Uh oh, my customer just dropped 2nd gear
Discussion
Be careful guys, my customer just dropped second gear in his '02 Esprit. I guess they were serious about not shifting it too hard. Weird though, he did not have this problem with his '00 and he put 50k miles on that car. Any ideas?
I lost my 2nd gear on my 1995 S4 but at about 35k miles. Tooth missing from 2nd gear. If you power shift into 2nd the impact of the synchro ring seems to do it. It might only take a few crunched gear changes to do it.
Before taking the whole thing apart, I'd look at linkage/selector, but if he has 1st then it's most likely the gear itself.
Some people have mentioned that use of GL5 synthetic fluid can be corrosive to the tranny and cause premature wear, in case that had been added. Factory spec is a GL4 gear oil.
michael
1995 S4
Yeah, tell him to learn how to drive it.
Sure the tranny blows, and 1st to 2nd is the achilles heel. However, if you learn to operate the car properly you should be able to live happily with it.
The most important thing I think is to properly allow the car to warm up. Drive very conservatively until all your fluid temps are up. Then you can go crazy if you want to. But don't slam the shifter home. Take your time moving the shifter into 2nd...let the syncro do it's job of getting the gear up to speed. If you just cram it in, you'll get an unhappy tranny.
Before I learned how to properly warm up the car, etc, I used to grind 2nd gear whenever I launched from 1st to 2nd hard. Now, I never grind it, and I can drive more agressively in 1st.
Tell the guy to treat the car like a beautiful woman. She won't break if you do.
Mike
Sure the tranny blows, and 1st to 2nd is the achilles heel. However, if you learn to operate the car properly you should be able to live happily with it.
The most important thing I think is to properly allow the car to warm up. Drive very conservatively until all your fluid temps are up. Then you can go crazy if you want to. But don't slam the shifter home. Take your time moving the shifter into 2nd...let the syncro do it's job of getting the gear up to speed. If you just cram it in, you'll get an unhappy tranny.
Before I learned how to properly warm up the car, etc, I used to grind 2nd gear whenever I launched from 1st to 2nd hard. Now, I never grind it, and I can drive more agressively in 1st.
Tell the guy to treat the car like a beautiful woman. She won't break if you do.
Mike
MadMike,
Reading Chris's post, this is not the customer's first Esprit... he already drove 50K miles on a 2000MY, hence I have to believe he (the customer) has figured out how to drive the car (2000/2002 have identical drivetrains).
My gearbox went in 14K miles, and yes, I know how to drive... been driving stickshift for 30+ years. In my case, it was a defective box... no chipped gears or anything, just "churning" itself to bits internally. All fluid changes (done at 4K intervals) were just loaded with synchro dust but by 14K miles, big pieces of shiny stuff were coming out as well and shifting was horrible.
Who's to say this is the result of a bad driver??
Regards, KM
2000 V8
Reading Chris's post, this is not the customer's first Esprit... he already drove 50K miles on a 2000MY, hence I have to believe he (the customer) has figured out how to drive the car (2000/2002 have identical drivetrains).
My gearbox went in 14K miles, and yes, I know how to drive... been driving stickshift for 30+ years. In my case, it was a defective box... no chipped gears or anything, just "churning" itself to bits internally. All fluid changes (done at 4K intervals) were just loaded with synchro dust but by 14K miles, big pieces of shiny stuff were coming out as well and shifting was horrible.
Who's to say this is the result of a bad driver??
Regards, KM
2000 V8
kmaier said: MadMike,
Reading Chris's post, this is not the customer's first Esprit... he already drove 50K miles on a 2000MY, hence I have to believe he (the customer) has figured out how to drive the car (2000/2002 have identical drivetrains).
My gearbox went in 14K miles, and yes, I know how to drive... been driving stickshift for 30+ years. In my case, it was a defective box... no chipped gears or anything, just "churning" itself to bits internally. All fluid changes (done at 4K intervals) were just loaded with synchro dust but by 14K miles, big pieces of shiny stuff were coming out as well and shifting was horrible.
Who's to say this is the result of a bad driver??
Regards, KM
2000 V8
Sorry to lump you in. Certainly defective parts exist. But in a lot of cases, guys just drive their cars to death. Hence, the dreaded PO we all hear about.
And in a lot of cases, it's both...drivers who drive like they are doing the 1/4 mile every time, and Lotus build quality combined.
Mike
My customer drives like a maniac to be certain. But like I said, he had a 2000 that he did not have the same problem and he is a little older now so I have to assume knowing the pitfalls of driving like that he did not. I cannot assure that though. Guy loves his toys and playing pretty hard with them.
I was just throwing in a little bit of a word of caution for the new owners on the board that may not have had the shock of that actually happening to someone currently.
Chris
I was just throwing in a little bit of a word of caution for the new owners on the board that may not have had the shock of that actually happening to someone currently.
Chris
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