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EP3 First gear crunchy

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9
I've just bought my first EP3. When I go into 1st, the gear shift is very "crunchy". Is this normal?
Other gears are all fine but the gearbox does not seem to like going into 1st very much.

I think the car has a short shifter installed, not sure if this has any bearing on the matter.
 
Is this all the time or when the car is cold? Also, is there some sort of induction kit or cold air feed in the engine bay?
 
Is this all the time or when the car is cold? Also, is there some sort of induction kit or cold air feed in the engine bay?
That's a good question and I'm not sure of the answer. Particularly noticed it today, I guess it was maybe a little worse cold but not sure... I think it still happened while car was warm running. why what difference would this make? It's normal on a cold start just to have 1 gear being like this?

And yeah got a tegiwa intake.
 
Cold old gear oil. Might improve when warmed. The reason I asked about induction kit was to make sure it wasn't in the way of the gear linkage, teg should be fine unless you have an ill fitting heatshield? Maybe take the short shifter off, easy enough just don't drop the clips!

How's the clutch feel? Usually on these a worn clutch causes crunchy shifts at high rpm, can't imagine that's your problem with it just being 1st
 
Cold old gear oil. Might improve when warmed. The reason I asked about induction kit was to make sure it wasn't in the way of the gear linkage, teg should be fine unless you have an ill fitting heatshield? Maybe take the short shifter off, easy enough just don't drop the clips!

How's the clutch feel? Usually on these a worn clutch causes crunchy shifts at high rpm, can't imagine that's your problem with it just being 1st

After driving it a bit more, yeah this happens when car is warmed up. Not sure how to describe it but it makes a kind of crunch when I go into 1st. In fact, i would actually say that it feels like there is very little travel when it goes to first, compared to moving it up to 3rd or 5th. Is that normal?

I have struggled a handful of times actually getting it into gear, leads to some awkward moments at the traffic lights lol

Clutch feels fine. And no this isn't at high rpm this is just when I am parking or moving from standstill.
 
I'd check the linkages under the airbox (teg) first, make sure they move without restriction. Also check the condition of the bushes to see if anything looks damaged. Then I'd be looking at the bottom of the shifter to see if anything is catching.
 
I'd check the linkages under the airbox (teg) first, make sure they move without restriction. Also check the condition of the bushes to see if anything looks damaged. Then I'd be looking at the bottom of the shifter to see if anything is catching.

thanks mate. I am getting it serviced next week so will ask garage to check
 
Change the transmission fluid, short shifter can help also, it did on mine.

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Change the transmission fluid, short shifter can help also, it did on mine.

Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk

Thanks for the answer. Not much use now though as since my last post, I've crashed and wrote off the car.

Incidentally I did have a short shifter on the car which I thought might have been what's causing the crunchy changes.
 
Thanks for the answer. Not much use now though as since my last post, I've crashed and wrote off the car.

Incidentally I did have a short shifter on the car which I thought might have been what's causing the crunchy changes.
Sorry to hear that. I had a crunch on gear 2 which was helped by adding a short shifter and changing gearbox oil

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Try avoid going into vtec in 1st gear as that damages the 2nd gear apparently.


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