Si Transmission Trouble

J

Jordan Belfort

New Member
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Hi all,
So I own a 2012 Civic Si White Coupe and have been having trouble switching gears. When i switch gears it crunches in(same feeling as if you change from Neutral to 1st while moving) . 2nd and 3rd gears are the gears it happens on the most. All the gears have some sort of crunch aswell but not as much as 2nd and 3rd. It occurs 50% of the time & i have brought my car to multiple 4 honda dealerships and they all tell me the same thing and that it is all ok. My friends have also test drove my car and said it's fine. I don't understand what i'm doing wrong and yes this is my first stick car and i've been driving it for about 9 months. It's been going on probably around past 6 months. I'm thinking maybe its the way I release my car from a standstill? Maybe i'm dragging my clutch? Also i do depress my clutch fully when shifting. any suggestions on what i should do?

Ps: Car sometimes doesn't go into first and Reverse. Once in a while
 
One thing you said leads me to say, when shifting there's no reason to push the clutch in any further than just enough to disengage it.
By pushing the clutch to the floor(or any more "time" spent than necessary) to change gears is going to create to much lag time to match the next gear selection.
To have smooth shifting the least amount of time spent with the clutch in keeps the drive train(motor/trans/drive-wheels/clutch plate & fly wheel) moving at the proper speed to move to another gear.

The best way to learn this is to get rolling in 2nd, 3rd, 4th and up, work on pushing the c-pedal till you feel "some" pressure, at the same time you want to put some pressure on the stick to where it's about to come out of gear but not yet. Then just move both "just enough" to where they'll allow the gear change, the result should feel like it's sliding in the next gear like butter.

Too many ppl think they need to floor the clutch, just the opposite. The longer the clutch plate and fly wheel are separated the more the motor/gears/drive wheels will get "out of sync".

Do I know what I'm talking about, I'm a retired Semi driver shifting a 15 speed tranny is a lot of time working on the art.

I'm guessing that most manuals say to floor the clutch for insurance reasons, to keep learners from dropping their tranny on the road.
 
So your saying just switch gears once i know the clutch is really disengaged? NOT when the clutch hits the floor?
 
Jordan Belfort said:
So your saying just switch gears once i know the clutch is really disengaged? NOT when the clutch hits the floor?
Click to expand...
Correct........ from the point where you feel pressure from resting your foot on the pedal to the point of it becoming disengaged is only about an inch or two.

Also you said it sometime won't go into 1st or rev from neutral...... Go to 2nd out of N then go to 1st or rev, and if it's still not going play with the clutch by letting it out a little till it slides in. 1st and rev are "tall" gears compared to the other gears, which makes it harder to get in from idle.
 
Put the car into 4th and then reverse. Push the clutch in - push to 4th & then into R without releasing the clutch between movements. It'll align it & slide into R that way
 
Still doesn't sound right to me. I show shift and floor the clutch a lot. No grinding and buttery smooth for me.
 
Could be timing with the hand. Switching the gear before the clutch is depressed far enough, or releasing the clutch before it's fully engaged in the gear would make it grind.

Have a friend/family member that can drive stick? Sit in the passenger seat and see if they get any grinds. It'll tell you if it's user error.
 
We could tell new drivers we can shift without using the clutch at all, but that is not going the give a proper basic structure to a new stick driver..
webby said:
Could be timing with the hand. Switching the gear before the clutch is depressed far enough, or releasing the clutch before it's fully engaged in the gear would make it grind.

Have a friend/family member that can drive stick? Sit in the passenger seat and see if they get any grinds. It'll tell you if it's user error.
Click to expand...

That's why I'm saying to preload the clutch & stick, so it will give him the correct timing with his hands and feet. Once he get's the basics down he can learn some variances, 6 months he's not been doing it right, so he has to break some bad habits.
He said he's had friends drive his car and not have any problem shifting, plus the dealer(if we can believe that in general), but the friends
are probably going to tell him the truth.
 
Honestly with modern transmissions doesnt it put more strain on the syncros to not floor the clutch? Much like resting your foot on the pedal causes it to slightly slip and wear you would think having it off the floor would work but put more tension on the syncros
 
Bulkybear said:
Honestly with modern transmissions doesnt it put more strain on the syncros to not floor the clutch? Much like resting your foot on the pedal causes it to slightly slip and wear you would think having it off the floor would work but put more tension on the syncros
Click to expand...

Putting the c-pedal on the floor while moving and shifting, spreads the gap between the clutch & clutch plate, and during this time the rpms of the engine will drop faster than the drive wheels rpms, which will make the synchronizers take on more damage to get every thing back to speed.

I don't advocate riding the c-pedal to the point of slipping when I said to pressure-rise the pedal, but just enough to take the slack out of linkage. As far as balancing which part will cost more to wear out, I'd have to say replacing the clutch pads/plates will be far cheaper than going into the tranny to replace sycros.

And still.......... I'm just saying that ppl that are experienced in shifting smoothly, can do a lot of different methods with shifting and probably not have any issues during their average life of the car. I've never had to replace any parts, like clutches or syncros in any of my cars or mc's, and have reach close to 200,000 on a lot of them.
 
I can see that. I would think you wouldnt damage the syncros too bad flooring the clutch. Thats what they are made for. I would think you would want the least amount of tension possible. I'm sure either method should work just fine though which is why I think there is something wrong with the OPs situation. Either the car or the way he's shifting. I will have to disagree with revs dropping quicker than the drive train with the rev hang on Honda's though. Even shifting slowly I usually have to either wait after I'm in gear for the revs to fall to where they need to be or I use the clutch to drag them down. I will say you are spot on as it refers to semis though. My uncle is an instructor for a trucking company and he does teach those methods as well as double clutching. But the transmissions in our cars are different.
 
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