Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this before I take back to the dealer...

My car is a 2017 South African spec 1.2 5MT (40000km) and its really tough sometimes impossible to downshift to 2nd while moving and its getting annoying...

Anyone experienced this before?

 

Just one man's opinion, but you're better off using your brakes rather than downshifting to 2nd or 1st at speed. These are slow speed gears and what you're finding is common with other vehicles I've owned from other brands. Brake pads are cheaper than synchros and the clutch plate.

With a blip of the throttle to rev match, downshifting to 5th, 4th and 3rd makes sense and is easily done for hills and speed zones. Good luck.

 

What speeds are you traveling when downshifting to 2 or 1? Does the condition improve after the transmission is completely warmed up? Was it always like this even when new?

The faster you're going, the more difficult it will be for the lower gears to engage due to a larger mismatch between gears that the synchros must overcome. And overall lower gearing exacerbates this. I'm guessing the 1.2 L engine might have fairly low gearing to offset the lower horsepower.

On my personal vehicles, I double clutch downshift to 2nd or 1st sometimes if I think the conditions warrant it, e.g. a cold transmission or higher speeds for the lower gear. This makes the gear engage quickly and effortlessly.

 

2nd should not need double clutching as it should have a synchronizer.

take it in, chances are ur synchro is shot. and yes, i down shift my MT cars into 2nd often. even 1st if warranted.

 

actually id check ur MT oil level first..

 

I my experience downshifting to 2-nd should be problem-free at any speed as long as revs are matched (and you aren't going to end up past redline).
I never downshift to 1st unless the car is just rolling, as in - slower than walking pace. You shouldn't need to.
Unless uphill.
In Europe, 1-st is used exclusively to get the car from stationary to moving, you shift to second as soon as possible.
That is how I learned to drive.

 

European guys want to save gas so they shift to a higher gear as soon as possible. When I ride with them, I think to myself, WTF? They're in 4th gear before they cross the intersection. OK, a little sarcasm here, but you know what I mean. When they are here, they see me shift my BMW at 3500-4000 rpm. They are probably think WTF too. Well, its gearing is for a sports car not some sub compact geared for economy.

Redline 1st and 2nd gear shouldn't hurt anything. In fact sports car gearing such that the car should reach 62mph in 2nd w/o having to shift into 3rd so to claim a faster 0-62 mph (0-100 km) time for advertising purposes.

 

LOL, this is so true.
Anyway, all am saying is that if you shift to 1st and you are not standing still, there will always be some degree of difficulty as most transmissions are designed to use 1st only for take-off.
And yes, I could theoretically drive my N55 inline 6 BMW from stop to over 100 kmh all day long in 2-nd gear exclusively.
While getting 10 mpg, lol

 

Thanks for the replies.

So it doesn't seem to improve once warm, I also thought about that.
Its going in next week for them to check the level and a few other things, I will report back.

 

You don't mention miles on the car, but I've always found that replacing the manual trans fluid on Hondas improves shift performance. Apparently, the friction modifiers wear out...



I do it on our cars every ~30K miles.

 

I often downshift to 5th, 4th, or as conditions warrant, rarely 2nd unless turning a slow speed corner or something, but have never downshifted to 1st whilst moving. No useful info from me.

 

25k miles / 40k km

 

On my previous car I filled up only half oil in the tranny when doing maintenance. A few days later I suddenly lost access to gears 2, 3, and 4. So I drove using only 1st and 5th gears for a few months. I got used to lots of 4000+ rpm shifts from 1st gear to 5th.

My dad took over the car ... filled up the tranny ... all was back to normal. I could not believe I had forgotten to fill up transmission with the right amount of oil.

 

OMG this sounds so familiar.... except I am the father in my story.

 

wat kind of bonehead does dat? i can understand a few days for a child trying to find time to do the work or watever, but a few months? haha!

 

If my memory serves me well, it was around my 1st clutch job and I did it almost all by myself; dad helped out too. Now that I look back ... I can't believe what I did. But when cash is tight / young buck u gotta do what u gotta do.

Nevertheless, fate had me a beater high mileage corolla in good shape with the automatic. I loved that car very much for a couple of years before jumping into the VTEC bandwagon.

 

You're reminding me of a Formula 1 race from 1994, Michael Schumacher was leading the race but gradually lost every gear in his transmission except fifth. He somehow managed to complete the entire race including two pit stops in fifth gear alone, and finished second.


Not quite the same thing, obviously, but it's awesome enough to deserve remembering.




Barcelona 1994: Schumacher's '5th gear only' signature drive | F1i.com