[Stefan1235]

Every since I bought the car in February I've noticed that I shift like a drunk 87 year old female, which for the past 5 months I've just attributed it to the fact that my R is my first manual car and I'm just a slow manual learner or something. I've replaced all the mounts, installed all the chassis braces, so I just assumed that I sucked at shifting.

Well today I changed my transmission gear oil...71,000 miles on it, jet black. With new OEM fluid the car shifts silky smooth, no hiccups, no rubbery feeling, it feels amazing! Seriously I've fallen in love all over again, by far the best driveability change I've ever done to the R.

Lesson: if you have been shifting like crap lately or have had the rubbery feeling between gear changes then you should change your transmission fluid. I put in about 2 quarts, but you'll want to buy 3 or so just in case.

 

[ryanlamark]

Mine has been a lot better since I upgraded all the mounts. When I got the slave and angle gear fixed they replaced the tranny fluid for free.

 

[iLLEST-R]

Replaced my trans mount with both poly mounts, which made the biggest difference. My trans flush did nothing since my old fluid looked exactly like the new fluid I put in. The upper engine poly mount made a difference too, less front/back rocking in between shifts. I just wish shifting wasn't so sloppy with the AC on

 

[Stefan1235]

Replaced my trans mount with both poly mounts, which made the biggest difference. My trans flush did nothing since my old fluid looked exactly like the new fluid I put in. The upper engine poly mount made a difference too, less front/back rocking in between shifts. I just wish shifting wasn't so sloppy with the AC on

Where did you find the small trans poly mount? I have IPD's but the small one is rubber isn't it? I was planning on swapping out the blue poly insert that I have in the mount with the black one in a few days, hoping I can do the small one at the same time

 

[ryanlamark]

Where did you find the small trans poly mount? I have IPD's but the small one is rubber isn't it? I was planning on swapping out the blue poly insert that I have in the mount with the black one in a few days, hoping I can do the small one at the same time

PowerFlex makes them, Viva carries them. I thought I saw somewhere that IPD was making a replaceable small bushing. Reason that the lower tranny mount isn't on the site at the moment.

 

[Stefan1235]

PowerFlex makes them, Viva carries them. I thought I saw somewhere that IPD was making a replaceable small bushing. Reason that the lower tranny mount isn't on the site at the moment.

Thanks! It's on order now, hoping to get it done before the weekend. It should help since my old rubber one was going soft and flaking.

1000th post!

 

[ryanlamark]

Thanks! It's on order now, hoping to get it done before the weekend. It should help since my old rubber one was going soft and flaking.

1000th post!

Congrats!!

 

[Warpedcow]

Well today I changed my transmission gear oil...71,000 miles on it, jet black. With new OEM fluid the car shifts silky smooth, no hiccups, no rubbery feeling, it feels amazing! Seriously I've fallen in love all over again, by far the best driveability change I've ever done to the R.

Lesson: if you have been shifting like crap lately or have had the rubbery feeling between gear changes then you should change your transmission fluid. I put in about 2 quarts, but you'll want to buy 3 or so just in case.

How difficult is it to drain/fill? Do you need to suck out fluid or does it just drain?

I asked a local dealer to quote changing the MT fluid and they just said "not needed". Even with 110K on the odometer...

 

[Stefan1235]

How difficult is it to drain/fill? Do you need to suck out fluid or does it just drain?

I asked a local dealer to quote changing the MT fluid and they just said "not needed". Even with 110K on the odometer...

It's drain and fill, it comes out of the drain plug, you can then use a rubber hose and funnel to reach the fill plug near the drivers side axle. Takes about 10 minutes with the car in the air.

 

[MN-TURBOR]

How difficult is it to drain/fill? Do you need to suck out fluid or does it just drain?

I asked a local dealer to quote changing the MT fluid and they just said "not needed". Even with 110K on the odometer...

Drain and Fill is super easy! Let me know when you want to do yours and I can come down and show ya.
Drain plug on the bottom and to fill it you need to remove the drive side wheel and get a flexible hose to fill the fluid with.

 

[Stefan1235]

Holy hell am I happy. So let me begin.

I've always had a shudder on startup or shutdown of the engine, never thought anything of it since I had the IPD lower transmission mount and upper engine mount with stabilizer bushings. But today I replaced the blue poly insert on the tranny mount with the included black insert I had laying around and replaced the small rubber bushing (which was in good condition) with a powerflex poly bushing from Viva (awesome service by the way). Shudder is completely gone, the car drives so smooth now, no jerkiness at all, no rubbery feeling, vibration is even reduced somehow.

Seriously I can not recommend this any higher, doing the transmission drain and fill and replacing both the lower transmission bushings with stiffer bushings has made a massive improvement to driveability.

Thumbs up to Viva for carrying the powerflex bushings!

 

[vLGrok]

Oh nevermind you're saying both bushings in the IPD trans torque mount. OK ordering.
Exact same shudder here.

 

[Stefan1235]

Oh nevermind you're saying both bushings in the IPD trans torque mount. OK ordering.
Exact same shudder here.

Very easy to install, you can press the new bushings in with a vice, use a torch to burn the small rubber bushing out of the mount, took me about 15 minutes with the car in the air.

You won't regret it.

 

[ledaaRt_2]

I've got an issue with 2nd back to 1st gear change; sometimes it won't do the last 'snick' when I'm stopped. This last 'snick' is important as it's the lock-in, if I miss it, 1st will pop out with a BANG before I've got the clutch fully engaged at launch (a standard, ‘cop’ is beside you, type launch). This is not an issue so much if I slide into 1st before I roll to a stop; unfortunately this is counter intuitive to my 35 years of driving.
On the other hand the shifting on the whole is fabulous after I lubed the external cables and tightened the shifter ball inside. Last winter it was almost a two handed affair shifting up and down (not so much left and right).

 

[Stefan1235]

I've got an issue with 2nd back to 1st gear change; sometimes it won't do the last 'snick' when I'm stopped. This last 'snick' is important as it's the lock-in, if I miss it, 1st will pop out with a BANG before I've got the clutch fully engaged at launch (a standard, ‘cop’ is beside you, type launch). This is not an issue so much if I slide into 1st before I roll to a stop; unfortunately this is counter intuitive to my 35 years of driving.
On the other hand the shifting on the whole is fabulous after I lubed the external cables and tightened the shifter ball inside. Last winter it was almost a two handed affair shifting up and down (not so much left and right).

How/where did you lube the external cables and tighten the shifter ball?

 

[ledaaRt_2]

To lube the external cables I used a balloon, zip ties, spray can straw, WD40, dry moly, a thin quality oil and compressed air. Cut a small hole in the good end of the balloon large enough stretch over the knuckle on the cable and zip tie it tight to the cable sheath. Carefully fill the balloon with a quantity of WD40/moly/oil (the WD will further thin the oil but will eventually evaporate, so don’t use only WD40). Zip tie the other end of the balloon to the cable as close to the knuckle as possible WITH the straw extended so that it can effectively fill the balloon when compressed air is applied. I had the straw adjusted so that I could pinch off the inside portion with my thumb blocking any air from escaping after filling with compressed air. I would say I added about a half an ounce of oil to the balloon and no more than an ounce and half of air at a time. With the balloon inflated move the cable back and forth to assist in the transfer of oil into the sheath. Repeat until you are satisfied that the cable is gliding smoother.
I found it handy to pull the cables in to the left wheel well where I could do this all at eye level. The wheel well was completely empty at the time making it even easier.
Under the decorative ball there is the actual pivot ball, it is clamped down with a plate that has rubber tips on it. Using hole saws I made a shim out of plastic (peanut butter lid) about 1.5 millimeters thick (1.5 dimes) to tighten up the clamp.