Type R 1st Gear Hard Engagement

Just took the R into my local dealer to have 1st gear issues diagnosed. While completely stopped 1st gear is not engaging properly; I literally have to fight to put it in gear. Took the service adviser for a ride to demonstrate the issue and he confirmed. Not sure if anyone else has experienced this; please reply if you have. I'll update the thread when I get the car back later this week.

I’ve been locked out of first gear several times

I haven't noticed it on mine, but every manual I've ever owned sometimes requires pushing into third before it will go in first.

If it happens 50% or more of the time you have a problem.

I had that issues on a prior Civic. It was a slave cylinder issues that was fixed under warranty.

SamuraiFK8 said:

Just took the R into my local dealer to have 1st gear issues diagnosed. While completely stopped 1st gear is not engaging properly; I literally have to fight to put it in gear. Took the service adviser for a ride to demonstrate the issue and he confirmed. Not sure if anyone else has experienced this; please reply if you have. I'll update the thread when I get the car back later this week.

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I get locked out of first occasionally as well in my Si. Not fully locked out but it does not click into 1st like it should and ill have to pull it into second then back into first to get it to engage normally. This happens to me less than 5% of the time. Seems to be a common issue, and the common response I see is to flush the tranny fluid and put AMSOil synchromesh in.

I've been locked out of first only once so far having driven my CTR for slightly over 5000 miles. The only gear that annoys me is reverse. I always have to put it in first or third before I can get it to go into reverse easily and smoothly.

I got locked out from 1st gear a couple times too. What i did was to put it in 3rd gear first and then switch back to 1st gear and it worked. It's almost the same for starting up the car in reverse gear, I almost always put into 3rd gear and then "Reverse" to back out of my garage, and it's become a habit!

SDAlexander8 said:

I get locked out of first occasionally as well in my Si. Not fully locked out but it does not click into 1st like it should and ill have to pull it into second then back into first to get it to engage normally. This happens to me less than 5% of the time. Seems to be a common issue, and the common response I see is to flush the tranny fluid and put AMSOil synchromesh in.

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I just swapped over to Amsoil Synchromesh and it didn’t make shifting any smoother.

i think i've only had a handful of occasions that 1st was hard to get into, mainly at a green light where i almost panic because people are waiting behind me to go. It's very rare though and i'm almost at 20k miles.

Shifting into a forward gear before hitting reverse is a normal characteristic on Hondas so I wouldn't be concerned about that. It's even in Honda's manuals.

As others said, happens occasionally. Either go into another gear or go into neutral and "re-clutch."

ive ran into this problem 3 or 4 times now on my 2019 Type R. only has 1000km

Lust said:

I just swapped over to Amsoil Synchromesh and it didn’t make shifting any smoother.

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Lust said:

I just swapped over to Amsoil Synchromesh and it didn’t make shifting any smoother.

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Maybe it gets better with time, like a break in period before it starts to feel different. Let me know if anything changes in the next couple hundred miles. Im considering amsoil for my Si

SamuraiFK8 said:

Just took the R into my local dealer to have 1st gear issues diagnosed. While completely stopped 1st gear is not engaging properly; I literally have to fight to put it in gear. Took the service adviser for a ride to demonstrate the issue and he confirmed. Not sure if anyone else has experienced this; please reply if you have. I'll update the thread when I get the car back later this week.

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Update: The dealer called and informed me that their service department believes the issue is due to a faulty shifter cable and is going to replace it. I'll update further once I get the car back.

SamuraiFK8 said:

Update: The dealer called and informed me that their service department believes the issue is due to a faulty shifter cable and is going to replace it. I'll update further once I get the car back.

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That would be interesting... both of my CTRs have had this 1st gear lock out issue

Lust said:

That would be interesting... both of my CTRs have had this 1st gear lock out issue

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I had the issue for like the first 5k miles. Mainly only ever occurred if I was just starting my drive. I'd have trouble getting into reverse or 1st gear. If I had issues getting into reverse, shifting into 1st then back to reverse fixed it. If I had issues getting into 1st, shifting into reverse then back to 1st fixed it. Again, went away after 5k-ish miles.

Edit: TBH, my gearbox was just really finicky for the first 12-15k miles. 4th great lock/pop outs, 2nd gear grinds, 1st/reverse lockouts when starting vehicle, etc.