every other time i put her into 5th i can feel a grind in the shifter...nothin bad but its there. Only in 5th...clutch fully deepressed and only every other time or less...ideas?

 

How many miles?

 

do the gears grinds at all too?

 

Hi Randy... The problem you describe sounds very much like the infamous and notorious synchromesh problem exhibited in the earlier 350Z transmissions.

If that is the case, the only good fix is a transmission replacement (which isn’t cheap it you are out of warranty… regular or extended).

A search will provide a lot of information about this problem and it’s fix.

--Spike

 

or it could be a misaligned shift plate. Have that checked first before throwing out the tranny

 

i just hit 40,000 miles.

 

Try changing your tranny fluid. I did and the 5th gear grind went away. Have you had the tranny serviced at all yet? I've got 82K on the clock, and I've changed it about every ~40K miles.

 

Sure about that? Did you do anything else other than simply change the transmission fluid?

Of course careful maintenance is important, but I ask this question because true grinding (with the noise and vibration) happens when metal surfaces contact each other. You would expect this with faulty synchromesh gears or a poorly aligned gate. Those problems would not be fixed by simply changing the transmission fluid (the fluid would need to be very thick goo to eliminate a grind).

--Spike

 

I have yet to change the tranny fluid. I Will do that at my next oil change. and,no the gears don't grind... just the grind in the shift.

my brother is telling me royal purple tranny is great in his boxter...anyone recommend?

 

The problem went away for me, after I changed the tranny fluid. Didn't do anything else but that... well except change the diff oil at the same time. I figured it'd be a good place to start.

I see your point. If it was, indeed a faulty synchro or misaligned gate, then changing the fluid would make it worse, more than likely. Thanks for pointing that out. Didn't think about it that way.

I personally use Redline in my tranny and diff. I've heard Royal Purple isn't bad though.