Saturn SL Occasional grind into fifth
 

Every few times that I go into fifth (usually when coming off a glide and into a pulse) I will hear a grinding noise as if I didn't engage the clutch. The first few times I thought maybe my foot was being lazy and not pushing it down far enough. But it happened once when I KNEW that I had it all the way down.

Before coming to work tonight I checked the clutch fluid level, it looked fine and was just below the change in size of the plastic container. Though it didn't look completely clean, not sure if that would effect anything.

I also checked the transmission fluid. It was right up next to the full line on the stick.

After some googling I have found that some cars simply do this? Kind of seems odd to have a car grind when going into a certain gear and be considered normal.

Would changing the fluid in my transmission to a synthetic help any?

Any thoughts on this or techniques I should try are appreciated. I have thought about going into fourth and then fifth, might try that on the way home today and see if it happens. It sounds like a bad synchro going on, but I don't know that much about transmissions.

Fourthbean -

I don't know, but I can post your question on saturnfans.com and see if they have some advice.

CarloSW2

Oh I forgot about them, I will go do some searching on those forums and see what comes up.

EDIT: I guess I will have to wait for the forum optimization to get done over at saturnfans.com first...

hmm so its a cable shifter eh? is there some sort of adjustement or something? i havent dealt much with a fwd manual car (RWD FTW)

Fourthbean -

The "optimization" happens alot, it seems, :( ,

CarloSW2

If RWD FTW is synonymous with 30 MPG then I would have to say FWD FTW ;).

Cable shifter, I believe it is.

cfg83, I did some searching on google from the cached repository of saturnfans.com. The only suggestions I got there was a bad synchro and double shifting and rev matching unless I wanted to tear the thing apart. Also read that it might help to have some nicer fluid in there.

I will post my question on Saturnfans when they come back up and see if anything else is suggested, thanks!

I posted over on Saturnfans.com. After driving home just now I am convinced it has something to do with the synchro mechanism. If I am coming out of an EOC and switch fast there is a grind, if I hit the clutch and wait a second or so after pushing the clutch down and then engage there is no grind. Maybe it wasn't made to be put into fifth with the engine at 0rpm?

Fourthbean -

Hmmm. I am confused. I thought you noticed it under normal driving conditions, aka when your engine was on. Do you do the "double-clutch" (I *think* that's the best way to describe it) when you bump-start in 5th? Here is my best description :

1 - Engine off, coasting at 30+ MPH.
2 - Push clutch all the way in.
3 - Put in 5th gear.
4 - Let foot up on clutch just enough to engage engine and then push clutch back in. My non-car knowledge makes me think I am "tapping the flywheel" to turn over the engine. For me this is a pretty quick movement. If the tap goes well, the engine starts very smoothly, almost no bump in the bump-start.
5 - Let foot up and drive in 5th as normal.

Does this make sense?

(I think this would make a good youtube)

CarloSW2

Yes, that is exactly what I do.

1 - Engine off, coasting at 30+ MPH.
2 - Push clutch all the way in.
3 - Put in 5th gear. (This is where it grinds)
4 - Let foot up on clutch just enough to engage engine and then push clutch back in. My non-car knowledge makes me think I am "tapping the flywheel" to turn over the engine. For me this is a pretty quick movement. If the tap goes well, the engine starts very smoothly, almost no bump in the bump-start.
5 - Let foot up and drive in 5th as normal.

I tried quickly shifting from 4th to 5th with normal upshifting and there was no grinding. The guy I bought it from was pretty honest and was pretty detailed in telling me the problems with the car so I am pretty sure he never had trouble with this. Which makes sense since I only notice it if I am doing EOCing.

Fourthbean -

Ok. Again, from the POV of a person (me) that doesn't know about cars, could it be that the clutch is out of adjustment in some way that pushing down the clutch is not giving you complete disengagement? But, maybe this is what you are saying when you are talking about the synchro, yes?

CarloSW2