does first and reverse lockout get better after break in?

pearlexl

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hi all,

read a few older threads about first and reverse gear lockout and folks being told to wait until car’s broken in (10k-20k miles, lol). was wondering if it got better for anyone with those miles or less.

i’m new to driving a stick and have about 500 miles on a 2020 si.

with that being said, i’ve experienced a few things:
- never been able to shift straight into reverse unless i shift into third gear first.
- my shifter getting stuck once somewhere between reverse and neutral where i has to finesse it for a hot minute until it popped back into neutral.
- being locked out of first gear moving around 3 mph. went to third and back to first again.

are a large majority of you not experiencing lockout or do you guys just shift from another gear to neutral?
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Civic17siYAY

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I can't get into first or reverse unless the car is almost completely still. It is annoying but I believe it is on purpose. 30k miles later and it is still there. I have never had an issue getting into any gear unless it was 1 and R while moving.

Same. At 111k miles and its always been like that for me.
 

arpypat

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My 1st and Reverse gears were a little crunchy and had a lot of resistance when I first got my car. After a few thousand miles and a weighted shift knob, it pretty much went away.

You really do have to be at a deadstop to get into 1 and R until your tranny breaks in. This was my first brand new car - alyways bought used - and I was so confused on those first few days of ownership on getting 1st and R gear lockouts. Even rolling at 1mph would give me trouble lol
 

20ABM06MT

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I’m at ~650 miles and have issues getting into reverse ~half the time. I generally stop, try R- if locked - go into 1st - rock the car fwd then try reverse again.. this usually works. I also am very conscious to not force it-

I have not had this issue on other new cars- but glad to see people report that it tends to go away.. on the flip side- the MT in these other cars was not as precise either- happy if that’s the trade off.
 


Oddwayne

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I can't get into first or reverse unless the car is almost completely still. It is annoying but I believe it is on purpose. 30k miles later and it is still there. I have never had an issue getting into any gear unless it was 1 and R while moving.
You’re not suppose to put a car in reverse unless you’re completely still.
 

fabrizzio71

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Almost 50k miles-first gear lockout has happened a few times over the life of the car. There never appeared to be any rhyme or reason that I could tell. Also, I’ve always been able to get into first while moving-you simply have to match revs. For example coming to a stop but the traffic starts moving again and you are still rolling 5-8mph- blip throttle and goes right into first. Yes it’s a bit tighter than normal but it goes in. Reverse is occasionally crunchy going in, but other than that it’s fine.
 


therealdede

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currently have about 4k miles on my 2020. Ive always found i cant go into first unless im going 4 mph or less, and shifting into reverse is alot smoother if you shift into 3rd first. probably something to do with the reverse idler being driven off of 3rd.
 

MutatedMango

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I can't get into first or reverse unless the car is almost completely still. It is annoying but I believe it is on purpose. 30k miles later and it is still there. I have never had an issue getting into any gear unless it was 1 and R while moving.
Around 14k here and can confirm this
 

si_well

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I'm at like 7k miles on my 2020 and definitely think it got better. The only thing that still happens to me that have been mentioned by others is that you have to be completely still for it to go into gear. It makes sense that would be the case for those two gears anyway as a precautionary measure to not accidentally put it into 1st when trying to downshift into third (like from 5th down to third), or not putting it into reverse when trying to shift into 6th. Idk how exactly it locks you out though so I can't say that is it's actual purpose with any certainty.
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