Possible SI dud?

[ardbuhl]

I bought my rallye red si coupe two tuesdays ago and am already having some problems. Please let me know if anyone else ran into these issues as I'm extremely worried I bought the first gen of si that has serious problems. I was cruising around in 3rd when I started to hear this grinding type sound, but it only happened a few times and would only happen when I let off the gas. I only have 500 miles on the thing so hopefully it's something wearing in like the brake pads.

 

[CivicSi84]

Not likely a dud but it is a mass produced car so anything is possible. Are you hitting the brakes when the noise occurs or just decelerating?

 

[ardbuhl]

Strictly letting off the gas. No shifting or anything

 

[Froz3nTundra]

Is this your first manual transmission vehicle?

 

[ardbuhl]

Is this your first manual transmission vehicle?

Yes it is

 

[Froz3nTundra]

Yes it is

Are you fully removing your foot from the clutch after you shift? Are you leaving your hand on the shifter when you drive? Do you make sure you get full engagement when you shift?

Not trying to be mocking but these are all easy first timer mistakes. If you leave your foot partially on the clutch you'll burn out your clutch, if you rest your hand on the shifter while you drive you'll push pressure on the nylon pads on the forks and wear them out, if you don't get firm engagement when you shift the transmission might be wanting to pop out of gear.

I toasted 2nd gear in my 8th gen civic by going from first to second then holding the shifter into second gear while I ran through the RPM's before shifting. After about 150k miles it didn't like going into second.

 

[ardbuhl]

Are you fully removing your foot from the clutch after you shift? Are you leaving your hand on the shifter when you drive? Do you make sure you get full engagement when you shift?

Not trying to be mocking but these are all easy first timer mistakes. If you leave your foot partially on the clutch you'll burn out your clutch, if you rest your hand on the shifter while you drive you'll push pressure on the nylon pads on the forks and wear them out, if you don't get firm engagement when you shift the transmission might be wanting to pop out of gear.

I toasted 2nd gear in my 8th gen civic by going from first to second then holding the shifter into second gear while I ran through the RPM's before shifting. After about 150k miles it didn't like going into second.

Thanks for the tips. I don't believe I've picked up any of those habits, but I'm sure at one point or another I have. My concern with everything is that I only have 500 miles..

 

[Froz3nTundra]

Thanks for the tips. I don't believe I've picked up any of those habits, but I'm sure at one point or another I have. My concern with everything is that I only have 500 miles..

One thing that would be helpful for people to diagnose is if you could get a video of it doing it with audio. It's possible the SI has an issue from the factory but I would tend to think it might be user error if you are new to MT's. If you can find a way to reliably recreate the problem you could always bring it to a dealer and show them since it's under warranty.

 

[Honda2112]

I've noticed the exhaust does burble some at low RPM off throttle, could this be what you're experiencing?

 

[FastFocusST]

Might just be part of the break in process, does the shift into third gear feel solid, where you feel confident its fully engaged in the gear.Does it feel like it hesitates just slightly, and you need to push the shifter a second time to make sure its engaged ?

 

[ne0guri]

Were you perhaps lugging the car in third? Like, did you let the RPM fall below 1k in third? I'm wondering if you are cruising on too high of a gear and almost stalling the car. How fast were you driving in third?

 

[bikejog]

I toasted 2nd gear in my 8th gen civic by going from first to second then holding the shifter into second gear while I ran through the RPM's before shifting. After about 150k miles it didn't like going into second.

So you're saying something like this? at 1st, shift into 2nd at 3000 RPM, shift into 3rd at 6500 RPM. This is bad (running high RPM in second gear)? I normally don't do it, unless I'm racing, of course, but I don't see why that could be bad for the transmission.

I can see it is bad if say you're going 65 MPH at 6th, step on the clutch, jam the gear into 2nd (if you can do it), wait for the speed to drop to the 2nd gear speed range, then release clutch. That would probably burn out your Synchro prematurely.

 

[Froz3nTundra]

So you're saying something like this? at 1st, shift into 2nd at 3000 RPM, shift into 3rd at 6500 RPM. This is bad (running high RPM in second gear)? I normally don't do it, unless I'm racing, of course, but I don't see why that could be bad for the transmission.

I can see it is bad if say you're going 65 MPH at 6th, step on the clutch, jam the gear into 2nd (if you can do it), wait for the speed to drop to the 2nd gear speed range, then release clutch. That would probably burn out your Synchro prematurely.

The problem is when you shift and hold the shifter against the gear. So you start in first, rev to 6k or whatever, shift to second and what I used to do is hold onto the shifter while going 3k-6k, the problem with that is you're putting pressure against the bushings while winding the engine up. So it wears the bushings and makes it harder to shift into second as the car gets older. It shouldn't be an issue at 500 miles but it's bad habit I developed that I'm breaking.

And yeah, what you said is also bad, shifting down at too high of an RPM will bend valves.

 

[bikejog]

The problem is when you shift and hold the shifter against the gear. So you start in first, rev to 6k or whatever, shift to second and what I used to do is hold onto the shifter while going 3k-6k, the problem with that is you're putting pressure against the bushings while winding the engine up. So it wears the bushings and makes it harder to shift into second as the car gets older. It shouldn't be an issue at 500 miles but it's bad habit I developed that I'm breaking.

And yeah, what you said is also bad, shifting down at too high of an RPM will bend valves.

Ah now I understand what you're saying. Yeah that's probably not a good thing to do.

Yeah you could bend valves if you let the engine go beyond redline (by changing gear from 6th to 2nd eg). You could also cause potential damage to your synchro (but not bend any valves) by just shifting into 2nd from 6th at high speed without actually changing gear. As in the below sequence

at 65 MPH in 6th, step on the clutch, shift into 2nd (if you can do it), shift back into 6th, release clutch.

 

[ardbuhl]

Although I couldn't capture audio, I can be a little more specific being it just happened this morning. I was in 2nd about to shift into 3rd around 3700-4000 rpms as I completed the shift and began to let off the gas to slow down I heard that same whining sound again. It was only after that shift into second did this noise start occurring with no gas applied in 3rd gear. The feel of my clutch during that shift into 3rd feels like a great amount of pressure is being exerted on the clutch as I try to release. I'm not sure if that's just because my rpms are rather high in a low gear. I hope that all makes sense and will clarify if need be.

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