6 speed, shifting into 2nd gear
 

96 Corvette LT4 and I've sometimes notice if i drive it easy and slow and when i shift into 2nd, sometimes I miss 2nd gear. But if I get on it hard from 1st gear, shifting into 2nd its always smooth and easy. It shifts great in all the gears but always seems like im always missing 2nd gear when going really slow. Not sure why? Has anyone experience this before?

Time to change your fluid. The ZF transmission will LOVE new fluid.

Now, I will not make a recommendation on which fluid to use; I'll let everyone else jump on this band wagon.

Sounds like the skip shift solenoid to me. You need one of these:
Skip Shift Eliminator
From the factory it's designed to force a 1 to 4 shift when driving slowly.

Look at your dashboard when this happens. You'll probably notice "One to Four" light up. Meaning the transmission will not allow you to shift into second. You need to install the skip shilt eliminator at the transmission or just disconnect the the connector.

One of the best things I did, I found the skip shift to be quite annoying.
Here are the directions to install it.

That's probably why I can't shift into second when going less than 20mph. I don't recall seeing the light on the dash but I will look next time. I ordered the skip shift eliminator from eBay for $9. I will also change out the fluid. How many quarts does the trans take?

As pointed out, this is a case of "Operating As Designed™."


There are two solutions. Either drive the hell out of it and this won't happen. Or, if you're stuck in stop and go traffic, cut down on the shifting monkey motion (I sometimes call it transturbation) by starting in 2nd gear. You have plenty of torque to do that with minimal extra wear on the clutch.

The way it is supposed to operate is listed in my '96 service manual and copied below.

The 2ND and 3RD speed gears are inhibited when shifting out of 1ST speed gear under the following conditions:
• With the coolant temperature above 50°C (122T)
• When the vehicle speed is between 20 and 29 km/h (12 and 19 mph)
• With the throttle opened 35% or less
This ensures good fuel economy and compliance with federal fuel economy standards.


On mine I normally give it a little more throttle, or hang on to 1st gear a little longer to avoid the CAGS. However, it would still catch me when taking off slow like in a left turn behind other cars and then it would annoy me a lot.

I have disabled it on all 4 of the ZF6 C4's I have had.

The transmission uses 2.2 quarts of fluid. There are a lot of threads that discuss which fluid to use and many have different opinions. I went with the Amsoil fluid in mine and am happy with my choice.

When you are changing the fluid make sure to loosen the fill plug before the drain plug. If you can't get the fill plug out it will leave you with an empty transmission and no way to refill it if you drain it first. The plugs are a 17mm hex. If you should need new plugs, VW plugs interchange and are available online or locally at a dealer. VW changed the plugs though and went away from the 17 mm internal hex to a different style, so make sure to ask for and get the right ones. The part number is WHT-001-937 but that part number is used for both styles.

Good luck.