bobbyz

iTrader: (1)

Ok, I have a tranny problem shifting from first to second. I took it to the dealer the other day and they said "seems normal to me". My previous car was a 6 speed Porsche 968 that I had for 4 years without anny tranny issues so I know its not me. The strange thing is that at high RPM its fine and after driving hard for a few minutes it is fine. However, when babying it and shifting at lower RPM like under 4,000(first 10min in cold weather, or in traffic), when I shift to second, I sometimes get a crunch. Other times If I shift really slowly, I can feel the shifter kick back up before it catched and slides into second. Twice, it would not go in and kicked the shifter back many times very fast (the teeth of the gears). Sounded and felt like a quiet machine gun. So, what am I looking at here? A synchro issue? I'm sure the gear has to be changed out now as well because of the grinding. I'll take it back again next week and go out with the tech this time. Problem is that here in Canada, the dealer have not seen many 350's and do not know what the common problems are yet.

dragonbz99

iTrader: (1)

happens to me too after it warms up its fine

mwaller

I have a very similar issue on the same gear! Generally no crunching, but it is often quite notchy. Seems to improve as the tranny warms up. I now have 3300 miles, and it has gotten slightly better over the last few hundred miles.
One thing I have noticed -- I can usuall avoid this problem if I pay close attention to engine RPM. The notchiness usually happens if I shift too fast at low RPM or too slowly at high RPM. I've noticed that the throttle drop-off is not linear - in the lower range (say, below 3K), engine speed drops at a very leisurly pace when you take your foot off the gas. When shifting at low RPMs, I wait for the needle to drop about 800-1000 RPM before entering 2nd gear. At medium RPMs (around 4K), my natural shifting speed seems perfectly matched to the slightly faster throttle drop off. At high RPMs, I need to shift more agressively to ensure the engine speed doesn't drop too far before engaging 2nd. Give this a try...
it may make your synchros happier.
It seems that a different tranny oil might be in order... I've repeated tried to get low down on what other gear oils I can try (synthetic, for example). Nobody recomends using anything other than factory fill, but they don't offer any really good reason for this... frustrating. I dont' want to go against recommendations, but I want to understand the justification for those recommendations.
Mika

mwr

I am not having the problem that you describe with my Z but I have with past cars. I changed them over to Red Line MTL and it made a world of difference. When the first oil change is due I will be changing the fluids to Mobil 1 and Redline MTL.

That's just my opinion, YMMV....