Notchy tranny? Feedback appreciated!

[hesperus]

Hi all,

This is probably me just being totally, paranoid, but...

During a tarmac autocross event yesterday I crunched the gears quite badly downshifting into 1st entering a hairpin. You know, that sickening gear on gear grinding sound, and lasted almost a second as I was clumsy and in my haste to get round the turn was probably forcing the stick into 1st.

I'm usually very careful so this sort of thing rarely happens to me, and I'm just worried that I might have caused some serious damage. The evo box is supposed to be quite strong I've been told, and that kind of abuse in isolation shouldn't be enough to really cause anything serious (or so i hope!).

I've tried it today, and the good news is that on the move, shifting gears feels totally normal-- nothing out of the ordinary.

BUT with the engine idling at standstill, and just clutching in and shifting 1-2-3-4-5-R, it feels "notchier" than before. Going into 4th and R in particular, you have to be fairly forceful to get the stick to go in. I can't remember anymore if it was like this before, or if this is just after that incident yesterday.

I'm having tranny oil changed this week, to check for any unusual metal fragments in the fluid.

Anyone able to shed light on this and put me at ease? Or for that matter, deliver the bad news that I could have f*cked something bad and I need to prepare myself for some big bills?

Cheers!

[hesperus]

Oh, and a mate just told me that when cold, his Reverse gear is really hard to engage also, but 4th is very easy. I suppose this could be down to different tolerances between cars, but as I mentioned, my 4th is the hardest to shift into with the engine running and at a standstill (i.e., just clutching through the gears).

Another friend suggested that it could be simply my shifter bushings need changing.

My car has 10k kilometers (about 6k miles) on it, by the way. Have got a twinplate clutch and lightened flywheel as well, for what that info is worth.

Thanks!

[Dave Wilson]

I think it's usual to have difficulty selecting 1-2-3-4-5 in gearbox when at a stand still - something about the cogs not being aligned properly and the shafts have to be rotating for it to work....?

I'm guessing that the worst case will be that you have some shards/shavings/metal particles floating around in your gearbox now. It's usual for a gearbox to have a magnet inside to pick up these bits, but if I were you I'd get the gearbox oil drained & refilled asap. When the fluid is coming out look for a shine to it, almost a "shimmy", this is a dead giveaway of small metal particles.

[hesperus]

Thanks Dave,

I am having the transmission oil changed tomorrow, on the suggestion of my mechanic.

I take it from your comment that even if there ARE small metal particles in the oil, that's normal? Or at least, not something I should be losing sleep over?

Would you say I'm correct in assuming that the worst damage I've probably done is to shorten the life of my tranny a bit? That is to say, I've not really "broken" anything, but have simply accelerated the natural wear & tear on the gears and cogs and whatnot?

Thanks!

[Dave Wilson]

I had a problem with the FTO's gearbox (which I'm willing to bet is fairly similar) whereby the syncros were wearing and it got a little whiny. I changed the oil and sure enough what came out was a bit 'coppery'. Since then I've changed gearbox oil fairly regularly and it's probably a good thing to do anyway (I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong :) )

As your car is failry low mileage once you change the oil it should be okay. You may have damaged (more likely slightly worn) the cogs on 1st but other than that the rest of it should be okay. Personally I'd not worry about it after you've changed the oil.