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Hey Guys,

I just bought a 2005 civic se from a Honda dealership here in Toronto. Its my first civic, and my first car. So far I love it. I have a couple concerns though that I'm not sure are actually problems or bad driving. lol. (im still getting used to manual shifting).

- occasionally I have problems going into fifth gear and when this happens a horrible grinding noise is made. (pretty sure my foot is all the way down on the clutch) I had a more experienced driver try this and though most of the time it was fine, it did happen once to him.

- I also have the same problem going back into first gear. This I notice only when Im in heavy traffic and there's a lot of stop and go. There's no grinding sound, it just won't go into first. Feels like somethings blocking it.

- I feel like going from first to second gear is not as smooth as it was a week ago. I could be crazy and I don't have anything to compare it to.

- Squeeky clutch (saw the answer to this on the forum). but its just a feeling I have. (i remember when I first got the car two weeks ago how smooth i remember things felt....but then again I was on a new car high)

Fifth: Sometimes going into reverse doesn't catch and I have to put it in neutral and then back into reverse to get it.

Would these problems merrit taking the car back into Honda to have them look at it or could I be overeacting? I really have no experience to compare too, only my gut feeling. I have 4 years of extended warranty so hopefully it will be covered 'cause I just spent all my money on this car. Sorry if these are trivial problems...any advice you can give me is helpful as I know absolutely nothing about anything car related. goes easy on me.

Thanks.

 
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I have to push my clutch almost all the way to the flow or it will grind a gear. And fifth you may just need to get use to it, the shift angle is a tad different than say 2nd to 3rd shift. As far as going into reverse thats normal. Every now and then my car will do that and I have to put it in 1st first then it will go in no problem.

 
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Eh, it happens to all of us. These cars have a weird clutch anyways. You just need to get used to the clutch and tranny.

As long as it's drivable I wouldn't spend the money to fix it. And by fix it I mean a rebuild as a rebuild is the only way to truly fix a tranny. Just putting in new synchros or whatever is not enough.

 
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If things still don't seem right to you you may want to change your transmission fluid. I changed mine to redline and it smoothed it up a pretty good bit.

 
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The reverse thing happens to me to no big deal,
and the squeaky clutch as well

 
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Yep, I would do a transmission flush, with honda genuine for manual of course...
Squeaky clutch, not sure, maybe a rusty spring inside the cabin?

I doubt your 1st/5th gear is really a problem, and its more of a driving habit, learn to drive a manual a little better

For the reverse gear, if it's a shortshift, its a lot harder to catch into reverse at one go, but even if it was stock, cars sometimes do that, happens to me in my friend's integra GSR, and miata MX5. What I do, is whenever i go reverse, i just put it in nuetral, do a complete stop, and swing it into reverse

 
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I have a 2005 civic Lx and I know what you're talking about for reverse. Also my first manual car. For the first week while driving it, I had exactly the same issue. I'd put it into reverse, then try to back up but it would grind. It's like the gears were only half in. What I do now is:

1. make sure the clutch is alllll the way depressed
2. make sure I move the shifter alllllll the way to the right (from neutral) before going down into reverse
3. listen for the gears to catch under the car. if you dont have music on and there's no traffic noise, you will hear the gears engage pretty loudly underneath the car even with your windows up.
4. before letting go of the clutch at all, I tap the gas. the gears usually grinded if they werent engaged properly.

and if i had no problem at any step, I was good to go. It might sound long and tedious to do 4 checks every time you want to put it into reverse, but it really all happens in about 1 second. I usually just do it all while I'm turning my head backward to begin reversing

 
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lol. Never thought about it till now but, I do the exact same thing in the same time frame. lol

 
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If you have trouble getting into reverse, try shifting into another gear, then into reverse, all with the clutch down. I think I read somewhere that that's a common honda tranny thing

With first gear, my car usually won't let me shift back into first gear unless I'm stopped or going hella slow (like <5 mph). To alleviate that in stop and go, I usually stay in first.

 
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For the rough shifting try changing your tranni fluid with the honda MTF and see if that helps. And for 1st gear, the car is not suppose to go into 1st from 2nd unless you are going under 5 mph. It is not meant to just go from 2nd to 1st easily like the rest. 1st gear is only there for take off.

 
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Well said.

 
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Wow. Thank you to all who responded! After reading all these posts I'm pretty convinced that it is my inexperience more then the car which is causing my concerns. This is truly a great forum.

sounds like I just need to get more practice in!