noooo....it's not what you think.

Yesterday morning when I got in my car to go to work I was in a rush. I turned the car on and let it sit for about a minute and then tried to put the car in reverse., but it wouldn't go into gear. I thought for a second that I just wasn't pushing the **** down hard enough for it to go into reverse. And I tried it about 2 more times until my brain finally went wtf is going on?? After I consciously realized it wasn't cooperating, I tried putting the car into first. It went in but with a struggle. All the gears felt as if they were dry, to explain it best. It feels as if each gear pushes back when I try to put it in gear. So in a final time attempt for reverse I pushed and it went into reverse. Once the car is moving the gears go in fine and there is no hassle...feels the same. The gears don't grind and there are no noises.

Recap: when car is idle (on or off) and clutch is engaged, the gears are stiff. When car is off and clutch is not engaged the gears really feel like ****.

Does anybody know what could be the issue? Again all gears work once the car is rolling and there is no slipping or the clutch or grinding. It's simply just really hard to put into gear...and by really hard I mean it's annoying to put it into gear. It's not like I'm shoving the **** around.


Any ideas?!

 

anyone?

 

kinda a newb question but it seems that you are not fully engaging the clutch when attempting to pop it into reverse. There is literally no leway with reverse, the clutch has to be pushed to the floor with the **** pushed down fully. If you are rolling AT ALL backwards like rolling down the driveway when you push in the clutch it will not go into reverse.

As far as a notchy transmission, it is the nature of the beast and should not be mistakened as something wrong when comparing the smooth shifting of a honda to the Z.

 

Well I guess you misinterpreted my question as noobish and then proceeded to answer it noobishly. :-p. The reason I asked is because my car is parked in a lot not a driveway. And I've now noticed a difference in my transmission. It's like phsyically hard to put it into reverse. And obviously the clutch is depressed all the way. And yes I agree the transmission has always felt notchy, but this literally feels like there is like clay that I am pushing thru with the **** before it goes into gear...a really strange feeling.

 

This is extremely confusing. If your car is idling, how can it be on or off? Also when you say clutch is engaged, do you mean the clutch pedal is pushed down of the clutch itself is engaged with the flywheel meaning the clutch pedal is up?

 

sorry. When the car is either on or off and I have the clutched pedal pushed to the floor, the gears are stiff. basically what I'm saying is that any combination of the car being on or off with the pedal being pushed down to the floor (or even when the car is off and not using the clutch) the gears feel terrible. Like imagine this: somebody stuck a ball of moldable clay or putty under the leather boot around the rest of the shift ****. Combine that with the feeling of really really notchy gears. I mean obviously the Z feels notchy, but now the notches feel way more pronounced than ever before. Does that help? I was in a hurry to write that up this morning before I had a meeting so people could try to read it while I was afk.

 

well besides the obvious which would be driver error or a bad tranmission ill add some more newbish comments and suggest you drain some of your transmission fluid and make sure it looks satisfactory. Also drain and refill your diffrential fluid. That would be the only cause of a "stiff feel" would be fluid that has gunked up or a leak that has your transmission fluid low.

You have to understand 9 times out of 10 threads created by fairly new Z owners end up being nothing but paranoia and the lack of experience with the Z. Let us know how it turns out.

 

Yeah I understand what you mean by noobish comments but this is a radical difference. To help you get a better understanding, imagine getting in your car this afternoon and you can't physically put the car into reverse because it is too hard. My car is my daily driver so I am very away of what it is supposed to feel like. It's been 2 days now and the feeling is just as present.

The reason why I was confused by the issue of low fluid is because the problem is most apparent when the car isn't moving. Like when I'm driving the shifts feel practically no different than when I first got the car. But when the car is stationary, whether the engine is on or off, there is a huge difference. So what would make the difference if the fluid was low or hardly any if when I drive the shifts feel normal?

 

maybe damaged linkage? you should not row through your gears with the car off. i would change the trans fluid if i were you.

 

hmm. well i havent owned my car long enough to have changed the fluid. Where is the resevior at for the tranny fluid?

 

Clutch adjustment or done? Put the car in fifth and let out the clutch. Did it stall or keep idling a bit? If it kept going...might want to check the clutch.

 

i really would not recommend using this as a test for checking clutch performance, making your engine stall out is not, in any way, advisable.

a better test is to get your car going about 80 and throw it in 5 or 6 gear. you should be revving between 2500-3500 rpms. open up the throttle (wot). if your rpms increase without acceleration your clutch is shot. if not, you are fine, in most cases.

disclaimer: please note that speeding is illegal and i will not be held responsible for accidents or tickets or any other damages.

do not perform this test near residential areas or where people might be in the street. go on a highway or something.

that is just the test my uncle taught me, and has used for years and he is a master mechanic and owns his own shop. credentials man!

 

ok well i just checked all my fluids. everything was perfect except my coolant was almost completely empty. The owners manual said that if there was some left in the reservoir to just fill the tank up to the max line. If it was completely empty it said to fill it up from the radiator cap i think it said. So i went by the book and topped off the reservoir...the thing that is weird is that my car has never ran hot or even warm. in fact its usually tilted a bit below the horizontal point. After I filled it up I left the car run for a minute and then took it for a drive. It seemed better at first and not as stiff. Then when I came to a light I put the clutch to the floor and shifted thru the gears it seemed to feel normal again???? wha? why would coolant help my tranny out at all?

So now the gears feel smoother and I dunno what the issue was.

As a side note though, the day before I was doing some minor drifting in a parking lot AFTER it rained..I don't like to burn up my tires as much when it's dry so I did it after it rained. I didn't push the car to hard and never red lined it at all. Could that have had something to do with it? I really one did like 2 doughnuts and then a small drift around a an island but never lost control of the car or did anything crazy. Kept the car in 1st the whole time since i was going so slow.

Anyone with explanations?

 

R Tunez, are you saying to go 80 in 6th then downshift to 5th gear? And then what?

 

*Update

OK tranny still felt like **** this morning. Maybe it was feeling better yesterday because the car was warm from driving it home from work. But this morning it didn't feel any better.

Any suggestions who I should take this to or what the problem might be?

 

1st off do not try to shift your car without using the clutch pedal. My internet guess is that this combined with poor driving technique (i.e. not rev matching) has prematurely worn your synchros and thus the harder than normal shifts. Once your synchros are worn, they are worn and would need replacing before smoother shifts are restored.

 

well I can rev match fine and can drive stick fine. Secondly, I haven't ran my car hard only but a few individual times. In the previous days before I got in my car and had the problem, I had not done anything that was rev matching or shifting gears quickly or anything of the nature. If the synchros are bad can those be replaced or what? I don't really know too much about clutches.

 

What has the weather been like where you live? If It is extremely hot (or extremely cold...tho that is unlikely) you should simply expect the vehicle to "feel" a little different. Thats the nature of machines...although with heat things usually feel a little looser given faster flowing fluids and whatnot.

The comment about your synchros would definitely make sense...especially if you were putting the car into gear and shifting through the gears without using the clutch....but this would be apparent when the car was MOVING too. Worn synchros means worn synchros...sitting still...moving....once they are shot you can't do anything but replace them.

I really don't think your synchros are the problem here, because i doubt you would have the problem with your reverse gear. Give us an update next time you drive the car. Hopefully she was just messing with you. Our Z's do that from time to time ;-).

 

lol. Well I am worried about her!! Earlier I wrote how last night when coming home from work the car felt sh!tty. I checked all my fluids as advised by the master knowledge of the forum, and everything was fine except my coolant was practically empty????? ( car never ever ran hot or even above the middle). But then I started her up and it felt perfect again? I thought maybe something I did worked, but it wouldn't make any sense if I only put coolant in...

It's about 85 degrees here on average right now. Hasn't rained in about 4 days.

I agree a noobs first mistake with cars in terms of maintenance is paranoia. However, this is a HUGE difference. I mean I couldnt even put the car into fukcing reverse! Synchros would make sense to me if it was like going from 1st to 2nd was hard or a gear that was used and abused...but this is every gear feeling equally as sh!tty and reverse being the hardest? I certainly don't race starting in reverse...

 

*edit

to be more clear, the gears don't feel grindy at all. Only very hard to get into gear (yes clutch is to the floor I've checked about 3 billion times)

and it is still notchy.