Whats going on with my shifting?

[PreludeMOFO]

ok heres the deal, I live in Minnesota and its winter like a mother fucker here. It gets down to like 12 deg and less some nights. My 94 Honda Prelude VTEC sits outside all night, so its an incredibly cold start in the morning. Now i usually let it warm up 5-10 minutes before driving it but heres where my question comes.

My shifter is incredably stiff during driving. I have to force it into gears most times, and its rarely smooth. Also when shifting into second with the clutch fully in, i still get a grinding noise, (as u would get when you let the clutch out and the car is not fully in gear). Also there is a clicking noise directly under my pedals whenever i am near the end of a shift. Now I will say that the stiffness goes away after awhile, so its probably just the car not warm enough, but as for the grinding into second gear, that remains regardless.

So what could it be? Bad bushings? Ice on the undercarriage? Or is the car just not warm enough yet?

Thx in advance fellas.

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1994 Honda Prelude VTEC, Manual
Bone stock till i fix radiator....

[Ricochet]

When was the last time you changed your tranny fluid? You could also just have a bad syncro.

[saranaz]

i have a 98 civic ex get prety dam cold up in Fond du lac WI,....anyways...my syncro in 3rd was goin bad....so got my tranny rebuilt...but i still had the stiffness in the shiftingproblem.....my tranny lube was at like 90weight and that was one problem....we put 80 and made my shiffting alot smoother, but also wen it is real cold shifts are a lil sticky....but wants it warms up it works like a charm...no grinding.....im not that upset about it right now since its winter and all...but its wen summer rolls around.....better not happen......yea so basically it can be the weather too that "hardens" ur tranny lube

[PreludeMOFO]

ya i thought it was just the weather, but as for the syncro thought, is there a way you can tell if its going bad without blindly going in and getting the tranny rebuilt? is tis a defintite symptom?

[IntegraB18LS]

try changing your fluid first, I use Royal Purple's Synromax i think its called, made my tranny shift alot easier

[T!mmy]

Yea I'm having that problem as well it goes into gear I just have to force a bit more...it got this way after I installed my short throw shifter

[Dumped91Hatch]

isn't 80 & 90 weight gear oil a little thick? Especially for winter.

[unusualcivic]

T!mmy- short shifter always increase shift effort, due to the fact that the phulcrum of the shift lever is moved.

[saranaz]

yes, it is.....its a bit sticky....

[knorwj]

80-90 weight gear oil????? your prelude is only a year newer so I can't see why my 93 gs-r would call for one thing and yours call for something so drastically different. I really can't imagine our tranny is that different?
usually gear/tranny fluid is the same for most cars a company produces.

my integra calls for 10w 30 motor oil in the tranny. I thought this was odd but when i drained it sure enough thats what it was... so who knows.

[JakeDrummer]

Yah I'm in Menomonie, WI and i have problems with the first few shifts when both of my cars are cold. After they get up to temp there fine. I've been told before that its caused by the hydro clutches and the cold but i don't know if i believe that. All honda manual trannys use 10W30 as far as I know.

I can't figure it out.... one time its 20 below zero and I have some trouble getting my civic into reverse.... what the heck honda??? where is your bomb proof reliability there??? dude it was so cold that night that my windshild cracked when i slammed the door. i was pissed!! but then I was proud when I turned the key and it started. damn i'll give that to hondas, they will always start no matter what. All you little pussys living in southern cal and florida don't know what your missing. LOL!!!!!!