I've had my tC RS 2.0 for about two months now (1600 miles). It is my first manual car and basically the only stick I've ever driven, so I am not sure if this behavior I will describe is sort of normal or if I should be worried.

Sometimes when I put the stick into the first gear position, there seems to be some friction that blocks the stick's travel into position. I find I need to wiggle the stick a bit on the way up or use more force. Sometimes it is worse than other times, and sometimes it moves really smoothly just like the rest of the stick positions. I can't seem to find any reason or cause for it (like only on down shifting, or from a stop, or whatever). It just seems random. Also, once I do get it into position, it is easy to move it in and out of position again. It's like there is some piece in there blocking the path that gets pushed away.

As far as I know its been like this since I got the car, but I always thought up until now that I was doing something wrong like not pushing the clutch pedal down all the way during shifts or something like that because I was learning stick and unsure. I'm pretty sure I am operating everything correctly.

Is this a problem? Is it in my head? Thanks for any insight.

 

Hey man, I'm actually having the same problem myself, however I haven't searched to see if anyone other than us has had it too.

 

quite common occurence actually. First is a pain to get into on these cars.

some redline mt90 tranmission fluid will help alleviate it somewhat, but it's stilll present.

 

yea... I'm also learning on my car, I have abuot 45 miles on it currently, two weeks old. I find that there is this weird "friction" present sometimes on trying to move to even second from third... not anything blocking it, but its not smooth moving sometimes. And I have noticed the thing about first as well.

Maybe it was intentional to keep us from downshifting into first accidentally? Does anyone know if there is a lockout on our cars for first gear keeping people from shifting into it unless you're at a standstill or almost at a standstill?

 

I haven't had the issue going to any other gear myself. Just first. And its not consistent - half the time the shifter slides into position smooth as butter. A couple times at a stop light when it turned green, I had to like punch the shifter from neutral to first because it wouldn't go and there were cars behind me.

 

i have owned 3 MT vehicle before my RS2 and all on them have had trouble going into first, when im still in motion. if im am at a stop, then it will go it smooth. try to avoid shifting to first when your still moving, even if your only going 2 mph. as for my car now, SOMETIMES i have trouble shifting into reverse, and instead on jamming it in, i just start over by placing it in neutral, fully let out the clutch, then push back in the clutch and start again. it ALWAYS works the second time for me. perhaps you can try this for your first gear problem....

 

if this happens again. dont rush. go slow and make it feel right. never worry about cars behind you getting angry at you. if you damage your car because of it, its your fault not theres so ignore them.

 

The reason everyone is having trouble shifting into first is because of the shift gates that help protect your transmission. Its the smae thing that keeps you from shifting into reverse while you're driving.

First gear is really only supposed to be used when you are accelerating from a DEAD stop. If you notice, when you're rolling, the gate is closed. The instant you stop rolling, the gate opens and you're free to shift into first.

I really don't recommend shoving the stick into first as you could mes up the shift gate mechanism. As you learn the car more, you'll find the exact point when that gate for first gear opens and it'll be much easier for you.

 

The only problem I have is coming to a COMPLETE stop to put the car into reverse without grinding the hell out of it. Being the my girlfriend lives on the hill from hell, it's quite an obnoxious feature.

 

Yea I have that problem too. Even if you're rolling a little bit, it grinds

 

Interesting - but I think this still happens to me from a complete stop ...

 

A stuck reverse can also be resolved by clutch in-move to 2nd-move to reverse-go

both methods work pretty much everytime, and yes I do use the neutral method sometimes when it sticks sometimes

 

The gating mechanism is based on the inertia of the gear spin in the case of the tranny. If you have JUST come to that complete stop, the gears may still be spinning slightly inside or have the inertia to continue doing so, blocking you from 1st or reverse.
I hope this next part makes sense......
A good test would be to come to a stop. When you brake and then finally fully stop, the car tends to lurch backwards from its on suspension and inertia and all. If you try to put the car into 1st before you feel the lurch, you probably wont be able to very easily and could very likely restart from 2nd with ease as the force of the car is still moving forward. If you wait till the lurch occurs, the gate will be open and it will be easy to shift into any gear.

 

Ok well, I'm more educated now on this subject and I'll go test some things out tonight. I had no idea that there were locks in place like that.

 

Sorta, Reverse does not have a shift gate, however it doesn't have a synchro. In order to shift into a gear with no synchro you need to match the engine speed and the transmission speed. Since R is like a backwards 1st gear you are usually travelling way way way to fast to get into gear. (Not to mention you are going forward)

Above also explains why you grind when going into R gear (the car is moving a little bit), you can solve this by cluthing while putting it into gear, like double clutching. This works because cluthing forces the tranmsission into matching speed, so if your synchros go bad you can clutch once to go to N and then clutch again to match speeds and enter the gear. OR you can just match speeds as you are decellerating and pop it into gear when its ready without using the clutch although I dont reccomend it. If you want to take thousands of miles off your transmission go for it.

This also happens because of no synchros, instead of clutching you can alternatly go into 1st gear and its ynchros will line it up for R.

 

Hell, even when rolling BACKWARDS it still grinds.

 

it's a straight cut gear.... of course it grinds... it's meant to be shifted into only at a complete standstill.

also.. that typical whinning noise going in reverse is because of those straight cut gears as well.

 

here's a noob question, I realize only cars with MT have the whining type noise in reverse (which I always liked, call me weird if you want lol), but why do autos not have it?

 

Autos use helical gears (instead of the aforementioned straight-cut spur gears that MTs use for reverse) on all gear selections. Autos actually use two planetary gear sets in conjection. These planetary gear sets work together to create all of the speeds you need. The same gear sets are used for all speeds and different output ratios are achieved by switching the input and output to different gears within the gear set.

I can't explain it very well in the limited space we have here. Here's a site that will most likely tell and show you more than you wanted to know about auto trannies:

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/automa...ansmission.htm

BTW, for those not familiar with it, howstuffworks.com is a great informative site with loads of info on just that: How Stuff Works. I highly recommend it.

 

It is still an inconvenience.