ok, i did a search, and nothing came up. Am i the only one having trouble getting into 6th gear, i mean i really have to push over and down when going from 5th to six, not a smooth tansition, it wants to go back to 4th, and its not very smooth, kinda crunchy. Now i only have 2000 miles on my car, and i dont get to 6th very often, so is it a case of just breaking it in, or should i get it looked at?? thanx for any help........

 

It doesnt sound normal to me - I'd take it to the dealer and have them drive it to reproduce, then see what they have to say about it...

 

I had the same problem; just needs some use. After 10-20 times into 6th, it should work a lot better.

 

mine is a little cruntchy going into reverse but not 6th.

 

hmmmmmmm cant recall, pretty sure mine is smooth, ill try to take note, quite sure all of my gears are smooth though
________
Genetically Modified Food

 

Mine wasn't crunchy, just hard to "find" without effort. I was downshifting at first, but now it finds 6th without a hitch. It just took a little use. I noticed it finding 6th easier at around 2700 miles... I'm at 4500+ now and have no problems with the shifter at all. Guess alot of shifting between 5th and 6th has made that transition as easy as 1st to 2nd. :D

 

I don't find it crunchy, but I do have trouble finding it. The shifter wants to go to fourth, I have to pay attention to go to 6th or I end up in fourth. Although I have 5k on the car, I've only put it in 6 less than 10 times, usually shift to 5th at 70mph.

 

You must REALLY like your trips to the gaz station. Quite a waste of fuel IMO. Use your 6th gear and buy a gift to your GF with the money you save.

 

Trouble getting a gear to engage is one of the first signs of a tranny problem, I would take in in and get it looked at. This usuallu excludes reverse since a lot of cars don't have synchros for reverse.

Ike

 

I drive for FUN. No, I don't like trips to the gas station, and I don't have GF, I have a wife of 23 years and three kids. The point is, if I have a choice of cruising at 3k rpm or 5k rpm, I usually pick 5k. If you punch it at 3k it takes a while to accelerate, but it you punch it at 5k the Gs appear right away. That said, sometimes I do cruise at 3k rpm, and my mpg varies from 15-20 mpg. I am happy with the performance and mpg I get with my driving habits. To each his/her own, but I don't believe in buying a performance car and then driving it with the goal of acheiving the highest mpg possible.

 

Yeah, if XLR8OR meant it was grinding going into gear, that'd be something you definitely need to have checked out.... but


Same issue most of us that have this car and have replied to this post are experiencing. It's just that when you attempt to go from 5th to 6th (straight down from 5th), it wants to go to the 4th gear position. If you're very conscious about the shift, it goes into 6th without a hitch... it's just when you're enjoying the "cruise" and "instinctively" shift to the top gear, it sometimes wants to go to the 4th gear gate. Now that I've been using 6th more often, I find that it goes into the right gear without having to be "conscious" about it. I just think that linkage from the shifter to the tranny was tighter (when brand new) and needed to be broken in.

just my $0.02

 

Yeah, I had the same deal too. It didn't want to go into sixth at all.

This is what I did to break it in because it's smooth as butter now. First, the higher the revs, the more that it wants to engage into sixth. This isn't surprising because higher revs means that the synchros are spun up and doing their job.

So, I revved up to about seventy and very consciously eased it into sixth by putting my hand on the SIDE of the shift **** and pushing it gently against the rail into sixth. It will NOT engage reverse this way unless you push down. It was a little crunchy at first but settled in quickly. I can now engage sixth with NO trouble at speeds as low as 48 MPH. (Owner's manual states the minimum shift point as 46 MPH) I shift into sixth pretty much every time that I drive the car. I also found fifth and fourth a little crunchy when I first got the car, and reverse is still crunchy.

It is not abnormal for new synchros to have these sorts of trouble and with a little gentle work, it should be fine. I have had the same trouble on newly rebuilt transes from older cars when the synchros were replaced.

Don't worry about it; it will get better.

-H

 

haze i agree. if you push the shift **** from the side instead of from the top it is much easier to shift into 6th.

 

I thought that reverse will not engage from fifth gear no matter what... correct me if i'm wrong

 

that would be nice .. it's sure my nightmare :-|

.. but .. where did you hear/ read that?

 

yea everytime i'm in 5th going into 6th i think i'm going the accidently go into reverse.

 

Beats the h**l out of me, but I'm not about to tell a guy to push down defeating the primary lock out and then slide the gear past the reverse gate. That would be nuts at high speed.

Actually, I doubt that the gears could engage at fifth gear speeds no matter what. All you would get is very loud grinding noise and a basic explosion against your hand with little damage to the actual gears. . . that's assuming that there isn't another speed based lock out. I don't think that there is but there could be. Have you read something which says there is? Obviously, my having not read something that claims a speed related lock out doesn't mean that there isn't one; it just means that I haven't read about one.

As far as I know the only positive lock keeping you from shifting into reverse at speed is the requirement to push down on the shifter when you engage reverse. Other than that, I know nothing . . . NOTHING. Je ne sais rien!!!!!!

 

Cool, thanx for the input, makes me feel alot better, thought something was wrong with the car, but it seems to be getting better already. I try to go into 6th more often now, i used to only go into 6th on the highway, which isnt very often, since i work 10mins from my house..... thanx again....

 

haha sorry, not quite sure where i read or heard that. Although i wish i could be of more help:p