Problems Shifting..Help Please
 

2003 Honda Civic Ex
I have a problem with my shifting, when Im in a complete stop the car car shift into gears easily, when im in motion I shift into first easily, but shift into 2nd it is tough sometimes and 3, 4th are easy. also I cant down shift from 3rd into 2nd nor 1st. I kind of to play around with it by wiggling and then forcing to get in to the gears. I bought the car with 82k miles on it, so it has been four months now that I have it. I noticed it got worse when it gets cold out here in New England

I did take it to a mechanic and he greased the The shift cable end, from the exterior side, and that same night felt much better, untill the next morning the same thing again

Any idea what it can be? Please help!

Thanks,
Edwin

Re: Problems Shifting..Help Please
 

I've owned my car for now 2 months, and I experience exactly the same thing. It's got 60k miles on it. In fact, when I got my car, the reverse would rarely get into gear, so I gave it back to the dealership and they rebuilt the transmission for free under warranty (the job was worth 1800$). Changed gears, bearings, synchros, etc. When they gave it back to me, they claimed that it was working flawlessly. I stayed skeptical for a while and learned how to drive it properly with time. My former car, even though it also was a manual, was completely different to drive. Each car is different, and it takes a certain period to adapt.

What you gotta know is that the first and reverse don't have synchros. You must come to a complete stop before shifting into these gears. Many many people say that the second is tricky, so I guess it's characteristic of that transmission. I never downshift from 3rd to 2nd. Maybe you could change your driving habits at that level.

As another option, you could try to change your trans fluid, but I doubt it's gonna change much the situation.