Does anyone else have a rough shift to 2nd?
 

This only happens when the car is still warming up, however when trying to shift to 2nd I hear a loud grinding sound, and it seems as though it doesn't belong there. Does anyone else have this problem? if it is a problem at all? Thanks guys

hmmm...defintely do have that..is like a whirring sound or grinding?

anyways, when my car is cold, is just a loud clunk...thats about it...

I do not have that issue.
My 1st to 2nd shifts are fine when cold or warm.


I will from time to time hear the “clunking” sound only when I go from neutral to 1st at a full stop.
There is no rhyme or reason to it either, sometime I hear it and sometimes nothing....

Yes, I have that as well. I imagine that a lot of cars in general have a rough shift into second because thats always the gear that gets jammed into when you're trying to go fast.

Maybe you're "Granny shiftin, not double-cluthing like you should."

My 2004 8 has been doing that since I got it 2 1/2 years ago, but it does it 2nd to 3rd randomly shifting anywhere from 3-9k RPMs. I took it to the dealership, and they said the transmission had been rebuilt the previous November, so it wasn't synchros and recommended a clutch replacement. I actually replaced the clutch, flywheel, brake lines and clutch line, and guess what my car sounds like 1-2 and 2-3 still..?

At this point, I've just kind of resolved to live with it and jam it in gear as hard as possible when it starts doing that in hopes that I'll tear the transmission apart from the inside out so teh warranty has no choice but to replace everything. LOL

I've got a whirring type noise in 2nd 4th and 6th...not a grinding. Anyone know what that is? It is a rough shift to 2nd sometimes though.

I used to get it sometimes, but I think it was more of an improper shift issue...

If I tried to absolutly ram from first to second as hard and fast as I could, the shift would get caught up in the middle, right after first disengaged and before second engaged, and after I pushed it into second, it would give me the grind and act like it didnt want to go in. I would usually have to take it out of second, back to neutral, then back in to second.

Moving my seat closer to the pedals so that I could be sure the clutch was completely disengaged helped, so did slightly slowing down my shift. I am not talking about slowing down to the point of beign detrimental to acceleration, just following the flow of the gearbox and not forcing it to doing somethign it doesnt want to. Besides, our cars are not straight line accelerators anyways...

Both of these adjustments corrected the issue, and I have not had an issue since :)

if your problem is only before the car has warmed up, then it doesn't really seem like a problem. it just seems like you need to take it easy on it and fully warm it up. this is good for your engine. gears should never grind. start the car and let the engine warm up until you hear the fan kick on. take it easy for a couple minutes, keeping the revs in the lower range and taking your time with shifts. this is just part of loving your 8. then, try driving harder. if the shifting doesn't feel any smoother after this, then you may have a problem.......or you just can't drive stick. :rock:

no problems here. clean and smooth shifts. 04 MT wit 33k.

Change your tranny fluid!!!!! use either Royal Purple 75w-90 or Redline MT-90...

it's probably the synchros taking a little time to line up the trans gear. 2nd and 3rd are a little notchy for me too, so I take it slow. Try not to force it too much in normal shifting.

Yea, it's a little tough to shift from 1st to 2nd when the car is not warmed up, but after a 5 minutes or so, the gearbox is buttery smooth.
This is with stock shifter with stock transmission fluid.

mine does the same randomly... i took it to the dealership (still under warrentee) they said its normal. they also chcked everything to make sure and everything was perfec including my clutch.

Just shove it in place and get over.


I think I get the similiar issue. It might just be from redlining first and moving into second lol

royal purple is maybe a bad idea:eyetwitch

I too have issues with 1st to 2nd shift, hot or cold. It's a grainy feel more than anything else compared to other gear shfts. Also, every so often there is a slight reluctance going into 1st on a dead stop. I will be taking it in to get it checked out. Given the low mileage, about 16k I don't think this should be happening.

I have a similar issue (2006 with 17K). When the car is cold I sometimes hear a clunking sound going from 1st into 2nd which could be avoided by making slower and "more deliberate" shifts. 2nd to 3rd and above is always buttery smooth.

Sometimes, when cold, shifting into 1st causes a thumping sound just like what you get with automatic transmissions if the car is standing on an incline or engine mounts are bad.

So far I have been attributing these things to the manual transmission design imperfections. The car has been doing this since I bought it new in 2006.

Use to have a rough shift into second when the tranny was cold.

Now I'm running synthetic trans fluid and the rough shifts are gone.

I actually like the clunking noise :) I have it, usually when cold or just at random from 1st to 2nd. I get it a couple times going into 3rd, but it's rare. I'm used to it though and know it's not a problem, so I don't deal with it. If you want a real clunky sound, go into a corvette.

have you tried giving it just a little roll right before shifting into first from a dead stop?

I had issues with cold shifts, 2nd being the worst, when fully warm it was fine. I swapped to REDLINE MT90 as most people advise on here and the problem is gone:), seems to me they put cheap gear oil in the tranny.

Dave

I am not sure I understand. Please explain.

i have grinding in my second gear. the weird thing is that u all say it happens when its cold and warming up. with mine when it is cold it shifts fine no problem. but as soon as i drive it for 20 min i cant shift into second gear above 4,000 rpm cuz 2nd grinds and wont go in. even if i push on it, it still wont. all my other gears go in rear smooth. but 2nd does want to work. its been like this for about 7 months. its an '05 and had about 32k miles when it started now has 36k. idk wut to do about it. can anyone suggest anything? please and thank you

I had rough shift into second. Then I took it in to the dealer. "Oh it's normal nothing we can do." After 2 years of the same and it getting worse it took it to a different dealer. We can't diagnose it unless it gets worse.

Anywho, it got worse and second started to grind here and there. Then averywhere. So last fall (2008) Second gear and syncros were replaced under warranty. 5k miles later exact same thing and Mazda doesn't want to fix it. On Monday I'm calling MNAO. No reason for this at all.

I have to add. Less than a week after they fixed it it started to feel notchy or rough shifting into second again and I took it back to the dealer. Now grinds around 4k-5k rpm, won't grind between 5-7k.

OK so anytime you are at a dead stop it is going to be a bit hard shifting from neutral to first, but if you let off the brake just before you're ready to take off and roll just a bit forward while you shift into first from neutral it goes in gear smooth as a gravy sandwich. take it easy and slow.