drmotorhead

On a regular basis, I can barely get my C6 back into first gear after coming to a complete stop. If I stop 30 times in a day's driving, 2-3 times I have to put it in second and rock back and forth between second and first three or four times, and I still have to push it very hard. Sometimes I give up and start in second gear. Sometimes when I do finally get it to snap into gear, the speedometer needle flips all the way to 200mph and then back to 0mph, like it does when you start it up. I thought it would get better with miles, but I have 4500 on it now.

Time to go to the dealer?

Zig

yes.

C6SMKDU

That happens to me. What I do, press on the throttle a little and then it goes onto first, but it does not work all the time. My has 4600 mi.

AutoCutter

Yes, got that too-also have a problem with shifting 1st to 2nd when the car is cold-this am it sounded like I was grinding a 50's beater!

archtop

Mine did that at first,after about 2k miles it smooths out.

mikeyc6

This is a common issue with any manual transmission. You can completely eliminate the problem by shifting to 1st before you come to a stop instead of rolling to a stop in neutral. As long as you shift to 1st before rolling to a stop and keep it in first until you come to a complete stop, you'll always be able to hit 1st easily when you need it. It's when you roll out of gear and get the gears misaligned that this is an issue.

Now the needle pegging to 200 as it does on startup, that is not normal.

Mike

Keller

How many syncros does this tranny have on each gear?
Some 6 spds are triple syncroed on 1st-5th and double on 6th.

I have driven some cars such as the Subaru WRX that do not want to go into 1st after a stop and some that go in just fine 100% of the time.

djhartm

Someone reported that changing the transmission fluid to a high-quality fluid like Royal Purple eliminated the notchiness.

jduncan85

I have the same issue on mine, except for the speedo reset.

Asterism

the 1st issue is normal, and mentioned on page 2-26 of the owners manual.
just cycle the clutch and retry the shift and it will work every time.

your speedo issue however is not normal.

Zig

guess that's why i don't notice it, just a habit of always shifting down even if i'm gonna use the braskes to stop.

-zig

terrydennis

Has anyone tried depressing the clutch pedel once or twice prior to shifting into first?
This is actually mentioned in my ZR-1 manual for my zf 6 speed.

14 year old technology but it might be worth a try.