At this point I am really considering dropping 1.6k for the tranny to be taken apart and inspected. Under driving regular and spirited driving conditions I experience the shift knob going halfway into 3rd gear then staying there. I can't force it in and if I ease of the clutch it starts grinding and pops into neutral. This only happens once every couple days, but today it seriously scared the **** out of me as I almost ran off the road. I took the car to Bell Mitsubishi and had the owner of TSE take me for a ride and he played around a little on Route 1. Before him, a district person from Bell was there took the car out for a spin and said it was fine. Unfortunately, the car is under warranty with the parts I have put in, but they need to replicate the issue in order to take a look at the tranny for free. I installed the works short shifter thinking it was my clutch play possibly from the longer throw but no dice. Mike suggested it was my technique, but I have no difficulty with any other gear going in and this once again only happens randomly into 3rd like once every couple days. The issue has been happening for a couple months now. When this happens I feel the lockout, pop it into neutral then it going back into 3rd fine. I also let the car warm up over 5 minutes every morning.

At this point, I don't really know what to do. I'm very unmotivated to even get into the car because in the back of my mind I am wondering when it will happen again. This morning I nearly killed myself from the panic and that's when I took it straight to Bell. I'm seriously considering paying for them to take a look at the tranny or selling the car altogether. I am not enjoying it.

Please please. Anything suggestions will help at this point. Mike also ruled out a bad clutch because he mentioned it grabs like new. I don't really know what to do .
I shift into third under regular driving conditions at about 28+ mph and 3500rpm. If the syncro was bad, wouldn't I experience this every time. Throwout bearing or shift linkages? But once again, only 3rd gear and random. Maybe the ecu needs to get reflashed. I really don't know :/

-sad steve

 

...

 

shift higher....4K+

 

+1

 

I had mine lock out on me accelerating on a on ramp getting onto the free way with my g/f and her 3 year old in the back seat... It has nothing to do with my style of driving, something was preventing me from shifting and could have caused a major incident had I not pulled over and got back into gear. I swear it's syncro related, the garbage Mitsubishi is using for transmission parts are as cheap as the bumper moldings they call the aero kit.

 

Your seat is too far back and the clutch isn't going in all the way

 

it's user error. you're probably not pushing the clutch to the floor before putting it into gear, i have the same issue every once awhile. I think I have the clutch to the floor when it actually needs to go another 1/2 inch further down. If you don't get it right the collar doesn't lock into the gear before it starts turning and pushes it out.

if it were a mechanical problem i think you'd see it consistently all the time.

 

trust me when I say that I have put 55 miles on it locally to check my shifting, slowed everything down and it still happens. That is why I am considering paying for the tranny drop. But before that happens.... I am taking it to a local shop because he said he'd check out my shift forks and cable.

Why would shifting at a higher RPM have anything to do with it? 3500 is more than enough to engage the gear. The worst that could happen is a lurch or a buck or whatever and not a lockout.

 

the transmission is mechanical entirely, there for the "random" failure with a same symptom is impossible. It works or doesn't, under the same conditions.
Either i dont really understand your problem, or you dont discribe it clearly.

Based on your explanation, the transmission is fine now. But too much grinding will not help for sure in this case.
Take out the clutch pill , tha maybe will ease your problem. Other wise try to do a proper shifting with the proper H pattern.

Rob

 

it feels like the same lockout people get when they go into reverse with this car.
maybe it has to deal with unbinding all the gears in the morning for this fix, maybe not. it was recommended to me to try.
either way i am trying this method for a week, but it's not normal to unbind everyday. I don't care what people say.
idk if unbinding has to do with the tranny as I am no techy expert, maybe it is the cable or fork from some of the shops I called.
My shifting and clutch is fine, it never grinds just the random lockout in 3rd. Never ever ever experienced this when I first got the car and was learning it.
It just randomly started happening one day.


I totally agree with it may not even be the transmission since it is random, as I am not expert but maybe a cable that is going bad or a fork that can cause this randomness. We will see once I take the next steps.

that's as best as I can explain it, thanks

 

So after much spirited driving today.... doing 120mph going through the pattern as fast as I can, I can safely say it isn't my technique. No grinding everything was smooth. On my way home I experienced the lockout as I was making my way to 50mph. Tuesday morning I am taking it to a local shop to get the forks and cable inspected as the guy said hes heard of random gear lockouts and knows what to look for. It's 75$ but better spending it locally than making a 20 miles trip to and from mitsu everyday. If he doesn't come up with anything I will change my tranny fluid to amsoil to make sure the gears are getting lubricated properly. It sucks I can't even blip down to 3rd without a possibility of grinding and a popout when downshifting

 

^changing to amsoil will make it either just as notchy if not more than stock.

i know. i just switched to it.

i used ix oem fluid and it was awesome (i just don't know how safe it is for the tranny). it shifted so smoothly when cold but under higher rpms it was notchy. i'd rather have to wait for fluid to warm up while being notchy than experiencing that while putting the trans under stress.

my point: don't expect some vast improvement in overall feel with amsoil. i'm not knocking amsoil, just giving a heads up.

 

I had the same experience - changing fluid didn't make any real difference. I have a similar problem to the OP (not as severe), but with 2nd instead of 3rd. When it happens I can feel the resistance to going into gear, but usually if I wait 1-2 seconds it will slip into gear. Also not repeatable, but primarily happens when cold and shifting below 4K rpms. I haven't had time to investigate further recently. I think I have done all of the "fixes" except motor mounts at this point. Will be very interested to see what you find out...please keep us posted.

 

JIMGVT a lot of us experiencing this notchyness/difficulty engaging the first 3 gears on cold start ups. I am too, but I learned to live with it and when the car warms up it is fine. Try a counter-weight knob. I got mine from blox and it helps a lot. But then I threw in the SS to help alleviate my problem of lockout, but no dice after thinking it was me. On my first oil change before the lockout and mentioning this to the dealership.... they said it was common the first couple minutes of starting the car up and just cycle the gate. I can deal with that, but not cycling the gate to get rid of that lockout. It shouldn't lockout and I can't force it into the gear either. After I get this headache fixed, I am going to put in my underhood bushings and let you know if that helped with the notchyness that a lot of us are experiencing.

I shift low gears in the cold at 4k rpms and lets say the school crossing guards, and cops, aren't that happy when the Ti-C is blasting tones Once it warms up, exhaust quiets down nicely though!

 

steve - i just thought of this but you might want to have a tech check your clutch pedal.... maybe the engagement point is too low/high and it needs to be adjusted so the engagement point is at the proper specification.

just a thought, sorry to hear about your issue, it must be driving you nuts!