I honestly have no idea where I put the papers for it, though I'll take a look in the morning.

 

did a quick scan thru the posts.
if your having grinding issues and your only pushing the clutch partially in that pisses me off a little.
you should be pushing your clutch to the floor and only then start moving the shifter place it in the next gear and then release the clutch.
even when i'm on the race track i put my clutch to the floor every shift it dosnt take that much longer and is that much better on your tranny.
learn how to shift correctly before you learn to shift quickly.

 

i have been driving with half-clutch (when RPM matches) on my previous car (99 passat) for 5 years and everything seems fine, never had a problem. from where i came from, it is pretty normal for long-time stick driver to drive like that...

can you elaborate on why 8 is less forgiving on this kind of driving habit?
i will definitely appreciate if you can explain more (or refer me to some other source) on this. many thanks.

 

From what I've been able to tell, the clutch on the RX-8 engages much more abruptly -- I had the chance to drive my cousin's old Maxima, and the clutch engagement made my RX-8 seem like it had an on/off switch. So the natural variation in your half-clutching, depending on whether you're a little on one side or the other of perfect 50% engagement, will have a much more substantial effect on how hard you have to shove the synchronizer to get it to lock into place than it would on a non-sports-car.

Are you a member on PassatWorld?

 

Okay, here's more info. I took the car for a drive tonight, it's about 35F outside, and at first gears 2&3 felt terrible -- I guess I can't rule out pilot error, but I swear 3rd gear chattered when I engaged it even with the clutch pedal on the floor (or so I think it was, anyway.) But, after I drove on the freeway a bit and then tooled around some back roads, it got a lot better. By the time I wrapped up, about 40 miles later, everything was buttery-smooth.

So what does that suggest? Air in the clutch line, that doesn't compress as easily once it gets hot? Low gear oil? Something else I don't even know about yet?

 

fyrstormer - it sounds like you'll be fine. at 35 degrees, it may take a little for the engine/tranny to warm up, thus making you shifting more difficult. Practice makes perfect, and you're shifting will get better. Skipping gears is fine, and i do it all the time. Nate hit the nail on the head though, learn to shift correctly first. Practice hitting all of the gears before you start skipping.

Shallowater - It's not that the RX8 tranny is super fragile, it's the RPM's invovled that make a full clutch engagement important. I had an S-10 at one point that i could start and shift through all 5 gears without touching the clutch. Yeah i didn't break it, but it wasn't good for it either. A tranny will shift without the clutch if the revs are match properly, but it's risky and will ruin syncros over time. The reason your passat is doing ok is because it's a low and slow revving engine. I consider a granny shift in the 8 pretty close to a redline shift in the passat. The 8 revs too high and too fast to really properly rev match and do no harm to the tranny with no or half clutch engagement.

 

My 1st and 2nd gear feels notchy, 3rd and 4th gears are hard to shift smoothly when I drive my rx-8.

And then 10 minutes later after the car and transmission warms up, it becomes one of the best manual transmission on the road.

 

that is a very interesting point and it makes a lot of sense. i am not sure about one thing though, when you said that 8 revs too high and too fast to really properly rev match, do you mean that if i shift at low RPM, say at 3k, half-clutch will engage properly? in my experience, it is easy to half-clutch in a passat at 3k, but not so in 8 at the same RPM.

 

So if it's a little rough when cold, and that's just the way it is, does that mean there's nothing at all I can do to make it feel better, even if it's something I'll have to adjust seasonally? It bothers me less if it's at least somewhat normal, but it still bothers me.

This notion of the transmission operating differently because of the ambient temperature is new to me. All I've ever owned before is automatics, and they make enough heat that they're up to operating temperature in a couple of minutes. It would be nice if manual transmissions had a heat exchanger that the engine oil cycled through to keep the two of them in-sync with each other.

 

the transmission and engine use different oils.

 

I know they do. What I'm talking about is something akin to an oil cooler, but instead of cooling the engine oil by running coolant past it, it would sit inside the transmission and warm up the gear oil.

EDIT: In other news, I just found out I got 15.8mpg on my last tank of gas. Ouch.

 

if i go 65mph on cruise control i get 27mpg on the highway.

but it kills me to drive like that.

 

Well that's good news, though with my car's shorter final drive ratio, I might be incapable of matching that.

I have no problem driving that way on long trips, because I've already got a bunch of speeding tickets from driving my VW with no cruise control across Central VA a few too many times. I even got a ticket when I was going to visit my mom the night my grandmother died. Cops are ********.

 

Even at that at 3k, you'll probably have trouble with a half clutch in your 8. The tranny wants full engagement every time to be happy, anything less, it's difficult to shift or will just grind. I test drove one before i bought mine that just had a new clutch and a cheap one at that. It had a really light pressure plate, and probably wasn't bled properly and wouldn't go into 2nd without major grinding at anything about 3k, even with a slow shift, or double clutch. I instantly turned around and let them know that it needed fixed if they ever wanted to sell it. So, in your 8, clutch it to the floor all the time and you'll have a happy tranny. I grew up with small blocks and 4-speeds in the garage, so i've always been a "to the floor" guy. Muncie M-22's won't budge without it.

 

Okay, the sensation when I shift into third gear is like a single hard click from the synchro splines as they engage, except of course if it were really grinding then there would be a lot of clicks in quick succession as the spline teeth banged against each other. So the synchro must be doing its job, but why would the spline teeth be banging against each other at all if they don't do it in any of the other gears? Am I actually feeling something different, something that normally produces a single hard click as it engages?

 

the transmission gears were changed along with the diff. the end result is effective gearing that is very similar.

where do you live? you should just let someone test drive it. if you're near md. i can offer you some of my time.

 

So, taller gears with a shorter final drive? I guess they did that to reduce torque on the carbon-fiber driveaxle. Not a bad idea I guess, but it could still use a taller 6th gear.

I live in Ashburn, about 8 miles ESE of Leesburg.

 

I have an 09 RX8 with a little over 1000miles on it. Whenever it's cold it does have hard shift from 1st to 2nd. After it warms up though the shifts are silky smooth. I have had manual transmission vehicles all my life and never had an issue. Now im just a little more careful until it warms up sometimes skipping from 1st to 3rd to avoid the grind. I feel like if you force it into 2nd your going to f'up the transmission over time.

 

So why is it harder to shift when it's cold? I would've thought the parts would all shrink by the same amount so they would all still mesh properly even when they're cold.

 

I'm guessing that the transmission oil is more viscous at lower temps. Parts shrinkage should NOT affect the shifting.

I too am experiencing some grinding when moving the lever into 6th (clutch pedal on the floor), but then I tend to skip 5th and often 4th... and occasionally 3rd... so I am going to try driving a little more carefully before blaming the transmission.

p.s. First post!