Car sometimes won't go into 1st:

kenratboy said:

Occasionally, at a stop, my car (see sig) won't shift into 1st. Usually, I can put it into 2nd, then back into 1st, and it works. Yesterday, it would go, so I had to start out in 2nd. After that, everything was fine, so I assume something just isn't lining up sometimes.

Could getting a tranny flush solve this, or should I just buy a new car

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were you rolling through the stop sign?
or a complete stop for a few seconds?

manual transmission has a design protection if the speed reach certain speed, it won't allow you to shift into 1st gear to prevent over rev the engine.

or maybe your clutch is due.

Sounds familiar. Your syncros are shot. Try this. Roll to the stop sign/light and put it in first gear shortly before you stop. It should fall right into place. Now if you come to a complete stop with the tranny in neutral, when the light goes green and you try to put it into first, but it won't go without grinding. I'm sure it is the synchros.

Try some redline MT-90 and that will help. If you want to solve the problem, replace the synchros in the tranny. If not, you just have to deal with holding the clutch in for the duration of the stop.

No, this is from a complete stop.

Probably the syncros. Even my friends AE86 and BMW 318is with 150k miles on each don't have this issue

Ummmm, how much for a tranny job to get new syncro's?

The parts are cheap, the labor is outrageous.

Try not to shift into first when your car is moving, gearboxes don't like that. If your car is not moving, double clutch and see if it will go in. Def tranny flush will help. Check your clutch while you are in there.

amerikim said:

Try not to shift into first when your car is moving, gearboxes don't like that. If your car is not moving, double clutch and see if it will go in. Def tranny flush will help. Check your clutch while you are in there.

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I try not to shift into 1st while moving, but sometimes, I need to (like in traffic, at very low speeds)