Welp my car has almost 4K on it now and since day one it has never shifted smoothly into second. All the other gears have been fine.

I asked about it when I first got my car and everyone's suggestion was to let the trans break in a couple thousand miles and it will get better

So yah....breaking in definitely not the issue here. This is after the trans is warm too. Shifting from 1st to 2nd it feels like the shift lever is catching on something and almost feels like I need to force it in....usually I have to clutch out and then put it into 2nd, which is obviously annoying. I have found myself often going from 1st to 3rd just to not have to deal with it.

Now to the point. I am wondering if this is simply a clutch pedal adjustment issue?? Or is the adjustment only a solution if it is hard to get into all the gears?? Because every single other gear is fine. I have never launched the car...never abused the tranny....never even shifted hard for that matter. And it's not a matter of me not pushing the clutch down all the way either...I am 5'10" and my foot goes all the way to the floor when I step on the clutch. The car did have 11 miles on the car when I got it....so who knows what happened for those first 6 miles or so....coulda been some newb *** person test driving...or coulda been the dealership monkeys thinking they are Paul Walker who knows....but all I know is that 50% of the time it doesn't go in smooth. Feels like something is trying to stop me from going into 2nd.


Any help appreciated.....if I can't figure it out I'm going to the dealer this weekend to try and get them to figure it out...but I'm scared of that too because they are pretty rough with cars....and I dread the thought of some dirty *** tech trying to duplicate the problem by abusing my car and then causing more issues.


Sorry for the novel...and any help is appreciated....thanks


-Ken

 

I have 19,600 miles on my car right now with a stock clutch thats about to go. I have a '06 MR and the shift isn't too smooth either from first to second. According to a tech at ATX motorsports that is normal. I've launched my car many times, and drive pretty hard. I'm suprised my stock clutch lasted this long. Everything else is holding up well.

 

I don't think that is 'normal' ... get it checked out. You may have shrapnel in your gears. If that's the case, ignoring it will only let it get worse.

 

I asked them the day they did my tranny, tc, and rear diff fluid change. I had it done around 14,000 miles. They reported only dark oil but no shrapnel, the oil was a little dark for the amount of miles i had on the car and that was all.

 

Ok.. if you tried adjusting the clutch.. check out the underhood shifter bushings to see if they are binding/gunked up/etc. Remove, clean and lubricate them and see if that helps. I would replace them with Kartboys or one of the brass bushings vendors here sell. That's one thing you can rule out.

Try and replace the trans fluid and check for metal crap... might be a bigger problem than expected. I assume you are still on stock fluids. Maybe just changing that out might help.

good luck!

 

my car has been doing the same thing for the past week or so, but i have an aftermarket clutch...I'm anxious to find out why as well.

 

JDMevoBoost I still say check your fluids, if it's the same with you as with timmii then I don't know what to tell you. If there is no blaring defect in the gears, oil, linkage or bearings, than it's a total mystery to me. I haven't heard of a shifting issue being common with Evos. But I guess anything is possible.

 

I changed out the fluid in the trans and diff at 3K miles to eliminate that as the issue....problem still there....feels the same

 

It doesn't hurt to try the adjustment on the pedal. I had to raise mine up a few turns. Check your motor mounts too. Most likely if it's only in 2nd gear, then that synchro might be getting ready to take a $hit.

 

at 4000 miles????

 

Replace the front motor mount, it's a cheap and easy mod that dramatically improves the shifter feel and engine bucking.

 

Yeah, you'll be amazed as to how bad our stock motor mounts are. I recently removed my engine torque damper and now it feels not nearly as good as before.

 

I actually have a FORGE front lower mount going in next week...but I was trying to resolve the problem under warranty before the mods went on. Hmmm....maybe I will try the pedal adjustment and see how it goes.

 

Yeah, good luck with that problem. That's been the worst shift on my car, 1st to 2nd and I got around 34k on it. Let us know if the new motor mount works out.

 

Theres really nothing you can do to resolve this issue without modding the car. I put new shifter bushings both under hood and shifter base, still same thing. I can't say it didn't do anything but it certainly didn't fix the 2nd gear clunk. I'll be changing out my motor mounts soon to see if that'll help anything.

The tech I spoke to at the shop said that it's a common thing in the evo tranny and he's worked on them and DSMs for a long time so I don't know. Another solution is sending the tranny to shep or TRE. However, even they might not be able to fully resolve the problem, but you will get a well built tranny!!