2nd to 3rd Gear Grinding?

Canada Nissan Automotive
1

I couldn’t find anything about this through the search function… Anyhoo, the vehicle is a 2002 Nissan Sentra Spec V, I got it in Feburary from a car lot. When I’m driven the car harder than normal and I shift from 2nd into 3rd, no matter how hard I push the clutch or how slow I shift I get a slight grind feel in my shifter and there’s an audible grind noise. Twice now when I raced some guy off the lights when I went to shift into 3rd around the 6000RPM mark the gear wouldn’t go in and I ended up grinding my gear very bad… When I first had the car the grind noise happened rarely, now it seems like that when I’m shifting into 3rd anywhere above 4500RPM its rare for it not to grind. All my other gears shift fine at the higher revs… I’m really frustrated… Anyone else had this problem?

I am abit abrupt with my clutch, but even when I concentrate on clutching well it still does it.

2

loose motor mounts, at high RPMs the engine and tranny twist making it harder to get into gear…my car did that, i bought an engine torque dampner and it helped alot, i never grind into gears anymore and its smooth shifting at any RPM. im planning on buying new engine mounts soon though. hope that helps

3

Unfortunately gear grinding was always a problem with the 2002 Spec V.

I’ve heard of people changing to red line tranny fluid, and changing gear oil to remedy the problem.

4

Yeah I remember when my 04 Spec used to do that… Plus all the shiftingproblems in the cold. I’m glad by 05 they fixed it. It only took nissan 4 years to fix…

5

The 02 gearbox is so clunky and yes it does grind, also very hard to get into reverse, pops out all the time.

New tranny fluid i hear helps a lot. Short shifter kits really do the job… :slight_smile:

6

Try Redline MT90. Its synthetic and should help to get rid of some minor notchiness.

7

I had the same grind you mention. Changed the tranny fluid with the MTL/MT90 mix and installed MMI, smooth as butter.

8

did you put 1 quart of mt90 and 2 quarts of MTL? why did you mix them?

9

I think a 50/50 mix was recommended on the Vboard. I can’t remember the rationale for mixing them, but EVERYONE that has done it has recommended that particular fluid change. I’m sure you can find out more there. :slight_smile:

10

I’ve heard that penzoil synchromesh works well also.