tranny problem: grinding 4th and 5th gear.
 

well, i had a clutchmaster's stage 3 clutch, competition clutch 9.5 pound flywheel, ingalls stainless steel clutch line, and a trd limited slip differential installed on my car two weeks ago by p-tuning.

when i got the car back, the clutch pedal was literally on traveling like half way up from where it normally sits. clutch engagement was literally right off the floor, of the pedal, but i figured it was because of the stiffer clutch, and maybe the clutch line was shorter than the oem one.

next day, i go to leave my house, and i can't get the car into reverse. i called p-tuning, and they said it sounds like an air bubble in the clutch line, bring it back and they'll bleed it out. no problem, took it back the next day. they aired it out. the clutch pedal travel was back to normal, but reverse could only be shifted into witout grinding by putting the car into first gear first to align the synchros, and then right into reverse, it would go in with no grinding, eventually, sometimes it took a few tries.

i mentioned it to a few people at my dealership when getting my oil changed, they kinda agreed with it. one guy i know with a turbo civic hatchback that works at jim coleman honda said he has to go to first gear too, before going into reverse.

well, 500 miles later, today, i was driving to frostburg down the interstate, and i go to pass a car, and downshift from 5th to 4th, and i faintly hear a grind. i turn off the radio to be sure, and i upshift, and i can feel some grinding into 5th gear.

for the rest of the drive, i tested the tranny while coasting. it seems to grinding at high speeds like above 50-60 mph in 4th and 5th gear even when the clutch pedal is all the way down. not always, but i am really worried.

i'm open to any suggestions you guys may have. i'd love to take it back to p-tuning, but the are now 175 miles away, and classes start tomorrow, so i'm probably going to start at the local toyota dealership for service. if anybody has any suggestions of what the problem could be, i'd love to hear it!

bump

over 30 peaks and no comments yet...am i the only one to have this problem?

okay, so ashiva has taught me about the phenomenon called "clatter" that is a common occurance with lightweight flywheels, but she couldn't really tell me exactely what it is, anybody want to enlighten me further what the difference is between grinding and clattering?

bump

so i'm debating take it back to p-tuning since they did all the work, or to my toyota dealership.

since p-tuning did the work, they should fix it if they did it wrong.

but i still have a powertrain warranty, but it might not be covered since the clutch, flywheel and clutchline are non oem parts. but on the plus side, they'll give me a loaner while they are working on it...and if they don't blame the clutch and flywheel, it is repaired under warranty...maybe...

Hmm... i think the reason ur not gettin any answers from forum members is because ur problem could be complex for most people (i could be wrong).

I would like to help u, but my knowledge in transmissions is kinda "iffy"... IMO it could be the synchros... but thats all i can think of with my knowledge

And i dont think toyota would cover it since u dont have oem parts...

Hope you get the problem fixed...

The only problem I've had with grinding gears is when i cheat and shift from 1st to 2nd then to 5th, accelerating to around a 45mph speed limit. When in second at high rev shifting quick to 5th grinds, but if I let the rpms slow then shift to 5th I don't grind.

alright, well i took it back to my dealership, told them what i have had put on, who installed it and took a spin in it with a tech.

they will look at it and see if it was a bad install, bad part, in which they have my oem parts in the trunk to re-install, and if none of those are the problem, they will look at my transmission, and if the transmission is the problem, and it isn't caused by the bad parts, they will honor the powertrain warranty they said.

i mean, these aren't shotty parts from no-name company that i then took to some po-dunk garage to have installed. they are known brands installed by what i figured was the absolute best place to do it.

and socerboy ap, i don't think skipping gears should cause grinds, i've gone from 3rd to 5th gear before, and back with no issues when they were all stock.

clutch
 

ok im not good with trannys at all, but i remember reading somewhere on here that people with CM clutches hear grinding at 50-60. i cant remember who or when i read that but i think it was on here. Ill try and find it but dont hold me to it.

Re: clutch
 

i hope that isn't the case, but it will grind while entering the shift gate while sitting there idling.

and can just about get it to grind at any speed.

hmm well heres the link
https://www.scionlife.com/forums/vie...t=clutchmaster

its kinda old but it sounds like the same problem your having.

it might be poor alignment but if p-tuning did it, i doubt thats the case but u never know. in that thread it seems 2 people have the cm clutch line and they are both having grinding noise

im really not the greatest guy with trannys... just tryin to help a fellow sl out.

thanks, that was kinda helpful and educational, but sounds like he has the opposite problem that i had, while he gets noise when the car is in gear, i get noise switching gears. and i think what he has is clatter or whatever, which is annoying, but harmless. or maybe i have bad improperly lubed throwout bearings or something...

ahh aight well sorry bout that it sounded kinda the same since u said u had grinding at 50-60...

ahh well see waht the dealer says

no need to apologize, i really appreciate the help, it was useful knowledge and experience coldbloodedtc.

while pondering what has happened...i mean, when installing these parts, wouldn't somebody notice if something was wrong with these parts? they were all new and in their original packaging...oh well...time will tell...i'll try to give everybody an update tomorrow if i get any news.

*watches

like you really need to watch sapan, i've been calling you every step of the way! :rofl:

:rofl: any wurd from fitz on this ?

actually, your gears can grind when skip shifting or shifting hard, but only under one or more of the following conditions:

1. Hard shifting has worn out your synchros.
2. Your tranny fluid is contaminated or needs to be changed.
3. Your tranny fluid is not up to the job (usually seen on hard downshifts on worn trannies).

I had those symptoms on my xA, and changed the tranny fluid to redline... And the problem went away.

Synchros are the part that speed up or slow down the moving tranny parts to keep them from grinding. If they fail to do the job, you will grind. A good way to diagnose synchro failure is to double clutch your shifts, and are if you still grind.

And i'm sure all you guys know already, but for the newbs, rev matching only protects your clutch, but even hard rev matched shifts are strenuous for the synchros. If you really abuse your tranny, double clutched downshifts will help preserve the life of the synchros. On upshifts, double clutching isn't really necessary. Although if you are skip shifting, it is a good idea to let your revs drop a little before engaging the next gear. But for day to day daily driving, there is no need to double clutch either.

Then again, almost every road raced MT ends up prematurely needing synchro work due to synchro abuse.

just got off the phone with them...my transmission is out of the car. they haven't found a problem yet from installation, and while the transmission is under toyota powertrain warranty, and the limited slip differential is a toyota trd part, the addition of those non factory parts can complicate whether or not i'll be covered.

they still need to figure if the lsd was installed properly i think...man, so my car is in pieces, and i may be paying far out the butt for all this work...yippee!