Hello. Please be patient with me as I describe this problem, as I'm not very mechanically inclined.
I am hoping someone can shed some light on this issue.
The problem I am having is extremely intermittent. I have not been able to reproduce it on demand, and it has only happened about 5-6 times in the last 3 weeks (the amount of time I've had the car). As a result, I'm hesitant to take the car to the shop, as it is so infrequent and I cannot tell them how to duplicate it, and they would probably find no problem.
I think it is an issue related to the skip shift. What will happen is, I'll be in a situation where I cannot accelerate as fast as normal (I am driving conservatively in my car right now, but you know how sometimes even driving conservatively, you will get behind someone who just goes reeaaallly suuupppeer sllooww when they "accelerate"). It is in these super-slow acceleration bouts that I get the problem. It seems even more likely to trigger if I initially stepped on the gas a tad harder, then while the car is still in first, I have to let up off the acceleration even more to where the car is almost just coasting.
What will happen is the car will not allow me to shift. It will happen when I'm either in 1st gear and go to shift, or in 2nd and go to shift. Since it only happens under unusually slow acceleration and in 1st/2nd, that is why I think it is related to skip shift. However, when this problem happens, unlike skip shift which is supposed to try to force you to go 2nd-4th (from what I understand), the car will not allow me to shift into anything except neutral.
So usually what happens is I get stuck behind someone slow, I press the clutch (I always push the clutch all the way to the floor), shift out of 1st or 2nd, then cannot put the gear in any other gear. Once the RPMS drop enough, then I can reengage a gear, but not until then. Also, I usually get a clue that this is about to happen a fraction of a second before it happens, as it is normally a tad harder to shift out of 1st/2nd when this occurs.
Now, since this has been infrequent, and it is while I'm in traffic, normally when it happens I'm in a hurry to try to get the car back into a gear, and so I'm not experimenting and observing a lot. My eyes are on the road, though after this happened a few times I've started glancing down briefly to look for the skipshift light. Of all those times, only one time has the skipshift light been possibly on--I saw a brief flash of red just to the left of center at the bottom of the guages, but the light went away too quick for me to see what it was. Other times, there has been nothing on the dash.
Needless to say, I do not have the skipshift eliminator (and do not have any other mods). All other times the shifter works very well; it is only in these forced-slow-acceleration times.
I'm sorry I don't have more information--as it is uncommon, and I'm usually just in a hurry to get the car in gear so I can get out of the way of traffic--I haven't been able to make a lot of observations and experiments. But if anyone could help, I'd really appreciate it. I like this car a lot, but this shifting things is rather disconcerting.
/edit: This looked like the most appropriate subforum for this issue. Also, I drive conservatively in this car, do not race it, and the only people who have driven it are myself and whatever dealership etc folks had to drive it.
The problem I am having is extremely intermittent. I have not been able to reproduce it on demand, and it has only happened about 5-6 times in the last 3 weeks (the amount of time I've had the car). As a result, I'm hesitant to take the car to the shop, as it is so infrequent and I cannot tell them how to duplicate it, and they would probably find no problem.
I think it is an issue related to the skip shift. What will happen is, I'll be in a situation where I cannot accelerate as fast as normal (I am driving conservatively in my car right now, but you know how sometimes even driving conservatively, you will get behind someone who just goes reeaaallly suuupppeer sllooww when they "accelerate"). It is in these super-slow acceleration bouts that I get the problem. It seems even more likely to trigger if I initially stepped on the gas a tad harder, then while the car is still in first, I have to let up off the acceleration even more to where the car is almost just coasting.
What will happen is the car will not allow me to shift. It will happen when I'm either in 1st gear and go to shift, or in 2nd and go to shift. Since it only happens under unusually slow acceleration and in 1st/2nd, that is why I think it is related to skip shift. However, when this problem happens, unlike skip shift which is supposed to try to force you to go 2nd-4th (from what I understand), the car will not allow me to shift into anything except neutral.
So usually what happens is I get stuck behind someone slow, I press the clutch (I always push the clutch all the way to the floor), shift out of 1st or 2nd, then cannot put the gear in any other gear. Once the RPMS drop enough, then I can reengage a gear, but not until then. Also, I usually get a clue that this is about to happen a fraction of a second before it happens, as it is normally a tad harder to shift out of 1st/2nd when this occurs.
Now, since this has been infrequent, and it is while I'm in traffic, normally when it happens I'm in a hurry to try to get the car back into a gear, and so I'm not experimenting and observing a lot. My eyes are on the road, though after this happened a few times I've started glancing down briefly to look for the skipshift light. Of all those times, only one time has the skipshift light been possibly on--I saw a brief flash of red just to the left of center at the bottom of the guages, but the light went away too quick for me to see what it was. Other times, there has been nothing on the dash.
Needless to say, I do not have the skipshift eliminator (and do not have any other mods). All other times the shifter works very well; it is only in these forced-slow-acceleration times.
I'm sorry I don't have more information--as it is uncommon, and I'm usually just in a hurry to get the car in gear so I can get out of the way of traffic--I haven't been able to make a lot of observations and experiments. But if anyone could help, I'd really appreciate it. I like this car a lot, but this shifting things is rather disconcerting.
/edit: This looked like the most appropriate subforum for this issue. Also, I drive conservatively in this car, do not race it, and the only people who have driven it are myself and whatever dealership etc folks had to drive it.