Hey guys, I recently bought a Dec '03 VR and am noticing that usually above 3-4000 RPM, shifting up into 2nd gear is a bit sticky. When in neutral, the gears shift perfectly and slot in nicely, but at higher revs it seems to almost grind or get stuck as it moves into 2nd unless i give it a bit more force.

The best way I can describe it is that it is not like the horrible crunching sound you get from crunching the gears but more like the feel of trying to upshift near redline where understandbly, you need to punch the gear in a little harder. I just don't understand why it occurs at such low revs in 2nd gear, and doesn't occur in any other gears.

It should be noted that I am not by any means an experienced manual driver and this being my first manual car, am not sure if this is an Rx-8 specific issue or something related more to my driving technique. I suspect however that my driving is not to blame since the ride is generally smooth, I don't burn the clutch excessively and i try and shift at around 3-4k RPM to avoid burning fuel.

Any ideas?

 

how many miles on the car???

the first idea would be to switch to a syn tran oil. makes a huge difference...

also some issuse with the first to second shift can be found. tsb. go to rossenthal mazda in the forum section... get to their website... read tsbs.

shifter fork if i recall correct


beers

 

It's more than likely the car mogley. A number of people have whinged about this.

Some have tried different oil with mixed results - some say it makes a big difference, like our friend above, others say it makes next to no difference.

Personally, I haven't had a problem with it. It's a little bit notchy but if you want a limp wristed girl's manual, buy a Yaris. j/k

Welcome to the forum BTW.

 

Yeah, every second RX-8 is like this. Synthetic gearbox oil made no difference to my car. Still notchy first into second.....at any revs.

 

gomez,

did the RP Short Shifter help the "notchyness"?

 

We should test that don't we Mez???? We should see what people mean notchy?

 

It made the shifts more precise........but it didn't solve the problem completely. I discovered at Wakefield that I have a problem with high RPM (above 8k) shifts from third into fourth too.

Neither of these issues bother me.....it's an idiosyncratic problem I can live with.

 

That is when the oil is not doing is job and gets too hot.

I had that recently at the Winny and change the oil which look like black ink. Got change and went again a month later. Yes it was raining and much cooler but the notchiness is not there anymore.

 

It would grind when I went for fourth halfway down the straight. If I shifted 500rpm earlier, I had no hassles. I have the RedLine in there as you know.....I'm not so sure it is the oil. It's had only done 10K.

 

You still "Redlining" (ie Oil Brand) Mr Stig?

 

Redline Mt90?

 

^^^^that's what I have in there.....

 

Yes the same MT90. Change it frequently I guess. Once every 3 track days.