[NickCooper]

Hi,
Just recently my Jimny has started grinding second gear when going from first to second. Never when goin down though and its always only second. I'm not sure what the problem is though. I did have an issue earlier this year where I was driving and could not downshift to second from third at all, it would just grind. The next day it just didnt do it anymore so I did a full oil change on the car anyway and hadn't had a problem since. I'm starting to think these could be related.

Has anyone heard of this happening before and how have they fixed it?

Thanks, any info is greatly appreciated.
Nick

[monley]

I always had issues with my jimny been stiff going into 2nd gear and the occasional grind. Swapped to vmx80 oil and never had a issue after that

[alien]

My sierra used to HATE shifting down 2nd to 1st and would grind or just not go in... when the tcase reduction gears went in and all oils were changed it somehow fixed itself. That was 5 years ago and its still fine.

Maybe as Monley suggested, a different grade oil???

[NickCooper]

Yeah that was my fix for it last time, but I was just wondering if maybe there was an issue. I think I'll do an oil change on the gearbox again. I'm running what castrol specifies on there website currently. Thanks for the info. So vmx80 is good?

[NickCooper]

At the moment I'm using CASTROL MANUAL VMX-M 75W-85

[Wolf]

i find if i don't change to hard it doesnt happen. need to do a fluid swap soon anyway, ill see if there's any metal in it

[GraphicX]

i had the exact some problem with mine, would grind sometimes, then others not at all & it appeared totally random. had some additive put in the gearbox & it works perfectly all the time now, can't recall what the additive was called though.

[Joshyboy26]

Synchro Gear is worn out

[henno]

Joshyboy26 wrote:

Synchro Gear is worn out

^^ This.

Every time I have had an issue with 1st and 2nd it was synchros. In my "go fast cars" I used to have issues with synchros all the time on first gear and that was the first symptom, particularly going down the gears where the gears are less likely to mesh easily.

[NickCooper]

I originally thought it may be the synchros but it doesn't happen everytime. Only happened once today (ironically just after I posted this). I'll try some of that additive if I find out what its called first instead of pulling the box out straight away as I need it daily so cant afford it to not be running.

[Wolf]

NickCooper wrote:

I originally thought it may be the synchros but it doesn't happen everytime. Only happened once today (ironically just after I posted this). I'll try some of that additive if I find out what its called first instead of pulling the box out straight away as I need it daily so cant afford it to not be running.

Smooth shift? Lucas honey?

[stuartcarr2002]

Drain a small amount of gear box oil out and top up with auto fluid. Fixed mine instantly.

[murcod]

Buy a decent synthetic oil and forget the additives. (Something like Redline).

I used VMX80 in my old Daihatsu Feroza which had a very worn box. It made it sound like a can full of marbles - it was shocking the amount of noise that suddenly could be heard. The shift issues (grating) also got substantially worse. I then spent the money on Redline and it was amazing what a difference it made - a lot quieter and the shifts improved so much it was like the box had been rebuilt. (I used their Shockproof oil.) I had the box rebuilt a few years later because it then became my only vehicle and I didn't want the box to suddenly fail (it was still shifting okay.) I was told all the the synchros were shot!

I've since used Redline in a Hyundai Excel which developed slight grating issues with 2nd gear @ 120000km. I think that was MTL I used and it fixed the grating - it even made all the changes a lot smoother.

PS: Also check your clutch is operating correctly-> fully disengaging.

[Jezza86]

doubble clutch and blip on the downshift.

[want33s]

As above.... Redline shockproof oil is the good stuff.