Shift improvement mod rankings?

tl;dr - Buy the components if you want the shift to feel like a Honda, buy the adjustable shifter if you want it to feel like a rwd car -


For anyone trying to discern between which major Acuity path to follow (parts vs whole shifter), here's a summary of my research. I read a lot of reviews and went back and forth between getting all the individual Acuity parts or simply buying the complete Acuity adjustable shifter.

Parts -- all the individual parts from Acuity added to the stock molded-plastic shifter make it feel like the shifter we expected Honda to ship from the factory This is the route I would recommend for a lot of people and you'll spend half as much compared to buying the whole shifter. (As for the order of install, do them all at once if possible because tearing down the center of the car gets old really quickly.)

Complete shifter -- by contrast, Acuity's shifter has a completely different feel, like the direct linkage setup you'd be familiar with if you ever rowed your own in a rear wheel drive car with a great transmission. That billet aluminum tower eliminates all the flex in the shift, in a way that makes you suddenly aware there was still flex with the component upgrade route. Plus you can adjust gate width, throw distance, and knob height to get the perfect shift position for your hand. Ultimately, you're paying for the parts, extra for a new tower, extra for full adjustability, and (in my opinion) a premium for trying to have it all.

FWIW, I miss that direct linkage feel from some of my old cars and chose the shifter. If you are a fan of the classic Honda feel, just get the individual parts and be happy.

CVCTURBO said:

Absolutely get an @ACUITY short throw adapter and centering spring. It's literally like $100 for both and a great upgrade. Took about 45 mins for me to install. Definitely crispier!
Pics are stock vs upgrades

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Ugh, ugh, ugh too much work!

Tags said:

As a favor to an out-of-town buddy I test drove a 2004 Saab 9-5 Aero today. 1-2 shift felt like stirring butter with a rod of granite -- strong, thick, positive. No grinds, no clicks, no clunks. Not a hint of the what-will-happen-this-time anxiety that attends so many 1-2 shifts in the Si. In a way it's a relief, as I had almost begun to doubt what a normal shifter should feel like.

Yes, in every other way (except interior noises), the Si trounces the Saab like a new car should do to a 15-year-old car. But I don't get why engineering giant Honda can't just create a sturdy manual trans from the start.

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The smoothest shifters are European cars. I grew up driving VW's (VW Rabbit, VW GTi) and they had very smooth shifters. I think Honda's route is so you feel the "clunk" which is supposed to make you feel part of the experience and connected. Anyway since I made the small changes I did the shifting is much better now

rive said:

tl;dr - Buy the components if you want the shift to feel like a Honda, buy the adjustable shifter if you want it to feel like a rwd car -


For anyone trying to discern between which major Acuity path to follow (parts vs whole shifter), here's a summary of my research. I read a lot of reviews and went back and forth between getting all the individual Acuity parts or simply buying the complete Acuity adjustable shifter.

Parts -- all the individual parts from Acuity added to the stock molded-plastic shifter make it feel like the shifter we expected Honda to ship from the factory This is the route I would recommend for a lot of people and you'll spend half as much compared to buying the whole shifter. (As for the order of install, do them all at once if possible because tearing down the center of the car gets old really quickly.)

Complete shifter -- by contrast, Acuity's shifter has a completely different feel, like the direct linkage setup you'd be familiar with if you ever rowed your own in a rear wheel drive car with a great transmission. That billet aluminum tower eliminates all the flex in the shift, in a way that makes you suddenly aware there was still flex with the component upgrade route. Plus you can adjust gate width, throw distance, and knob height to get the perfect shift position for your hand. Ultimately, you're paying for the parts, extra for a new tower, extra for full adjustability, and (in my opinion) a premium for trying to have it all.

FWIW, I miss that direct linkage feel from some of my old cars and chose the shifter. If you are a fan of the classic Honda feel, just get the individual parts and be happy.

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Great stuff, thanks. That's quite an endorsement of the Acuity shifter. Tempting.

amirza786 said:

The smoothest shifters are European cars. I grew up driving VW's (VW Rabbit, VW GTi) and they had very smooth shifters. I think Honda's route is so you feel the "clunk" which is supposed to make you feel part of the experience and connected. Anyway since I made the small changes I did the shifting is much better now

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I would say the best-shifting FWD car I ever owned was a 2001 Contour SVT, which was mostly Euro-engineered. But lots of solid-shifting Japanese cars over the years, too. It wasn't until the mid-2000's with a couple Mazdas and Hondas that they started feeling more delicate and finicky.

Tags said:

I would say the best-shifting FWD car I ever owned was a 2001 Contour SVT, which was mostly Euro-engineered. But lots of solid-shifting Japanese cars over the years, too. It wasn't until the mid-2000's with a couple Mazdas and Hondas that they started feeling more delicate and finicky.

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Actually Toyota made very smooth shifters, I had a 95 Toyota Corolla and the shifter was butter smooth. Camry's on the other hand had some of the worst manual transmissions

I bought the Acuity bushing kit and although it seems well made, I don't think it's worth messing with. If your car has 150,000 miles then maybe the bushings are worn, you might as well get the kit, but having a car with 16,000 miles on it, if I wasn't the one that installed the Acuity bushings I wouldn't have ever noticed. The OEM bushings pretty hard as it is. Maybe I'm missing something but I'm not seeing what the big deal is about this upgrade.

I have about all those and honestly don't think the bushings did much of anything.

Biggest improvement was removing the clutch delay valve, getting a shorter shift knob, and the type R shifter assembly.

amped_imports said:

I bought the Acuity bushing kit and although it seems well made, I don't think it's worth messing with. If your car has 150,000 miles then maybe the bushings are worn, you might as well get the kit, but having a car with 16,000 miles on it, if I wasn't the one that installed the Acuity bushings I wouldn't have ever noticed. The OEM bushings pretty hard as it is. Maybe I'm missing something but I'm not seeing what the big deal is about this upgrade.

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integra15 said:

I have about all those and honestly don't think the bushings did much of anything.

Biggest improvement was removing the clutch delay valve, getting a shorter shift knob, and the type R shifter assembly.

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Really appreciate the love and critical but honest reviews on here guys. Great read. Let me give you our perspective on cable bushings. If your cables are very old, you definitely want them. Age and use can degrade the rubber. If your cables aren't so old, there can still be a case to use them, but it depends on your driving style. Do you shift forcefully or really appreciate the fine details of the shift feel? If either is the case, then there's a case to use them. They change the load profile a bit to make the overall effort slightly less but the load from the detent in the trans more noticable. As the shifter passes the detent, it almost feels like the trans is starting to pull itself into gear. If you shift forcefully, you'll also notice more of a solid end to the shift, instead of a spongy feel. Don't shift hard and aren't that critical of shifting feel? Then the bushings may not be the best investment of your money.

If you are retaining the stock 10th's shifter, we normally recommend you try the Rocker Upgrade first. This seems like an odd choice, but if you hate the feeling of missing gears or not really knowing if you're in the right gate, the rocker resolves those issues well. It gives you more control over gate position, which does wonders for avoiding missing shifts. If you have anything besides an Si or R, I'd strongly consider grab the centering spring because the non Si/R springs are pretty flimsy, and most owners will appreciate the additional centering force. The Si/R benefit from the spring too, but they already have a spring that's beefier from the factory, so the change is less dramatic when switching to ours. That said, we did recently add a cool feature to our springs that reduces lateral play in neutral and eliminates the sound of the factory spring touching the rest during 2-3 or 5-4 shifts, which is a nice little touch on any car. Beyond that, you really have to choose the parts based on what you're looking to get out of them, since each changes a different element of the shift.

~Russ

Sorry, but what is a "Rocker"? Never heard of one in the transmission.

WhiteSi said:

Sorry, but what is a "Rocker"? Never heard of one in the transmission.

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The rocker arm in the shifter assembly. Check out this video from Acuity, helpful, and looking to get one myself after I installed their stage 1 shift kit.