Elantra GT grinding gears

Anyone heard of this?

My wife's new 04 Elantra GT grinds everytime you go from 1st to
2nd gear. The only way it won't is if, when going from 1st to
2nd, pause in neutral for about a half-second, then it will go
into 2nd gear just fine.

It doesn't do this when going into 2nd from any other gear.

We are waiting to hear back from our Hyundai dealer to bring the
car in. I hope it is something easy and simple to fix as I have
been very, very happy with the car overall!

 

My 03 GT does the exact same thing. I just live with it....

Regards,

Neil

 

[Disclaimer: I am making an educated guess on this -- I could be
entirely wrong]

Sounds like it could be an issue with the synchros for 2nd gear. The
synchros make sure that your transmission is spinning at the same
speed as your wheels when you push the stick into a particular gear.
They're kind of like the clutch plate between the wheels and the
transmission, whereas your regular clutch is the one that goes between
the engine and your transmission.

That is the resistance you feel when you try to enter a very low gear
when you're going very fast. The synchro has to slip a whole lot to
get your transmission spinning at the very high speed needed to match
up to the speed of your wheels, since it's in such a low gear.

If you try to force the shifter into a particular gear when your
clutch is engaged, your synchros will simply wear themselves out
trying to match the transmission's speed to the wheels' speed, since
there is no chance in hell that those measly synchros can slow the
transmission when the transmission has the power of the whole engine
backing it.

Anyway, the synchro could be unable to get a good grip on your
transmission to slow it down to the speed necessary to shift into 2nd,
and it's letting you shift anyway, even though the transmission and
the wheels are going at different speeds. Hence, the grinding. They
may, though, be able to grip in the opposite direction (that is,
speeding up the transmission).

Anyone care to offer their thoughts on my theory?

Moshe

 

I suppose it's possible. I currently have one of these apart now. The car
has really low mileage like 5k mi or something. If this is a frequent
problem, there may be a redesign or a tsb issued in the near future.

In the car I'm working on, gear clashed on any shift into 2nd gear after
driving for more than a few minutes. Upon disassembling the trans, fourth
gear looked as damaged as second. I'm hoping this turns into a few rogue
cases, but the amount of replies scares me.

 

Yes, mine does the exact same thing. Sounds pretty common among Hyundai. I
am trying to get mine fixed but of course the dealership is reluctant.

I wish I hadn't bought it!

 

My Accent did the same thing, but other than being mildly annoying, it
never caused a problem. That was a Mitsubishi transmission, BTW. I don't
know if that's the case with the '04 Elantra or not. So far, I've had no
trouble with mine grinding at all, before or after installing a short
shifter.

 

We are bringing the car in today to have the dealership fix the
problem. The car didn't do the grinding initially, it developed
however, within the first 1000 miles. I'll post here how things
go with the service folks.

 

In the car I'm working on, gear clashed on any shift into 2nd gear after

This really sounds like a clutch not releasing all the way problem
rather than a transaxle problem. Cold gear oil is thicker and is
better able to match the speeds of the input/output shafts, so no
clash when cold. Once it begins to warm up the oil thins a little bit
and then the issue with the clutch not releasing starts to come into
play. Of course if the owner continued to drive it with the gears
grinding I could see how things could get torn up internally in short
order.

Could even be wrong lubricant. I had a dealer put ATF in my sephia
5spd box one time. I could see doing that if I lived in the antartic
but in arizona you need the 85w90 legit gear oil.

Chris