Celica Forums General Discussion General 1st gear is a pain...

about a month ago I got 00 GTS 6spd with 42K miles and it is my first manual transmission. I am becoming pretty good at drivng it but sometimes it is very difficult to shift in to first gear. I have the clutch fully depressesed and sometimes I really have to force it into first. No other gear is like this and i do not know if i am doing something wrong. It is below freezing here in MD, could that have any affect on it. Any help is appreciated.

Are you talking about down shiftting into 1st or when you first start the car moving?

could be transmission synchronizer problems.
change your tranny fluid and see if it helps any.
if not, i would have your dealer check it out.

try some white lithium grease on your shift linkage.

Yeah, if you're downshifting into first while moving it shouldn't be that easy...

i always thought it's not possible to shift into 1st while moving...

it really isn't...it won't really go..have to be stopped, I have tried it.

It's possible, but only when you're going < 10mph.

I can shift into first while moving...at 15mph (at warmed up temp)

the 00 shifter cables are worn out, and are likely going to break soon.

It's possible... just not easy/good.

If you try hard enough you could go into R while moving... you'd just say bye-bye to the tranny.

it's not bad for the tranny, mine slips right in (updated with new gate/cables)

Just don't shove it in. If it won't go, something is worn out or needs to be lubricated. It should go into first from a 10 mph roll

Sometimes my car is a bitch when it comes to shifting into reverse. Even at a dead stop it will grind as if I am moving, and sometimes it won't go into reverse all the way. I hear the beeping, the reverse lights go on, and I give it gas and all it does is rev. I'll shift it back to neurtal and into reverse numerous times and it still only manages to go so far, and not quite into gear. It's like something is obstructing it. Pain in the ass sometimes especially if I'm on the street trying to parallel park while blocking a lane of traffic, but oh well, what can ya do?

this used to happen to me all the time.
i just shifted to first and then to sixth gear and then back into reverse, and it'd go right in.
it always pissed me off whenever i had to do it and the gears would sometimes grind.

i only shift back to 1st when its in full stop

you can but who wants to?

the above,very true for most import manual cars.but instead of going into 6th you can go into 2nd or 3rd.and push the clutch at least two times (while in neutral)before going back to reverse.it happens a lot when you leave the car idling in neutral and then want to go into reverse.

yea, same..when you're going slow...otherwise, not really. I just go to neutral, then stop, then to first. otherwise, it's just normal downshifting.

sometimes in traffic, I'll be in second gear at about 10-15 mph, and need to shift into 1st because 2nd is too slow, my old shifter wouldn't do it, the new one does.

sometimes in traffic, I'll be in second gear at about 10-15 mph, and need to shift into 1st because 2nd is too slow, my old shifter wouldn't do it, the new one does. [/quote]

yep.

I have found the key is to just apply a slight bit of pressure like you are going push into first and as you slow down it will release into the gear when the time is right.

My first gear sometimes is tough especially when it is below freezing. My reverse has always had the same problem on and off. Reverse must be a little hard in our Celica's. Owner's Manual "If it is difficult to shift into reverse, put the transmission in neutral, release the clutch pedal momentarily, and then try again." There's no other section saying if it is hard to shift to 2nd or 3rd, get me. A 2 to 1 downshift is possible at 15 mph according to the manual too.

Yeah, well I've done that and it still takes like 10 times for it to go into gear.

Hey Toyota! Fix the fucking problem before you ship the things and don't just tell us how to deal with it!

I agree with you there.

learn to drive the 6spd.

It doesn't go into reverse for a reason, it's not "broken"

me too

Hmmm, I should learn to drive the six speed that I already know how to drive? Okay. And I'm sure that when I'm at a dead stop with the clutch pushed into the floor it shouldn't shift into reverse. Yeah, that sounds logical.

Thanks for the smart ass answer by the way. You are a really big help. Something obviously is broken or isn't working correctly 100% of the time. If you can diagnose the difference between driver error and mechanical defect via the internet, then perhaps you should be some sort of magical mechanic.

mine does the same thing.

they all do the same thing.

It has to do with the design on the transmission, and the location of the reverse gear. But, I'm sure you knew that.

Don't like it, tough.

mine does it and my dad said to just depress the clutch and repress it, then try it again and it'll go.

yes, because the car needs to shift into neutral, and reengage the clutch to grab the reverse gear.

It's not hard, and it's not broken.

yep, makes sense and it's fine.

Ok, even though I stated that I shifted into neutral and reverse multiple times and still had the same problem, but has always happened when the car is cold in cold weather. Oops, when I said I shifted into neutral I forgot to say that I let go of the clutch and then engaged it again. I don't know if I was supposed to count to three until I tried again or say some sort of magical word, but I did it all pretty fast because I was pissed off.

if it's REALLY cold outside, the tranny oil isn't viscous enough and will cause rough/impossible shifting.

Just shift into neutral, release the clutch, wait a second, shift into reverse.

You have an 00 with the old style shift gates?

if it's REALLY cold outside, the tranny oil isn't viscous enough and will cause rough/impossible shifting.

Just shift into neutral, release the clutch, wait a second, shift into reverse.

You have an 00 with the old style shift gates? [/quote]Yeah, I do, and I was looking for that answer in the first place instead of the obvious answer that I wasn't disengaging the clutch when shifting back to neutral and then trying again, because I know that's required.

Anyways, it's in the teens here and sometimes I have to go outside and move my car from one spot to another because I work in the city and got kicked out of our building garage for calling the stupid bitch that has a Harvard degree and decides to take tickets instead a "fucking bitch", but that's besides the point. Also, winds are really strong especially in the city between the high rises so the car cools a lot faster than it usually does. I also thought that I might need to change my tranny oil because the dumb ass that had the car before me never took it into consideration. Now I know that it could be due to the fact that it's really cold outside and that my tranny oil probably looks like afro sheen or something. Thanks.

Get the oil changed.

After I changed mine (first time in 50K) it was a whole different car.

Also, the oil is most likely broken down, and is what's causing the rough shifting.

Jiffy Lube does it for $29.99 if you don't wanna do it yourself.

Yeah, I might just have them do that with my engine oil. I'm about 500 miles past the 3,000 mark.

I would do it myself, but no where around here sells Redline tranny fluid.

it's also a bitch to get the bolts off the tranny, took a impact wrench to get mine off!

after that, I took it over to the J team since I didn't feel like working on it anymore.

Hey, I just realized, the Auto GTS guys can do something the manual guys can't, and that's downshift into 1st on the move.

The revs must be low enough as to not overrev, but I can do it. I suppose it's because we only have four gears and an intelligent tranny. Won't let you downshift into a gear if the motor will overrev.

Interesting, I suppose that's because of all the accidental overrev incidents in the 6-speeds, I bet you can fix that problem yourself if you wanted to, the key is finding the bit that locks out 1st gear when moving above a certain speed, but I'd avoid such a mod, the 6-spd is geared so short, it could really mess up your car if you downshift to 1st with the motor reving too hard.

in my GT i can go to 1st gear at 20mph and below

mine will go into first gear at a 20 mph roll, and after letting the clutch out, it revs to about 4K rpm

I don't see why you'd want to go down that low, because it puts a lot of stress on the synchro

Most of the problem lies in the 00-early01 shifter cables, which wear out and break

I think the problem is a combination of below freezing temps and what you guys said, I was trying to shift into first while rolling to a stop. Tomorrow I will experiment and find out if i have any problems shifting into 1st at a complete stop.

speaking of tranny, you seem to know enough to answer my question. the 00-02 have bad trannys with bad shift gates, how can you fix that? do you have to change the whole tranny or cables to fix problems that 00 has 04 doesnt? got any pics of what exactly each thing are?
thanx

You can't do the change yourself, a dealer or shop has to

Link to TSB

There are many parts, including internal transaxle components that need to be changed.

Ask your dealer to do this, mine was covered under warranty (after the third time) because the shifter cables were breaking.

Good luck getting them to fix this, it's not a recall, and if yours isn't broken, they most likely won't fix it.

jameson..do you think they would fix mine? my car was made in '99

it all depends on your dealer.

I had to take my car in THREE times for broken shift linkages (car was towed three times)

Then, on the third time, they just wanted to fix it. So, I got a lawyer, threatened to sue them, they fixed it.

My dealer sucks, yours might not. It's not a recall, it's just a TSB.

ah, well my dealer prob won't cover it then. i havnt had any major problems with my tranny..just tight shift gates and the occasional grind in reverse (even with the double clutch)