PLEASE HELP !!!!!!!!!!! PROBLEM WITH BRAND NEW FE GTS!!!!!

[MGWLTD]

i hope i can get some ideas as to what has happened to my brand new 2002 final edition gts. i have not even gotten into the breakin on the car and as anyone who knows me i REALLY abide strictly to the breakin procedures. the car has not even seen over 4000 rpms yet and i have never gunned it or shifted aggressively yet so i am baffled. here is the scenario...

i was driving to work this morning and as i got off my exit and slowed to the light i downshifted to second and it ground badly. i figured i maybe did not get the clutch in all the way or something but it scared me anyways. well i take off slowly and when shifting into second again the gear grinds. i tried to VERY slowly get it into second a few times later and 4 times out of 5 it ground. so i stopped shifting second altogether.

what is wrong!!! i cannot believe that a tranny with 478 miles has already pooped on me???!!! why just second???

thoughts...

thanks
george

 

[mjguflaw]

Sounds like a bad synchro. I had the same problem with sixth gear. When I had mine replaced the dealer told me they didn't do that kind of work on site, so they replaced the entire transmission under warranty with a brand new one and sent the old one back to DC. The whole process only took a few days. It was an inconvenience but not that big of a deal.

 

[Ron]

George,

Assuming you take off in first gear normally, one could assume that the clutch mechanism is working properly, i.e. releasing when pedal is depressed. Also assuming that the other gears shift properly, one could assume that the shifter is working properly, though I know of no adjustments in the OEM shifter anyway. Given that, I can't see anything but a new transmission in your future.

Perhaps the 2nd gear syncro lost it's lining hence not speed matching the dog teeth?

 

[Bad_Byte]

I would check my clutch fluid.

 

[treynor]

That sounds like a bad 2nd gear syncro to me.

 

[Viper Specialty]

George... no biggie. They will give you a brand new tranny. Also, the '03 trannys should be the standard replacement now.

 

[BigCarrot]

Mine was replaced in 3 hrs. I had the same problem in my 01 R/T.

 

[RockyTop]

They just replaced my tranny about a month ago (lost 5th gear) and they DID NOT use the 03 tranny as I had hoped. I suspect since I am nearing the end of my warranty they realized they could resolve my claim with the old style, thus ridding themselves of a my claim while assuring that when/if it breaks again, I'll have to pony up some big bucks !

 

[Warren S]

Sounds like a bad syncro

Warranty work.

I'm not sure how it happened on the downshift, did you also 'blip' the throttle to match the rpm's?

--Warren.

 

[Viperfreak2]

Maybe it missed a machining process at the supplier.....