JetsterDajet

Let me preface this with: I'm a big dummy

I bought an 03 Civic LX to learn manual on. I only have experience driving and working on automatic vehicles. As a result, I didn't know there was such thing as a clutch master cylinder and that it has fluid and that I have to make sure it's full.

So, here I am driving my new Civic around, wondering why the pedal is so spongy and the grab point of the clutch keeps moving around. Clutch must be going out, me thinks. The person I bought it from performed ZERO maintenance on the car. Like, I'm pretty sure the air filter was in the car the day it rolled off the assembly line. So, I did some maintenance... on the things I knew about.

So one day, I go out to pull out of my parking spot and have a bit of a hard time getting it into reverse. I'm holding the clutch down, but the stick won't go into gear. I press a little harder and it slips in. Great. Back up. Clutch down, into 1st and... no give, it won't go into first. It won't go into second. It won't go into anything. So, here I am, blocking traffic and this damn car won't shift. So I'm dicking with it, dicking with it, just trying to get out of traffic. I notice that if I push the stick rather hard against 2nd gear, (keep in mind the clutch is still engaged since the pedal isn't disengaging) the car will move a touch. I do this until I can get the car back into the parking spot. At the time I think I'm a genius. Good job me. I conclude the clutch has gone out and head inside to order a clutch kit.

Fast forward two days and the the part arrives, I call a tow truck driver to give it a tow. He wants to have a look at the car first. Sure, look away. "You're out of clutch fuild, that's why your pedal doesn't work." The hell is clutch fluid? You mean transmission fluid? No, clutch fluid. The clutch has a hydraulic system, like the brakes. Well blow me down, that's just nifty as hell! Looks like my clutch hasn't gone after all! Thanks Mr. tow truck driver!

So I fill that baby up with fluid, bleed it real nice and BAM! Wow, that is the stiffest clutch I've ever stepped on (yet alone the only). I get up and driving and everything seems fine until I try to shift it into second. It GRINDS real bad. I find out I can avoid the grind by double clutching and rev matching -- but damn, if it's not one thing it's another. Upon further investigation, it seems that whatever should stop the stick from going into gear until the tranny and flywheel are at the same speed (this seems to be the syncro from what I've read) is STUCK OPEN. As in, nothing ever blocks the stick from going into second. Clutch down or not -- this would seem to explain the grinding.

Anyhow, I'm wondering if I "burnished" my second gear syncro to death when I was trying to get my car back into the parking spot when my clutch fluid ran out. I've read that flushing the fluid may help, but I have a feeling there's a cause and effect thing going on here and wanted to get a second opinion. Maybe there's something I can adjust? Thanks.

bsmiley

You live and learn. I don't mean this in a harsh way, and I don't want you to be upset. No amount of emotion will fix your gearbox. So don't sweat it, life is a continuous learning event. The learning is going to come now from removing your tranny and having it reconditioned or installing a reconditioned one. Do the clutch while you're at it.

My first car, a 1978 Accord CVCC sprung a clutch MC leak during school and to get home I had to start it in first gear at every stop and gently rev match it home.

You forced things and now the teeth and/or syncros for 2nd gear are damaged. I've seen some youtube videos about pulling the tranny and rebuilding it, but I think I'd pay a pro to overhaul the internals.

Reverb2005

Seems pretty likely that you ground down the synchro in second. At least from the description of what happened. You will find, after driving it around a bit more, that you will be able to live around it pretty easily. How and when you move the shifter and clutch pedal will dictate how badly the grinding happens.

One thing you SHOULD do right away now is drain that tranny fluid and get some fresh stuff in there. That will take out at least some of the shavings, depending on how bad it is and might make things shift a bit smoother, for a short while anyway.

PITA that it happened, but I've done similar stupid things with my baby when I first got it, don't feel too bad, just learn from it!

Somewhere on the forum (DIY section, or just search) there is a how-to on the changing of the transmission fluid. It only takes two bolts, a plastic hose and some HONDA MANUAL TRANSMISSION FLUID. Seriously, go to the closest Honda dealer and get the OEM fluid.

What other maintenance have you done to the car? If maintenance was never performed, you should really do some other minor things...

How many miles on the car? Chances are, you are driving a time bomb if you have not changed the timing belt yet.

JetsterDajet

Thanks guys. Yeah, guess the 2nd gear synchro is done. I've already got pretty decent at avoiding the grind, though my double clutching is a bit slow. Apparently people don't like it when you slow down too much while shifting from 1st into 2nd... what kind of hurry do you have to be in that the car ahead of you isn't accelerating fast enough in the first two seconds of launching? Jeez.

Anyhow, I will definitely be flushing the transmission fluid and getting that as clean as possible. If this were my daily driver I would probably feel better about this, as I could probably just deal with the issue. Problem is, I bought this car off Craigslist specifically for the purpose of learning manual for a month or two and then reselling it (apparently there's no such thing as a manual rental in the US). It'll be a tougher sell with the grind than it would have been with a perfectly shifting transmission

My primary goal right now is to get the speedometer working again (I've been at it for a while and haven't had any luck, about to start a new thread) so I can get the CEL off and get it smogged/registered for resale. Looks like I'll be taking a loss on the car, we'll just have to see how much...

And let this be a lesson to new manual drivers... don't be forcing the stick against anything, ever.

sdaidoji

iTrader: (1)

the speedo might be the sensor at the transmission