well, ever since i got my Z, it had the 3rd gear grind problem (yes i have an '03) and i bought it used so it wasnt still under the warranty. but anyway, ive since modded and turboed the car and 3rd gear is worse than it has ever been. i have to hesitate to push it into 3rd or do it very slowly/carefully. and every once in a while it slips into 4th when im downshifting. oh also just recently, i pulled it out of third without really even pushing in the clutch, no grinding or anything.

im actually thinking about selling my car but dont want to sell it like this obviously. do i need a whole new tranny or could it be my synchros? my MAIN CONCERN is cost. what is a guesstimate of what this could cost me so i have a general idea?

thanks, appreciate it

edit: if this isnt the proper section for my thread, please move it so i can get some help, thanks!

 

No idea on cost, but they rebuilt my tranny once under warranty, but did it wrong and ended up just replacing the whole thing. :/

Been fine ever since (~20k on new tranny), but the tolerances on 3rd were just horrid from the start.

When mine originally failed, not even double clutching a shift into 3rd would prevent the grind - it completely failed.

 

well if im taking it easy / being super careful, nothing goes wrong really, its just a gradual push into third that i have to do.

if you get on it or shift at high rpm / downshift to slow down thats when i have problems.

 

of course buying a used tranny will vary in costs probably dramatically. Half of the "used" tranmissions on the market have the 3rd gear grind already present. A new MT will run you probably around $4000 not including another $500+ to put it in. Probably half that to have one rebuilt or to purchase one rebuilt.

If you go the route and purchase a used one off ebay or whatever you'll end up getting a transmission that was a "take out" due to bad synchros or whatever... likelyhood of it being in worse shape than yours is high. Good luck with things.

 

The 3rd gear grind was limited mostly to cars made in the first 3 or 4 months of production. Mine went at around 25k miles and the service manager and I were looking through the parts list on what to order and according to that he thought there were 3 different revs during the 03 production run. After my rebuild, the gears were so tight as to barely get it into any gear. They said it would loosen up, but over the next 5k miles or so it really didn't. I took it to another dealer and the service manager there said he'd just order a whole new tranny.

There is some reluctance to hit 6th sometimes, but i also have a JWT flywheel/clutch combo, and pedal feel with that is different, so who knows.

I'm currently sitting at 47k miles tho, and things are doing well. i don't do 1/4 miles anymore, but I spend several days a year doing HPDEs so i do abuse the car a bit.

 

well im also wondering if i could just replace the synchros instead of spending a couple grand...and if thats possible what it might run me. this sucks

 

I believe that most of the cost is in opening it up. Ya may as well replace the internals while you're there. However, I'm not a tranny doctor. I don't even play one on TV. Nope, not even a tranny either. :P

Just go and get some estimates from a specialist shop and go from there. It definitely sucks to be where you are, but once you do get it fixed it'll be reliable. It was, in fact, a design flaw.

 

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