XRS Six Speed

[chris93473]

Hello everyone I just recently purchased a new XRS beginning of this month. This is definitly a great car. As of right now I accumulated about 1500 miles on this car and given it it's first oil change. I have a new question the six speed tranny that anyone can help me with. sometimes when i shift to certain gears like 2nd, 5th and 6th i have a really hard time shifting to those particular gears sometimes during aggressive driving. Is it because i'm not clutching in all the way or the transmission is just still new ? thanks

[Ukrainian102]

You should really give the car a break-period of about 2000 miles before you drive it aggressively or hit lift. I haven't driven an XRS, so I don't know if it's a common issue or not. Try pushing the clutch in a little further than usual, if that helps and it shifts fine, you may need to get the clutch cable tightened or something. Anyway, it sounds like you should get it checked out, as I've never heard of this before. Take it to the dealer, you still got warranty. Good luck.

[silver04rollas]

Hmmm. I know what you mean. I was in your boat about two months ago. I was freaking out. Moreover, I was not getting the clutch/gas pedal timing right, which resulted in the buring smell (new clutches burn no matter what for the first little while). To stay true to the sporty aspirations of the car, Toyota made placed the gears really close especially the 1-4, which are used in high speed racing etc. 5 and 6 are placed kind away from the first four. Back to your issue, follow these tips. They worked great for me. In two months, I have been racing quite a few cars and I can shift quickly enough to not let the revs drop below 6300 rpm.

Note: your car is not broken in anyway, so in order to ensure the best performance for years to come, please follow the proper break in procedures ( read the details in your user manual for 2ZZ GE engine). Refrain from hitting lift and revving the engine above 5000 rpm. It is an incredibly difficult thing to excercise, but your engine's life after 50 K miles depends on it.

1- The first and 3rd can be very confusing since when I started driving it, I used to put it in third thinking it was first. A trick to see if the gear is in the proper gear, remember the third gear is completely straight with no tilt to the left or right while the first is slightly tilted to the left. You should be able to look at the stick and see if it is tilted to left or not in order to determine if it is in 1st or 3rd.


2- When the XRS is brand new, the stick is annoyingly notchy. Gears snick from one to another, but as you use it more, it will soften up. You will be able to diagonally move the stick from 2nd to 3rd. It will just take a few weeks to soften up.

3 - Use your palm rotation to guide the shift. What that means is that when you want to perform a particular shift, you need to slightly rotate your palm in that direction. For instance, when going 2nd to 3rd, place your palm near the left corner of the stick so that your palm is facing slightly to the passenger side. Slightly apply pressure in diagonal direction while moving the stick up you will see the stick will glide into 3rd without much effort. The palm positioning essentially locks out the probable misshift gear ( in this instance the first gear). Repeat the same thing for 4th to 5th. When you are downshifting from 3rd to 2nd or 5th to 4th, grab the stick so that the palm is facing you, and pull the stick in the proper direction.

4 - Shifting from 5th to 6th or 6th to 5th can be balky since they are placed far to the right. Easy way to make sure you do not shift from 6th to 4th or 5th to 3rd is by grabbing the stick from the left side (meaning completely from the left side) so that your palm is facing the passenger side and learn how to flick your wrist to move it in proper gear without moving the elbow.

5 - In the end practice as much as you can. Even when your car is parked work through all gears randomly without looking. Find excuses to use the stick. Experiment with speed vs torque and get the feel for when you are driving in the city which gear provides the best torque at certain speeds. I used to practice like crazy for instance, when I am approaching a red light at the traffic signal in 6th, I usually press the clutch and put my right foot on the brake and slowly start braking, while working my way down from 6th to 1st through all the gears rather than shift directly from 6th to 1st. Good luck!

[silver04rollas]

By the way, if you have your clutch pressed up against the floor and you are finding it hard to shift in 2nd, 5th and 6th then you might want to talk to Toyota about it since it is not normal.

[rolla-XRS]

The 6-speed definitely takes getting used to. When I had my Celica GTS I would miss the intended gear all the time and get "caught up" inbetween gears. USed to drive me nutty until I got used to the quick throws that barely moved left or right.

With the XRS, I haven't missed a gear yet. Practice makes perfect. Going back to a 5-speed will feel like you're driving a school bus. You'll never wanna go back.

[djwolford]

Originally Posted by chris93473

I accumulated about 1500 miles

At 1500 miles the car is already past the recommended 1000 mile break in period, flog the hell out of it. As for the shifting problem, I'm at about 5k now, and my transmission is a lot smoother now than it was for the first few thousand miles. Not sure if I just got used to it or what the deal is, but your problem will probably go away soon enough.

[chris93473]

thanks guys. actually when i was examining my shifting and clutching patterns and reading about what you were all telling me. there were times when i wanted to have a little faster acceleration time (not 0-60 but just generaly a faster acceleration) so i would be really fast to the point where i'm not depressing the clutch all the way down. those points you gave me espically the palm rotation part were really good.

i did alot of research on the net about proper shifting techniques like heel and toe, double clutching which i'm experimenting with and also the shifting patterns too. usually for me, if i shift gears at a normal speed and be smooth about it, it's all good. the problem is when i start get excited and i start to lose coordination. anyways thanks for the tips

[TX_corolla_XRS]

Wow, a subject near and dear to me! What a great thread to make my first post on this website!

The first couple years of the six speed gearbox used in the XRS did not have as much "feel" as the ones we grind up now. Toyota "bought" a whole lot of 2ZZ's that were blown up due to accidental downshifts from 5th to 2nd when 4th was wanted. The current design requires a greater amount of "effort" to shift into the 1-2 and 5-6 channels. The theory is, a misshift into 3-4 has a much less chance of being fatal to the 2ZZ engines interference type piston\valvetrain design. I've got about 7k on my XRS and only miss shifts occasionally now.

[rolla-XRS]

The blown pistons were due to downshifts from 5-to-2 on 2000 Celica GT-S until they stopped producing them for a few months in mid-2001 to introduce safeguards against this type of "driver error". The unfortunate consequence of this lockout is a stiffer shifting mechanizm. XRS inherits all the drivetrain characteristics from 2001-and-up Celica GTS.

You might be interested to know that most blown Celica GT-S engines were occuring during test drives - when the prospective buyers or the salesman dropped the hammer without knowing wtf they were doing.

Therefore early production year 2000 Celica GT-S are something of a rarity and sought after because of their easier shifting.

That said, I used to miss gears all the time that earlier version Celica (ie: let up on the clutch too soon and end up bouncing off the gear). I have yet to do that with my XRS.