1993 240SX Transmission Woes

[RobinHood]

I have been experiencing an intermittent problem with my transmission over the past year. The transmission seems to stick in first gear and won't go into second. Sometimes, I can let off the accelerator and it will shift. Sometimes, I can shift down into 1 or 2 or even to R and back, and that will clear the problem. Other times, I just have to turn the car off, wait a few minutes, and then turn it back on. Once the car warms up, I don't seem to experience the problem.

It seems to do this more often when the engine is cold, and for some reason it seems to happen more often when turning left from a stop.

I've had it to a transmission shop and they could find nothing wrong except some oxygen sensor codes. They replaced the oxygen sensor and it behaved better for a while, but not it is doing it again.

Any ideas?

[180fan]

how long ago have you changed the transmission fluid?

[Dattebayo]

Yeah thats gotta be it. But Maybe also you did like me where i banged my syncros up and i couldnt shift without pushing the stick in hard and grinded all the low gears. I had to have the fluid changed too though...

[180fan]

change the transmission fluid with something like mt90 or motulgear as they've got additives that are softer on the synchros. If you see metal shavings in your gear oil or if it's sparkly, you're in trouble. My buddy had a dohc that had grey and sparkly gear oil and couldn't get into 5th and 1st and 2nd would grind all the time. Found a sohc transmission and me nearly having a hernia about half a day later, he was off and running.