I started my car the other day, I have about 2k miles. I could hear the transmission going into gear or neutral as usual then it all of a sudden made a grinding noise. Sounds like when you shift a manual car and you don't use the clutch. After about 2 seconds it went away. I have not been able to reproduce it.

Seems like its okay for now so no trip to the dealer. But i'm just wondering if any of you with an MR has had this happen before.

 

Just the normal "going into gear" sound when I start the car but nothing grinding, maybe something in the tranny got stuck or something wasn't fully engaged, but you might want to have the dealer look at it cause it may happen again in the future and you need to start a paperwork trail for your tranmission, so you can have a leg to stand on later if the dealership tries to argue with you.

When you started the car, what was the outside temp? Hot or cold? I wonder if the outside temp could have contributed to the grinding. I live in Dallas and winter is just around the corner and I'm worried about how the cold weather might affect the transmission. Jerky shifting, funny noises, etc...

 

What he said - take it to the dealer. Even if nothing is fixed, the documentation is there to show you had brought it up if it happens more frequently down the road.

 

Thanks for the great advice guys. Sounds like that would be the only way to cover my self.

 

trade it in for a 2009

 

I've had the same problem before as well...

quite a loud "clunk" almost a mashing noise i was concerned took it into the dealer got paperwork for it.

 

I know this thread is old. Just an update for everyone.

The problem got worse and worse and it started happening more frequently.

I was able to narrow it down to any starting of the car after it has been sitting aprox 5 hours or more. But still it only did it sometimes, but the gear engagement was always really loud after the car has been sitting.

Dropped the car at the dealer and left it there for a couple days till they can hear the sound for them self. They still had no clue what was wrong.
They gave me a rental car and then got me a new transmission. They finished in about a week.

Now with a new transmission there is no issue with grinding on cold starts at all. It used to jerk forward a bit when I started the car, even if it didn't grind, now it doesn't do it at all. Also low speed, low rpm, low gear (1-2 shifts) are a lot smoother.

 

how many miles did the car had?
was it stock when this started happening?
glad you fixed it.
thanks

 

The car had 21000 miles when they finally fixed it.
The first time it happened was within the first month of when I bought the car. It gradually started to happen more frequently. Till it finally started to do it about 4 times a week.
I have tracked the car about 8 times.
The funny thing was the car drove fine and even drove fine on the track. It just made that awful grinding noise on startup.

The car has an AEM intake, MXP Turbo back exhaust, SST Fan, and no tune.

 

Mine is also doing this too. It seems to get louder, now. Every time i start my car, it would grind.
I was told that it was normal, and it was just the trans disengaging the park lock.
Maybe i should take it in?

Anyone else get there trans replaces cause of the start up grind?

 

I would suggest you take it in. Make sure the techs and adviser hears the grinding. I was uncertain if it was going to happen when I took it in, so I took videos of every time I started the car with me saying the date, time, and how long since the car was last driven. Showed the video to the service adviser and he agreed to keep the car till they were able to replicate the problem. At first he was not able to, till i told him to let the car sit for atlest 5-6 hours before trying again.

I would imagine it would be pretty unsafe considering the car would jump forward about 2 inches or more sometimes when starting cold. Definitely get it checked out.

 

^ So your car jump forward when you started it??

My car just makes a grinding noise every time you started the car. It did not matter when i started the car, or how long it has been sitting there. I just grined every time i started the car. The grind always happend like 5 seconds or so after car had been started. If i step on the brake right after i started my car, then it would happend then. Some times it was quiet but sometimes it was really loud.

 

sounds like you have the new reflash on your new tranny.

 

really? can you explain details on this new reflash of the tranny? I'm curious what you know about it.

I have an 09 RA and have the same problem, the car can lunge forward about 2 inches when I turn it on and it goes through its SST reset procedure.....what to do?