Manual shifter issues..

I have an 03 civic 5spd. Sometimes the shifter is hard going into 1st gear, no ryme or reason, and only occasionally, but it's annoying!!! No issues with reverse or any other gears, and the clutch works fine. If you force the shifter a little more, it will go into 1st...any suggestions or comments?? (This is assuming the trans fluid is up. Thinking maybe cables binding??? But don't know.

I have to ask this question, but is this from a standing start? or are you in high revs and trying to downshift from 2nd to first? Because if thats the case you probably have the engine not in the right RPM range to easily downshift from 2nd to 1st. Thats the only time my civic is ever rough on shifting.

It happens going into reverse, or first from a standing start. I never down shift hard, and usually when I upshift, it's below 2500 rpm. I like to take it real easy for fuel economy/ vehicle longevity...

I'm starting to think it's the clutch, because when it's real hard to engage first/reverse, if I let off the clutch and try again, then it's fine, and this only happens every once in awhile. Came across a honda tsb for this issue. It goes on to say it's a lack of grease on the trans. input shaft, causing the friction plate to ride on the flywheel, causing stiff shifter into 1/rev. Repair: pull trans and install hi temp lube on input shaft splines.

this is an older thread but i just had a similar problem and here's what i found out. there is a service tip in honda's internal bulletin, that is, it's not an official technical service bulletin yet like on the nhtsa website, that addresses inadequate lubrication on the clutch plate splines, causing difficulty/grinding for first gear and reverse gear especially in cold weather. had this happen to my '03 recently. the fix is to remove the tranny (ugh) and apply super hi-temp grease to the splined shaft. i'm going to try spraying a dry lube of some sort with a straw/tube first. anybody else dealt with this? also, per another posting, i lubed the big plastic ball at the bottom of the shift knob with a squirt of silicone lube and was instantly able to get it out of reverse, where it had been absolutely stuck. somehow in the process of it getting stuck, i lost pedal pressure in the hydraulic clutch. after buying a master cylinder from the local dealer, i found out it was air in the system...don't know what happened but after bleeding (it was trickier than brake bleeding for some reason) i finally got pressure back.