I had a couple initial grinds after purchase (new car, my fault, dunno), but overall the shifting on my Z (3800 miles) has been trouble free. Compared to my 240SX, which feels like mush, the Z is short and solid.

 

my 04 is at 2200 miles, and the grinding into second gear is very bad. it gets better when the engine is warm, (usually takes about 5-10 minutes of driving). it does feel like the sychros are not doing their job properly on 2nd gear. shifting about half way (enough for the sychros to make some contact, but not enough for the dog teeth to grab on), pausing for about half a second, and then continuing seems to work pretty often.
i've tried the "flicking" technique, and it does seem to improve it to some degree. my question is, why does this make it better?

i'm hoping this gets smoother in time.

 

all I can say is that there is definitely an issue with the transmission whether its 03' or 04'. Not all Z's have an issue but lots of them do. wld350z is a forum member and he is still on his first tranny. I drove his car few weeks ago and he had no grind or knochness.

 

You are correct. The shifts suppose to feel “notchy” compared to a FWD car; i.e. Civic, etc. The linkage is direct to the transmission. I like to describe the feeling to that of a bolt action rifle. It is a slick metallic shift. IMO many of the people who complain about the shift probably aren’t experienced in driving RWD cars.

Obviously most cars in the last 20 years are FWD. Most of us have driven FWD cars all or most of our "automotive lives". We are just so use to the cable linkage of FWD we don’t realize that the shift of a RWD car, especially a sport car, suppose to feel as the Z’s does.

Obviously I’m just talking about normal shifting. If you are experiencing a grind when changing gears, then you have a problem. The grinding of gears during a normal shift is not normal. But the shifts for the Z are will feel different compared to a FWD car.

Oh yeah, and I LOVE SHIFTING THIS CAR.

 

Funny, I get the same feel in the Z as I do in the Trans Am. Feels very close to the Hurst shifter in the Tranny.

 

I have the same problem and have been snapping into 2nd a lot harder and have been giving it a little more gas and it seems too help. But yes, notchiness seems too be there.

 

I finally took mine into the dealership to have them look at my tranny. I decided that no car should ever grind, and I mean grind, shifting normally from 1st to 2nd. I'm talking about metal teeth grining on teeth, not simply notchiness or clunkiness (which is present also). I have a 2004, built in July of 03. Waiting now to see what they say. One service tech already told me 2nd should be harder to get into than any other gear because it has a triple cone synchro, as compared to double cone for all the other gears. That very well may be the case, but I'm sorry, I don't care if there are 6 cone synchros on there, grining is not normal, not for a rear wheel drive direct tranny, whatever, it's not a good sign. And now, especiallly with this cold weather, it's worse when the car is cold. Early 2004's are not immune from tranny issues, unfortunately.

 

Yea, I agree with Blue Liquid. I've driven just about every kind of tranny on every kind of car I can think of and I can tell you that the Z is the only car that has this problem. I like the notchy feeling of the shifter, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about a physical grind like metal on metal, it is not a factor of it being a RWD tranny or a different kind of tranny, I have driven this kind before...this is something that is not engineered or built properly. Also in neutral when letting the clutch out slowly there is a clunk. It is not because it is an RWD tranny and not a cable tranny, the clunk is so loud sometimes that I want to get out to see if the tranny is still attached to the car or not. I love my car but there is def. something wrong with the tranny