[xingqianli]

Hi guys, I recently noticed it's hard to put into the first gear especially when car's cold. My car's at 38k miles and it did not happen before. It feels like it's stuck in the middle of the shift travel. Shifting into 2nd first would help.

Anyone experienced this before? Is it that the transmission fluid needs to be changed? Thanks!

[overcoil]

Recall a similar issue thread posted about this.

Just guessing but the first thing i would do is slow down the movement of the shift lever and feel if engagement gets better.

Funny thing is. After i read a similar post about this first gear engagement a short time latter i had a series of events where i had trouble shifting into first. Then the issue never happened again.

[MarcoZandrini]

Try putting the transmission into 2nd gear frist, and the putting it into 1st gear. Has the transmission fluid ever been changed?

[Mjolnir12]

I made a thread about this a while ago and after bringing it in to the dealer a bunch of times and having the BMW corporate travelling guy look at it also they insist that it is working as it should, so I sort of gave up on it.

I think what I am feeling is just the synchros in first gear slowing down the input shaft down to match the stopped output shaft. For whatever issue, this engine/transmission has a more pronounced effect than previous manuals I have driven. Going from second to first slows it down more gradually so by the time you select first, the input shaft is almost stopped anyway. If my understanding of transmissions is correct, the second gear synchro should have slightly more leverage to slow down the input shaft too, so it won't take as much force.

If you push the clutch in and wait 3 seconds or so, is it easy to put it in first gear? On other thing that I noticed was that I had to push the shifter in a very specific direction/path to get it to go into first gear as smooth as possible. It might have something to do with the gate for reverse being around there, or it might just be a peculiarity of this transmission.

[SpencerC_6MT]

I experience this same issue - 45k miles on the clock, and I'm definitely a more aggressive daily driver. When the issue pops it, it'll usually just slot fully into gear after the car rolls a couple inches, but on that 1/100 occasion I get an awful grind. I'm assuming it's a synchro issue, and I'm not sure of the exact circumstances that cause it, but I've learned to work around it.

Just pull it out of gear, fully let off the clutch then push the pedal back in. It'll take a pronounced effort to get it into gear - noticeably more than usual - but it'll go fully in every time. Even if you have to hold up traffic for a second, it's worth it for the life of the synchros.

After what I've read about synchro failures, I'm extra cautious when the trans is cold; I usually double-clutch into 2nd and 3rd for the first 5ish minutes of driving. It might be a bit excessive, but I'd rather do the extra work for a little while it's cold, so I don't get stuck doing it constantly in 20,000 miles. Also planning on having a trans fluid change done at 50k, although that's only after a DIY-gone-wrong lead to a stripped fill plug

[mattc1176]

I've had this issue on every manual car I've ever had when cold.

[Mjolnir12]

Originally Posted by watermelon3878

I experience this same issue - 45k miles on the clock, and I'm definitely a more aggressive daily driver. When the issue pops it, it'll usually just slot fully into gear after the car rolls a couple inches, but on that 1/100 occasion I get an awful grind. I'm assuming it's a synchro issue, and I'm not sure of the exact circumstances that cause it, but I've learned to work around it.

Just pull it out of gear, fully let off the clutch then push the pedal back in. It'll take a pronounced effort to get it into gear - noticeably more than usual - but it'll go fully in every time. Even if you have to hold up traffic for a second, it's worth it for the life of the synchros.

After what I've read about synchro failures, I'm extra cautious when the trans is cold; I usually double-clutch into 2nd and 3rd for the first 5ish minutes of driving. It might be a bit excessive, but I'd rather do the extra work for a little while it's cold, so I don't get stuck doing it constantly in 20,000 miles. Also planning on having a trans fluid change done at 50k, although that's only after a DIY-gone-wrong lead to a stripped fill plug

I haven't had any grinds on mine, that sounds like an actual synchro issue.

[xingqianli]

Originally Posted by Mjolnir12

I made a thread about this a while ago and after bringing it in to the dealer a bunch of times and having the BMW corporate travelling guy look at it also they insist that it is working as it should, so I sort of gave up on it.

I think what I am feeling is just the synchros in first gear slowing down the input shaft down to match the stopped output shaft. For whatever issue, this engine/transmission has a more pronounced effect than previous manuals I have driven. Going from second to first slows it down more gradually so by the time you select first, the input shaft is almost stopped anyway. If my understanding of transmissions is correct, the second gear synchro should have slightly more leverage to slow down the input shaft too, so it won't take as much force.

If you push the clutch in and wait 3 seconds or so, is it easy to put it in first gear? On other thing that I noticed was that I had to push the shifter in a very specific direction/path to get it to go into first gear as smooth as possible. It might have something to do with the gate for reverse being around there, or it might just be a peculiarity of this transmission.

Pausing for a few seconds seemed not helping. But double clutching solved it for me. That makes it look like a synchro issue

[xingqianli]

Originally Posted by watermelon3878

I experience this same issue - 45k miles on the clock, and I'm definitely a more aggressive daily driver. When the issue pops it, it'll usually just slot fully into gear after the car rolls a couple inches, but on that 1/100 occasion I get an awful grind. I'm assuming it's a synchro issue, and I'm not sure of the exact circumstances that cause it, but I've learned to work around it.

Just pull it out of gear, fully let off the clutch then push the pedal back in. It'll take a pronounced effort to get it into gear - noticeably more than usual - but it'll go fully in every time. Even if you have to hold up traffic for a second, it's worth it for the life of the synchros.

After what I've read about synchro failures, I'm extra cautious when the trans is cold; I usually double-clutch into 2nd and 3rd for the first 5ish minutes of driving. It might be a bit excessive, but I'd rather do the extra work for a little while it's cold, so I don't get stuck doing it constantly in 20,000 miles. Also planning on having a trans fluid change done at 50k, although that's only after a DIY-gone-wrong lead to a stripped fill plug

Yep I think I experienced the same as you. Maybe it's just the normal wearing of the synchro. I also found double clutching solved it every time.