Trouble getting into 1st gear even when completely stopped.

[manolantern]

I just picked up my 2015 Fiesta ST this week and absolutely love the car! I noticed on the drive home (and almost every time I drive) some difficulty getting the car into 1st gear when completely stopped.

I want to stress that I am NOT trying to shift into 1st while the car is moving. This happens when I'm at a dead stop (usually waiting at a red light in neutral... light turns green... try to put it into 1st... won't go in). I've been driving manual cars for over 15 years and this is the first time I've experienced this.

If i press the shift lever to the left very softly and deliberately apply minimal pressure, then move the lever up into 1st, it goes in without any problems. But when I press the lever against the left side with "normal" pressure, that is when it sometimes gets stuck when pushing up into 1st. It feels like the lever is getting caught on the corner of the gate where it normally enters for reverse.

Have any of you guys had this issue with getting into 1st gear?

Thanks!!

 

[koozy]

typical of a new gearbox, put several thousands of urban shifting miles and it should get smoother.

 

[Vince62]

I would take it back to the dealer and ask them to take a look and see.It's under warranty right?

 

[manolantern]

typical of a new gearbox, put several thousands of urban shifting miles and it should get smoother.

Thanks! I hope that's true for me. I've only had the car for 3 days and it's already become a major annoyance.

I would take it back to the dealer and ask them to take a look and see.It's under warranty right?

Ya, it's still under warranty. It's literally 3 days old! I think I'll mention it to the dealership, demonstrate it to them and see what they say. Thanks!

 

[Rhinopolis]

I for one HATE uneccesary dealer visits, and the less that they have to mess with my car, then the better for me. Have you considered that you might be pushing too far left when trying to get in to 1st? I've noticed that when upshifting 1st to 2cd (aggressive driving), that I sometimes put too much "left side pressure" in to the shift, which causes a not very smooth execution. This transmission is very easy to shift and it doesn't need to be man-handled.

 

[CanadianGuy]

Instead of extra pressure to the left and want not have you tried double clutching? I do have the occasional instances like you describe going from 6th to 1st (long coast to a light for a stop) and some instances of it happening when trying to reverse. If I double clutch the instances I feel resistance it goes in smooth. But I also agree with [MENTION=235]koozy[/MENTION] initially the gearbox was very strict now, after many miles, it is a lot smoother.

 

[Mr. Nice]

I thought this was pretty common? Happens to me too. If you hold the lever up towards first and slowly begin to release the clutch it should pop in. That or go down into 2nd and then back up to 1st.

 

[Kip2MyLou]

Mine does it more often going from 4th to 3rd. I just rev match usually and it pops right in most of the time.

 

[ogsigh]

Try 2nd to 1st like Mr nice said mine got better after about 8k and a trans fluid change to motul

 

[Dustys318]

Try 2nd to 1st like Mr nice said mine got better after about 8k and a trans fluid change to motul

This.

Motul has both a DCTF fluid and Specific 948 B motor oil 5W20 for the FiST... 100% synthetic...

 

[manolantern]

Thanks for the tip guys. I drove it around all day today (staycation day!) and have been trying to adjust the way I changed gears. With my previous car (2008 VW GTI), I'm used to pushing the lever hard to the left, then up to get into 1st. Today, I deliberately shifted gears with a lighter hand and didn't really have much of an issue getting it into 1st gear at all. I think it really is getting caught in the reverse gate when i apply enough force against the left side "wall". The fact that I can shift flawlessly when being light-handed somewhat proves that. The question is whether this is "normal" or whether this is an issue specific to my vehicle (and maybe a few others as well).

 

[CanadianGuy]

Thanks for the tip guys. I drove it around all day today (staycation day!) and have been trying to adjust the way I changed gears. With my previous car (2008 VW GTI), I'm used to pushing the lever hard to the left, then up to get into 1st. Today, I deliberately shifted gears with a lighter hand and didn't really have much of an issue getting it into 1st gear at all. I think it really is getting caught in the reverse gate when i apply enough force against the left side "wall". The fact that I can shift flawlessly when being light-handed somewhat proves that. The question is whether this is "normal" or whether this is an issue specific to my vehicle (and maybe a few others as well).

Here are two pictures of the reverse lock out. If you push left hard enough you could deflect the "wing" to allow some reverse slot engagement. I cam into this car for a well loved +250k miles Aveo, sloppy manual. It took me some time to get back into proper position shifting. But once I deed it is great. I do still have some notchyness but I think its a fluid issue as it is not present when the temps are cold. I will do a tranny fluid swap next spring, to get rid of the metal dust that may have been collected.

 

[manolantern]

Here are two pictures of the reverse lock out. If you push left hard enough you could deflect the "wing" to allow some reverse slot engagement. I cam into this car for a well loved +250k miles Aveo, sloppy manual. It took me some time to get back into proper position shifting. But once I deed it is great. I do still have some notchyness but I think its a fluid issue as it is not present when the temps are cold. I will do a tranny fluid swap next spring, to get rid of the metal dust that may have been collected.

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Hmmm... very interesting seeing these photos. Thanks for posting them. So this tab/wing... is it actually flexible? And how delicate is it? I'm now thinking this is the issue because if i push left with any force other than just "gingerly", it does get caught when I push up for 1st gear. More importantly, is there some sort of adjustment for the alignment of this?

 

[CanadianGuy]

Hmmm... very interesting seeing these photos. Thanks for posting them. So this tab/wing... is it actually flexible? And how delicate is it? I'm now thinking this is the issue because if i push left with any force other than just "gingerly", it does get caught when I push up for 1st gear. More importantly, is there some sort of adjustment for the alignment of this?

It is in no way delicate. But it is plastic and has a small gap that can be compressed. I did not see any adjustments when I had it apart. I will take it apart again over the holidays to install the Boomba short shirt kit.

 

[manolantern]

It is in no way delicate. But it is plastic and has a small gap that can be compressed. I did not see any adjustments when I had it apart. I will take it apart again over the holidays to install the Boomba short shirt kit.

Spoke to the tech at my dealership yesterday and demonstrated the issue to him. There were no other Fiesta STs around for us to compare to, but he believed it is "normal" and just part of the design of the gearbox in the Fiesta ST. It really does seem like the gear lever is getting caught on the reverse lockout when you push to the left too hard. I'm used to pressing pretty hard on the gear lever of my VW GTI, but over the past two days, I've made a mental note to be gentler with my shifts and haven't run into the issue I discussed earlier in this thread. So now I'm thinking I just need to learn how to be habitually gentler on the lever when shifting.

Also been curious how a short shift kit/bracket would affect this. Been thinking about the FSWerks unit, which I think is quite similar to the Boomba kit. Would love to hear your thoughts when you eventually get around to installing it.

 

[70sstrat08]

Also been curious how a short shift kit/bracket would affect this. Been thinking about the FSWerks unit, which I think is quite similar to the Boomba kit. Would love to hear your thoughts when you eventually get around to installing it.

I've always had the first gear thing. My habit is gently pushing the shifter over and when it hits resistance just giving it a second and it falls in to gear. (Kinda hard to describe but there's a definite point of resistance).

I had the Boomba shift adapter first, took it off because I thought there was a problem and put the short shifter in. Currently I run both with the middle setting for the shifter.

If I were to do it all over again I would do just the shifter not the adapter. Alone they're each about the same and I felt like the adapter gave a lot more resistance for the same throw reduction. My 2c.

 

[Simon-nz]

Also been curious how a short shift kit/bracket would affect this. Been thinking about the FSWerks unit, which I think is quite similar to the Boomba kit. Would love to hear your thoughts when you eventually get around to installing it.

Appreciate I'm replying from the perspective of a RHD 3 dr ST, but I have the Mountune short shift fitted and there have been no problems from new with finding the slots (except those down to my own poor co-ordination!)

 

[NightWatchman]

My 2015 has always done this! I'm almost to 7k now and it still does it, though I've noticed it shifts better when I apply less leftward pressure too. I wouldn't say I was using excessive force, but my previous car was a 6 speed Jetta GLI with a lot of miles on it and overall this car shifts better. I've been wondering if there was an adjustment myself. I switched to Motul 300 at 1k I think it was, but I'm planning on switching to Motul Multi DCTF soon.