Have a 1999 Honda Accord who seems to have developed a particularly sticky gearshiftfollowing not driving it for 10 days (been on holiday previously and driving it again since Sunday)

The environment has been quite cold recently. The main issue is regarding difficulty getting into gear. With the engine turned off the gear shift moves ok. With the engine turned on I seem to often find difficulty engaging gear with particularly 1st and reverse- sometimes clunky and often resistant to engagedespite clutch pedal being engaged. Sometimes the only way I can do it is topush the clutch pedal in,turn off the engine and shift with engine off and restart engine with clutch in. Once thecaris moving at a reasonable speedit is less of a problem, particularly from between 2nd-5th gear. The problem is slightly intermittent as well, worst on Sunday, better Monday and Tuesday, bad again today. The clutch pedal seems slightly light but the bite point appears to the same as normal. Once gear is engaged car performs normally. Car never jumps out of gear.

As long as I can drive it back from work to home today can do without my car New Years Day and take it to the garage first thing 2nd Jan- would benefit from any advice as to what the cause may be in the meantime so I have an idea of what the cause may be. Could the transmission fluid have frozen?? Engine Oil level is ok.

 

I would start by changing the manual trans fluid to see if that helps. Do you know when it was changed last? It is a general maintenance item so you might as well do that before paying a shop to try to diagnose the problem.

Many will recommend genuine Honda MTF, I have seen others who like Redline MTF.
I'm all ears as to what kind you use though and if it helps. I really need to change my MTF but I have been to lazy to do it recently.

My trans is sometimes a pain to get in 1st gear and reverseas well. Not quite as bad as you mentioned, but sometimes I have to let the clutch out just a little bit on order for it to go into gear.

 

Since it shifts OK when the engine is not running, it sounds like the clutch is dragging. Concentrate on the clutch hydraulics (low fluid? air in the system?)

 

Ive filled it with Honda MTF and it ran like butter, but I might try something different this next time around since my tranny sees more abuse than most.

Im willing to bet money that short shift adapter is the cause for youre 5th and reverse troubles. I upgraded to the PSPEC short shifter which replaced the entire shifter arm and no longer have those issues, but first is still a pain sometimes, so that issue must lie in the transmission.

 

Bleeding the clutch is easy to do, just unscrew the bleeder nipple on the slave cylinder and pump the clutch. Also a good time to just flush all the old fluid out and fill with new fluid.