help diagnosing grinding/sticky tranny - 6mt
 

Alright gentlemen, please bare with me here: it's going to be verbose, as I will try to provide as much relevant info as I can. I am aware of the stickied thread and have read a good deal of it, as well as advanced searched this topic, but at the end of the day it's always better to hear direct feedback from your peers, hence the new thread.


06 GT; 6MT; 91k miles.


My immediate symptoms/concern is an increasingly prevalent grinding of gears, usually downshifting into 3rd. My last mile or two of my journey home today has me in a nervous breakdown, my gearbox feels VERY sticky, it feels like the shift fork wont move into any gear without much force, whether the clutch is depressed or not, and trying to engage gears feels like im going to completely seize whatever is left of the tranny. I haven't had much time to fully diagnose this alarming new symptom; i'm terrified to drive it any further with how sticky and heavy it feels...


More backstory; I purchased the car @88k miles. The first two hundred or so everything seemed as if it was in good to great condition, and any minor niggles with the clutch/tranny i simply associated with learning the feel of the car. However, it always felt a little harsh shifting between the first 4 gears specifically, even loud thumping sounds between 1-2 and 2-3, as well as a sound from the tranny in specific gears, namely 2, 3, and 5, and even in neutral, what i can only liken to as "tiny metal bits of shrapnel spinning or grinding around inside the tranny", with varying levels of severity depending on the gear, or whether the clutch is engaged and under load or not.....


Since about 89k miles, the frequency of grinding/slipping has increased. @89.5k i had the tranny flushed with OEM fluid @dealer. It seemed to make a slightly noticable improvement for a short lived 100-200 miles, but has since gone further and further downhill to the point where i am at today....


For the last 500 or so miles, third gear will grind nearly EVERY time coming from 4th, sometimes coming from 2nd, even with proper speed entry, babying it into gear. And now, today, just as im coming home, my entire gearbox feels as if it's coming undone, as if there is a gallon of molasses in there instead of oil... i fear that most, if not all syncro rings are shot, especially the leading and trailing ones for 3rd - 4th... but this recent heavy/sticky feeling is obviously something more severe or sinister... possibly related to clutch, which i would actually prefer over an internal transmission problem.... for obvious fiscal reasons...






I will be taking the car in for diagnosis soon, but it would be very much appreciated to hear thoughts and opinions from some fellow enthusiasts with experience and know-how with these transmissions....


I am fallen under some hard financial times lately and a blown tranny would be disastrous for me right now... any help and constructive insight would again be greatly appreciated...


Thanks guys.... i will try to add more details as my mind starts to clear up... right now i'm seriously in a panicked state... i love this car and to have this happen so soon and under my meticulous care is so disappointing...




I have driven only manuals since i got my license over a decade ago, i am familiar with better shifting practices and have never experienced issues like these so severe. So please don't tell me i need to shift differently.. i have seen this in several of the threads i searched up and honestly it's insulting when people are having real issues to suggest it's purely driver error... anyways... that's all i can think of for now. Please help. Very, very sad panda tonight... :(

I think you've already nailed it ... synchros are shot.
That's expensive unless you can do the transmission rebuild yourself.


Keep us posted.

Just an update; the next day I decided to try to drive it again fearing the worst; the car is still totally drivable, but the 3rd gear grinding persists.

As for the ultra sticky/heavy/broken feel of the gearbox, it seems this is a temporary or isolated state. I'm not sure the cause or how it gets to being that way, but it seems that gently coaxing it around the backroads at slow speeds will eventually "break it free" from whatever piss-poor state it's in and the tranny returns to a somewhat normal, operable condition.

Having said all that, I think the grinding issues and the overall lack of smooth transitions from one shift link to the other is certainly related, if not directly then in some considerable part, to this sticky/dead/broken engagement phenomenon.

Anyone with more technical expertise on transmissions/clutches that can chime in or verify my findings would again be very helpful, but I'm glad that my car/transmission is, for the time being, still drivable.

One other question; I've heard of "top filling" a transmission from in the car, essentially removing the shift boot and shift linkage in order to i guess, overfill, the tranny in cases where it seems it's on the way out either because of shitty syncros or gear teeth/etc.

My inclination is to say overfilling is a bad idea, but not in the sense that overfilling or flooding an engine would be, I mean, nothing is combusting or relying on an air/fuel ratio within a transmission, it just needs fluid in there to keep everything lubricated, right?

I'm tempted to try this method to see if it relieves my symptoms, but not if it could cause catastrophic results to the tranny.

Any input on this would also be appreciated :)

Overfilling the transmission is only going to cause viscous drag from the gear teeth being covered by excess oil. That's going to worsen the situation, not improve it. You could try double-clutchiglng during shifting, but at this point you're probably on borrowed time no matter what you do.

It probably won't help nor hurt. If you REALLY overfill it then it can cause problems with seals as the gear oil heats and expands creating pressure on seals.

I must say that I agree.

Gave it the once over, had it for about 5 weeks now, done bits and bobs already. She wasn't idling happily and found one of my spark plugs and coils need changing. One thing I'd like to know is how easy is it to change the primary and secondary fuel injectors?
Cheers,
Will

If i can't put it in gear especially first and reverse or sometimes can't get it out of reverse - dead clutch ?