can a MT go through before it's gears are toast?
I've been noticing it's harder to shift into 2nd and 3rd when the car's still cold and I've missed maybe 3 or 4 shifts so far resulting in a gear grind. I'm wondering how safe I am before I should get it checked/repaired? thanks

 

Missing 3 or 4 shifts should not hurt the transmission enough that you would ever realize it so I really wouldn't sweat. I let my father drive my 8 and he must have grinded gears at least 3 to 4 times and I am telling you these grinds were long and hard. I felt very bad for letting him drive it but anyway my car is absolutely fine.

Are you sure it's becoming harder to shift when the car is cold . . . it has been my experience that all manuals tend to be harder to shift when they are cold and my RX8 is no exception.


One way I have noticed on my past manual's if the gear has a problem is when I shift quickly and get a grinding noise for basically no reason. Back in the day when I had a 91 MR2 Turbo I eventually had most of he gears replaced because of this but the car had about 60,000 miles at the time and I beat the heck out of that car.

 

I haven't grinded any (forward) gears, but I have missed the reverse a few times because it seems to have to go through more than the forwards in order to take hold.... so two reverse grinds so far. They don't sound good at all. I have also missed 5th twice, going into third instead. but the clutch wasn't fully released, so the rpms didn't go all the way up before I caught that I missed the gear.

 

no gear grinds here so far 4800 miles. however just like jason I have missed 5th and gone to 3rd and boy did it whine. but no harm done.

 

I decided to try out some engine braking on a 6% grade, meaning to downshift from 6 to 4. I , well you guessed it already, I found 2 instead. That was some whine. Did I mention that that's how you get the engine to go past 9k? No harm, no foul (I think). But that's not what I had in mind when I said I'd try some "engine breaking".

No tranny problems yet at 6 k. Always slips into gear nicely.

 

No grinds at all in my first 1200 miles. Just make sure you floor the clutch on every shift. You should'nt be grinding as long as you aren't mis-timing the shifter movement with the clutch release

 

hmmm yea I think it might be me mistiming the 2nd to 3rd gear shifts
especially when cold = hard shifts and 2nd -> 3rd is longer throw than 1st to 2nd so if I held the clutch down the same time when shifting 2nd to 3rd as I do when 1st to 2nd I guess I would grind it...
thanks for the reassurance, I was thinking I'm wrecking my 8 with those grinds guess I should really baby it when it's cold then

 

I agree with BasenjiGuy, make sure you adjust your seat close enough so that you can floor the clutch pedal firmly. A lot of people tend to adjust their seats according to the gas pedal, but this doesn't seem to work with the RX-8 because the gas pedal is a little bit forward compared to the clutch.

 

I've probably had 3 - all of them while thinking I'd put the car in reverse