Today while driving, I tried to downshift from 5th to 4th. I must have hita wrong spot, as I heard a slight grinding noise.

Was this probably just slight gear grinding? I don't believe I touched reverse as that is almost impossible to do from 5th.

Car shifts fine, everything is fine, no funny noises.

 

You're fine :D

As long as it's not grinding for extended periods (you'll smell smoke in the cabin kinda grind) the clutch should be fine.

Our engines aren't powerful enough to eat through clutches that quickly... sad, but true...

 

i accuallt might have been u accidently hitting into reverese i have accidently done it once but the gears are moving so fast the it's won't harm anything it it wasn't for an extented period or it could have been you might have just let out on the clutch to fast and grinded gears a bit

 

I've done that once or twice as well. Like cloudnine says, you shouldn't worry about it. Of course, doesn't mean you should do it all the time

I don't think you shifted into reverse either because I think it has a reverse shift lock as well. That, or you have to put quiet an amount of effort in kicking into reverse from 5th.

Last time I heard the grinding noise, was because I thought I had my clutch in and was trying to shift into reverse from park, and it made that grinding noise. It's because the clutch hasn't disengaged the engine. I think it might have been the same with you where when you were going from 5th to 4th, you let out the clutch too early.

In short, dont' worry about it

 

no your car was not hurt.........

 

I've done that a good handful of times in several cars. It's near impossible to pop it into reverse though as most cars nowadays have preventions for that.

Overall though, it's harmless. While I don't know how much you understand about a transmission, from the question, I'll assume it's just a little less than I know. Go to howstuffworks.com and look up manual transmission. It might surprise you how the gears are actually set up. When you realize the the teeth are on the SIDE of the gear instead of the edge, it'll give you a new understanding of how they work and how hard it is to really grind your gears.

So as mentioned, I doubt you hurt anything.

 

the gears in are always meshed so it is actually impossible to truly grind the gears what you hear grinding is the dog gears......or so i have heard.....

 

you'll be ok...you heard the sides of the gears grinding.
when the gear is engaged, it in the center of gear.
unless you snapped a tooth off a gear (you would really know if that happened) you are fine...

 

ive done it a few times goin from 5th to 4th...ive found that if i try to downshift real quick i end up grindin but if i take it easy and stop for like a second or 2 in neutral it works fine