sense? Is this normal?

It's a pretty common problem among the RX-8s. Althought people might have different experiences with different gears, but mainly the lower ones. It has been discussed quite a fare bits as well, you might wanna do a search....

any good suggestions as to the key words to search on...doing a search on transmission yieled a bizzllion threads...

I did some searching and found the threads. I only have about 700 miles on my 8. I am going to check tomorrow and see if it happens again. I have been gentle on my car so far, but I almost missed 2nd tonight hittin redline in 1st (just gave my buddy a taste of the rotary engine sound). The 3rd gear problem happens at lower rpms. I dont wanna flog my engine tomorrow, but I am going to do at least 1 trial at 1st gear redline to see if it happens..if so , im takin it back to the dealer ASAP for service...

it's not really a problem (although it could be, see if you can drive another 8 and compare). Our shifter sits directly in the top of the tranny, so there's no linkage to absorb alot of the forces. when compare to other transmission, especially FWD trannies it feels quite different.

be sure you're not pulling any to the left when you shift from 1st to 2nd. I will be taking my car in sometime this week/end to have it checked out as it is having issues with the shift and also sounds like i have an exhause leak.

Planning on taking a dealership car out for a spin to compare.

I dont think I am pulling to the left from 1st to 2nd...but can you possibly explain the 3rd gear issue? I am thinking bad synchros?

Worm, I have discovered a similar exhaust leak, sound like the middle of the car on the passenger side. Going from 1st to 2nd and pulling the shifter a little to the left semms to give me some vibration. Also something really strange happened the other day. Was booting the car a fair bit (pretty agressive actually) on the highway then got off. Started to accelerate in 1st then 2nd and I floored it and the car hit 6500 rpm and then engine light flickered a bit and the car just bogged righ down. Thinking I did some damage, I let the car rest for 1 hour and then beat it up again but the same problem didn't happen again. Car still moves nicely but I noticed an exhaust leak sound.

Can you please post what the dealer said abouyourissus. Greatly appreciate it.

are you sure you werent seeing the DSC light? the CEL doesnt flash.

yea i think he meant the dsc light. If i baried the petal in acceleration on a not so great road..it will get some wheel hop and seem to bog a lill and the dsc flashes (due to the fact that the wheels are lossing traction with a quickness). But i've never heard of the cel flashing. it only comes on..it has to be reset to get ride of it (i.e. at the dealership or disconecting your battery for a certain length of time 10 sec?)

just my 2cents

sorry to bring back a seemingly dead thread but I've been experiencing djseto's problems on second gear. When i go from 1st to 2nd is sometimes feels like the shifter hits or gets stuck on something and then goes in. This is with the clutch all the way down and only when going from 1st to 2nd gear. I'm not sure if I pull alot to the left when going into second gear like w0rm said but next time i drive i'll try going into 2nd with pushing to the left much. Keep in mind that my 8 is brand new (less than 200 miles) and I don't drive it harshly at all. thanks for any suggestions

Just to make ya'll feel better, I'm having the 2nd to 3rd issue too. I'm going to watch it more closely tomorrow and test at different RPMs, but it was not feeling smooth at all today.