Anyone else with a '03 6-speed have notchy/stiff issues?

When I first bought the car, I dumped the tranny fluid, put in Redline, and every gear went notchy, and the shifter was stiff through the gates. I replaced it immediately with HoMoCo manual lubricant, and all was fine again.

I've got 35k on the odo now, and after a fully throttle acceleration into traffic, it all of a sudden went stiff. It's been like that for about 300km now. Every gear is notchy, and harder to shift into.

I swapped out the tranny fluid on the weekend, but my journey to work wasn't long enough to see if the new fluid will solve the problem.

Anyone else have an issue? I'm wondering if the clutch isn't fully disengaging?

 

The search button is your friend. But I'll give you my take on this issue...


First off, I have been running with the original tranny oil for 50k miles but will be changing it shortly. However, I will be putting in what Acura recommends. From what I understand , the Acura (Honda) tranny oil is a lot lighter than normal tranny oil (80w or 90w). So putting in a different (heavier) tranny oil can mess things up.

As for notchy/stiff issues, the CLS 6MT tranny takes getting use to. It all comes down to driving style and learn the proper timing for clutch/shifter/gas when shifting. Part of the notchy/stiff feel is caused by the duel-mass clutch/flywheel assembly which holds up the RPMs for a moment. So you need to adjust clutch/shifter/gas movements to compensate.

 

The Honda oil has special modifers and additives in it, so that's why the recommend it. If you check your manual, it says you can use 10W30 in emergency cases, and drain and refil when you can. They aren't kidding.

The problem is I've been driving it for 3 years now, and it's just in the last couple of weeks that the problem cropped up.

I took it out for an extended lunch adventure, and it seems better now. So, not sure if the oil was just breaking down, and it takes a bit to get new oil into all the bearing surfaces.

 

 

Well, off to the service shop tomorrow. I think it might be a syncro issue. If you keep the rev's under 2k, it's pretty good, if you get it up closer to 5k+, it feels like our '00 Ford 5 speed. You have to really grab the shifter to shift gears now (no more 3 finger shifting).

It was never notchy on the upshift.

 

35k miles is a little premature for syncros issues. Go luck at the dealer.

 

First trip in, the service guy said two of them road tested, and they didn't see anything wrong. I had to go back today and let the service manager drive it (he was off yesterday).

He agreed it was stiff and notchy. He said "I don't like the feel of your clutch." Not exactly sure of what that means, but slightly concerned. It goes back on Tuesday for exploritory surgery. They're going to pull the tranny and take a look at the clutch. If they determine there is a clutch problem and it was abused, it's on my dime (shouldn't be. I don't abuse it, rock it with the clutch, or rev the snot out of it and ride the clutch).

I did some research, and my symptoms can come from a siezed/sticking pilot bearing. That makes more sense than the clutch itself. If the bearing is seizing, then the input shaft to the tranny would be still coupled (depending on the degreee of sieze) to the engine when clutch is depressed. I do find that shifting at lower RPMs pretty good, but if you rev it up and shift it becomes really notchy and hard to pull the shifter out of gear (which makes sense if the tranny is still connected to the engine).

 

If the clutch isn't completely dis-engaged when shifting, shifting will feel stiff, notchy and/or grindy. A bad clutch and/or assembly could cause this too.

 

A bad master or slave cylinder might not disengange the clutch fully and give the same symptom.

 

 

I'll find out Tuesday. I suggested the clutch not disengaging, but he said the car wasn't creeping with the clutch in, so he didn't think that was it.

When you press the clutch, it feels like it "goes over-center". The clutch feel hasn't changed, so I'm thinking it might be the bearing.

All the symptoms lend themselves to something is still allowing the input shaft to be coupled to the flywheel, but not enough for the car to creep with the clutch in.

 

Just goes to show you, stick with Honda tranny fluid. They recommend not putting anything else in (unless an emergency) for a reason. Im at almost 40k and mine shifts silky smooth. Not trying to be a dick or anything, guess all can learn from it.

Also, not saying it was def caused by the Redline, but strange that problems arose immediately thereafter.

Good luck tho man, I hope they find and fix your problem....and hopefully not at your expense.

 

Actually, the problems happened about 20,000 KM after the Redline incident.

I got her back today:
- Leaking main seal dumping oil on the clutch (so new clutch installed)
- Bad pilot bearing
- Dual mass flywheel collapsed

So they warrantied the whole repair. It's really hard to get used to the clutch though! It releases really easy and really high now!

 

Congrats on getting your car fixed. But I do have a question: which main seal (engine/tranny)? And if it was the engine main seal, were you using synthetic oil and which kind? I've heard about leaking main seal caused by the use of certain synthetic oils.

 

Hmmm.... Don't know. The W/O just siad main seal. When I bought the car, I bought a bunch of oil changes, so the engine oil is standard Honda grade (non-synthetic). The tranny runs Honda manual fluid, which I think is a synthetic blend.

Just happy it's fixed. The charge would have been $495 to pull the tranny and inspect and replace (if it was deemed abuse killed it) + $1200-$1500 for a clutch job. Would have seriously cut into my big screen budget!

 

Re-checked the W/O. They put in a litre of MTF, so I assume the seal was t he main tranny seal.