Hey guys maybe you can help me out a bit. My transmission has been grinding into 3rd when cold, but of course the shop could not "replicate" it so they would not do anything, they also told me that my clutch felt OK..

I had my buddy drive my car yesterday and we both agreed that something feels wrong with the tranny / clutch. The clutch feels "muddy" ? It's hard to tell when it is engaging, it grabs the gears but it feels very sloppy. Also when I get to high RPMs it feels much harder to shift, like there is a ton of pressure on the transmission and something is about to pop. The car also makes a thud sound every few seconds at idle (not when driving at all), but after searching on the forums I read that is normal because the Z's idle very low rpms.

If I were to buy a aftermarket clutch (or get the stock clutch replaced) about how much labor installed am I looking at?

I took a spin in his 03' S2000, the clutch has light as hell but regardless it grabbed the gears quickly.

 

Probably need a transmission. May as well replace the clutch at the same time.

 

the mechanic said its just the clutch but its got another 6 months or so.. he estimates.

 

I'd start with replacing the clutch fluid. I have an 06 with 120k kms on it, the clutch on it got soft/ light in warm days and it was hard to change gear. Anyway I noticed in the service manual that the clutch fluid is never changed so I took it to a mechanic who changed the fluid. He reckoned that the clutch fluid was filthy compared to the brake fluid (he done both) which is changed every 40k kms. Clutch has a more positive feel to it now.

So I'd go for the clutch fluid first .... much much cheaper than a tranny and clutch