Manual transmission grind going into 2nd cold

[Kyle Liberty]

Just recently the weather where i am has started to get really cold (at or below 30 degrees). i have noticed when driving my 1992 toyota celica early in the morning and not letting it warm up it is notchy going into 2nd and may lightly grind while going into gear. all other gears are fine. If i go from first, push the clutch in then swing into neutral then into 2nd (while keeping the clutch pushed in) it’s totally fine. usually doing that twice while driving on an ice cold motor i can then drive fine normally 1st-2nd and so on. I was just wondering if this was normal? i know manuals act different when its really cold out and the clutch was replaced very recently, not sure how long ago but it is definitely under 30k miles new. car drives fine otherwise. I usually let the car warm up a little anyways but sometimes i just have to leave in a hurry and don’t have time. I have only owned the car since july 2014 so i have never had it in the cold weather until now. i also plan on changing the transmission fluid soon, even though it’s not that old (car only has 109k, and the clutch and fluid was just recently done but i’m OCD about the thing and just want to make sure it’s alright)

Topic

[Mike]

Your trans oil could stand to be changed every 30k. I change all driveline fluids at the beginning of each winter because I want the car to be comfortable having it’s maximum performance demanded.

Anyway, you could have a worn out synchronizer, which I’ve seen at under 100k on some cars, but not a Toyota and they last a lot longer than that on most cars. I will be replacing a second gear synchro on a 2011 Mazda3 pretty soon for example, but all the other manual transmissions I overhaul need new bearings and the synchros are fine. It is safe to say that the 2nd gear synchro not only does more ‘work’ than any of the other ones, but is also demanded to do it fastest by and aggressive driver, meaning it’s the most common one to wear out first.

What’s more likely is that you have some normal wear on it and it’s time to switch to a high performance gear oil that will help it work normally despite being a bit worn. Examples I’ve had work for your problem on high mileage transmissions would be Redline MTL/75W90 and BG Synchro-shift.
Take a look here:

http://www.germanautoparts.com/Chemicals/Gear%20oils/

Any of those oils would do you a lot of good. The MoS2 additive is in one of my cars now and is great added protection, but it looks like liquid silver so it looks like a transmission’s death when you drain the oil back out with that in it.

[John Hugon]

Redline MTL/75W90 and BG Synchro-shift…MoS2 additive

Could you use this in a transmission with no issues and it extend the synchro life/trans life?

[Mike]

Absolutely. I’ve been swearing by those oils for my 15 year driving career (including a car I’ve had 14 years) and have never had to do any work to a trans or driveline unit of mine.

[Kyle Liberty]

I just put red line MT-90 GL4 transmission fluid in and it made such a HUGE difference in how the entire car drives! the clutch feels so strong, and all the gears shift seamlessly. The clutch was recently replaced and when i did further research i found out they no longer sell dedicated GL-4 manual transmission fluid for my car in stores. I had to order in the red line stuff. I bet they used a cheap GL5 / GL4 compatible fluid that didnt have the right characteristics in the cold weather. problem solved thank you!

[Lorrin Barth]

Even though it says so on the bottle there is no such thing as GL5/GL4 gear oil. My automobile uses GL4 also and I either have to order it or buy it from the dealer.

[Author]

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