Greetings everyone!!!

I've been getting the occasional "popping out of gear" feeling from 1st to 2nd from time to time that others have experienced. This usually only happens on the first drive of the day and when things are still cold. However, this thing that was a rare occurrence has now started happening on and off while driving. I have also felt (but can't hear) a sort of grind or harshness when going into 2nd gear every now and then. The feel of the actual pedal is still same as it was from day one and engages in the same spot every time.

My Fit Sport has about 4,000 miles on it now, and I have never once burned the clutch by redlining, over revving, or any sort of racing. I've been driving manual cars off and on for ten years, and have yet to even come close to destroying or having to replace a clutch. In fact, with the Fit, I am usually so seamless that you can't feel the car move when running through the gears.

Has anyone else experienced this sort of thing? Is it something to be concerned about? Any TSB's for swapping out the transmission oil? What could be going on here? Oh man I'm freaking out because if I have to replace a clutch already for something that is defective I don't have the money to get it done.

 

Well if it was the clutch it would seem to me that it would be happening in all the gears. Maybe you're so seamless you're not engaging 2nd gear fully and it pops itself out. I know that the 8thgen Sis are notorious for having 3rd gear problems in which it will pop out and grind and just be an all around PITA. However, you'd be the first person that I've heard from that has noticed it in the Fit. If the car is still under warranty just bring it back to Honda and have them take a look.

 

It seems a lot of people find engaging 2nd to be a little tricky. It feels notchy compared to the rest of the gears on my Fit. It may just be how it is.

 

If something is defective in your clutch, it's under warranty. At 4000 miles you should NOT have to be doing anything to your powertrain.

 

Can you elaborate on the "popping out of gear" thing? Is the car popping out of gear or not? If it is, there is something wrong with the transmission.
At 4K miles, if something isn't right it will be taken care of under warranty. Get thee to a dealer.

 

yea some times i can feel a scratch going into 2nd in my fit and i'm <1,500 miles
i know what you mean

 

It doesn't literally pop out of gear, but it feels like it shoots out of first and into your hand when throwing to 2nd. There was another thread here on the boards that mentioned what I'm feeling. Once you go for 2nd, it's really notchy and feels harsh like it doesn't really want to go into gear. The thing is, you don't have to force it at all. It will go into gear easily. I've tried shifting at lower and high rpms and it will do it off and on both ways.

Thank you for the responses everyone! I think it's time my baby gets to the dealership to be looked at. Ugh, I just hate the thought of possibly being without my car if they need to keep it.

 

just take that shift slow...1st to 2nd I find that once I'm in 2nd, I need to wait longer before levelling out than the other gears. It seems like it has a ton of balls in 1st and 2nd gears, but 3rd-5th are WEAK

 

havent had a problem with mine, the whole car is touchy on a cold start but thats how every honda ive had (4) has been,just take it easy for a mile or two.

 

my fit "pops" out of first a lot since my oem clutch/fidanza flywheel install... its not a problem for me at all, just push it down into second after it "pops".

my 2nd gear also sounds very mechanical too compared to how it was before. its like the sound you hear when you stick it in reverse but louder...pretty sure none of this is actually an "issue" tho..

i could be wrong.

if i go realllllly slow like a granma it wont pop out and 2nd gear sounds like just all the others when put into gear.

 

the dealership would NOT warranty my clutch, i burned it up at 4k, didnt tell them i did it, but they would not warranty it as it is a "wear" item. all dealers might not tell you this, but mine did.

 

Yeah, I've had the shifter jump out of 1st when I push in the clutch before too. I've got an 08 with 1400ish miles. I haven't noticed anything with 2nd though (knock on wood). So does anyone know why this happens and if its a problem?

 

it only happens on my car if i push the clutch in...and when my hand is just barely touching the shifter...

i am going to grab it, fingers first, it will pop out as soon as my fingers barely touch it and into the palm of my hand without me grabbing the shift knob and pulling it out . it doesnt bother me much since i can still shift into 2nd just fine and just as fast. if there was a way to fix it i would love to tho...

 

you're probably not pushing down the clutch pedal all the way to the floor and/or the a/c is turning on just as you are about to shift.

 

if thats on me, i never use the ac, just windows down, and and my pedal has been adjusted, it grabs quicker, its in all the way.

if its to somebody else forget my post ;p

 

my post was for the general public who might have this issue.

 

I have an 08 with 4k miles with the same "issues." Not problems because they don't really affect driveability.

I blame the popping out of 1st on the soft soft motor mounts. Clutch disengages, you pull the shifter just a little bit taking cog contact just off the flats, motor bounces off the mount stop, and it kicks the cogs right out of the hub. No sense worrying about it until it wants to pop out on its own (before I want to shift).

Also 2nd and 4th have a bit of a whirrr to them, but hey you should have heard my old civic transmission. Once I replaced the ISB and got rid of that racket the whirr of 4th was quite evident, almost as much as the grrrsh of 5th. Heck try driving a jeep lol

Actually now that I think about it I've never heard a manual tranny that didn't make some kind of noise that telescopes up the linkage.

 

Thanks for the replies everyone!!!

I have a new issue now that started two days ago. My clutch pedal is always super light and i can engage it all the way with barely any effort. Two days ago however, I got in to take my wife to work, and I noticed that the pedal was a bit harder to engage. It has slight resistance now when I'm applying pressure to engage it. It's not a whole lot stiffer, but enough so that it's messing up my timing on a takeoffs as well as 1st to 2nd gear. A good friend of mine theorizes that it could be the clutch breaking in more now. That this could indeed be the way the car will act from here on out. Has anyone else with a 5MT had their clutch stiffen up a bit after you put some miles on your car?

Is my clutch just freaking out on me now or what? It's beginning to seem like I'm going to have some issues with the Fit. I hope not because I love this car.

Any advice or theories would be really appreciated.

 

Stiffer clutch usually means the grease on the clutch housing cone that the throw out bearing slides on is thinning up a bit. Eventually it'll start squeaking when disengaging the clutch, that's when you know it needs a little grease.

Usually if the car is a DD with stop and go use, at 100-120k miles it needs a good greasing to stop it from sticking. Since it's being taken apart a lot of people will just replace the clutch anyway at the same time because the labor is already paid for.

Actually trying to figure out how to get grease into an EK right now without pulling the tranny, its clutch is fine but it sticks. Removing the slave cylinder is easy; getting grease behind the fork is hard.

 

Sometimes when i'm switching from 1st to 2nd it feels like the shifter gets stuck 1/4 of the way into 2nd.