Clutch may not be fully disengaged when you're shifting. Although its possible there is a defect.
I know I have grinded mine once or twice, my hand moved quicker than my foot lol.

 

Try shifting a little lower in the RPM range. I'm just taking a wild guess but I imagine you're shifting at redline?

 

Try shifting a little lower in the RPM range. I'm just taking a wild guess but I imagine you're shifting at redline?

It happened yesterday shifting right at 5k.

In the old car I had a 2-3 synchro out and it was behaving just like this. You guys may be right, though and I may just be too fast for the car. Rallycrossing I was always hard into 2nd from 1st and fast and right at 6700 (just at rev limit), but never had any problems. Perhaps this is another "getting used to the car" thing.

 

i've grabbed a grind a couple times when i'm hustling the car and only 1st --> 2nd.

hustling = RPM's in the 5-6k range

EDIT: its rare but it has happened a couple times.. i agree with FatKidsCruze. My hand was a touch faster than my foot.

 

Same thing here, same reason, in my case my foot was slower than my hand though. ccasion14:

 

Ive taken mine to redline and no grind, in my experience, grabbing the shifter just a tad too soon has caused the grind in many a cars.

 

Could be a bad synchro but more than likely you are shifting faster than the stock clutch will disengage. Try delaying the shift a little more after you push the clutch and see if it still does it.

 

It happens to me too when doing quick shifts at high rpm. What I have noticed on the fault of myself, is I am not fully depressing the clutch pedal. Unfortunately it is not like my old car, which didn't mind quick high rpm shifts.

 

No lift shift is nice isn't it? =P

 

My experience has been the same as most. Just real high rpms and pulled the stick faster than my foot can throw the clutch in. I assume everybody else's grinding has been just a fraction of a second like me right? May end poorly if it was much longer lol

 

Same here on my Eco; light grinding from 1-2 when I shift quickly above 4500 rpm... it did it pretty badly a few weeks ago when I shifted a bit above 5000. I will say the 1-2-3 shifts have been notchy since ~1200 miles, took it to dealership to see if clutch linkage needed adjusting, they said normal. With that being their response, if it breaks it breaks and they can figure it out after the fact - I'm not going to baby this thing...

 

I with you on this one brother thats what the warranty is for experienced the same thing in my Eco

 

Yep, my transmission's pretty notchy too. Sometimes it goes into gear just fine, other times it doesn't want to go into 4th and a double-clutch is needed. It also doesn't always enjoy getting shifted going uphill. The dealers around me have no other manual Cruzes to compare to, so they aren't doing anything about it now.

It's got 5 years and 100,032 miles to break, so if it gets worse they can deal with it.

I wonder if new MTF would solve any problems. Changing the MTF worked wonders in my old Hyundai's manual transmission.

 

I'd be willing to bet this is the factory hydraulics not being able to keep up with the driver. It has been common in many GM applications as of late.

 

I'd guess the running theme is the car. VVV

 

I have had it happen to me a few times, and its always been 2nd gear...

1. WOT 1st gear
2. Clutch in and shift
3. As the gear selected goes into 2nd i hear the slight grind as my foot is still fully depressed on the clutch.

 

i think we have a running theme here...

 

Alright, it happened again today and I wasn't rushing the shift at all. Therefore, I have a more refined question to those of you that say your hand is faster than your foot.

Are you pressing the pedal in, then pulling the shifter down, then hearing the grind, or are you saying you are releasing the pedal before the shifter is fully engaged in the gear?

Today I rushed up to about 5500, pressed the clutch pedal in, let it sit for about a second, then tried to shift to second and got a long grind before it engaged. Previously I had basically pedal down and quick shifted into a grind. So the slower progression of the shift ending in a grind was a little shocking for me.

 

I get this too. I sometimes I get a sound like a "thunk" that is clearly heard with the window rolled down when I shift from 1st to 2nd with some speed. The speed of my shift is the same in every other gear and I don't hear anything shifting into other gears (unless I majorly screw up) so I doubt that I am shifting too quickly. I think the sound is more likely to happen in the beginning of a drive but I am not sure. The sound can occur regardless of my current RPM-I remember hearing it when crawling around on streets near my house.

I do believe that slowing down my 1 to 2 shift prevents that sound. However I am not sure about this and need to pay attention more.

 

i was hoping some transmission geek would step in and say this, but no one has chimed in so i'm gonna throw this out there for you other motor heads to kick around. Let me know what ya think, but this is how i kind of feel about this issue we all are seeing.

to me, this problem really sounds like the cone for the synchronizer ring isn't getting 2nd gears gearset, the layshaft and clutch disc slowed down to the speed of the output shaft. I'm curious if the PP isn't quite letting go of the disc all the way at high rpms, it may be dragging just enough that the dogs are grinding on the way to being engaged. The hydraulics might also have a play in this as well, it might not have enough umphhh to hold the PP disengaged all the way under high RPM's. And with the split between the ratios being the largest between 1st and 2nd, this inability to get the layshaft to the right speed is most noticeable on that gear change.

Few more days and my new assembly will be here. Then i'll know if its the OEM assembly isn't letting the transmission disengage completely, or if its something with the design of the transmission.. which i seriously doubt.

:question:

 

This sounds like the linkage is out of adjustment, just like what happened on the 2011's.

It's like nobody at Lordstown knows how to set up a manual transmission anymore since nobody (except us) drives a manual anymore...

 

I have driven 3 different 2011 Eco MT's including my own and every single one grinds when shifting fast into second gear at high rpm's (5000-5500 range). This ultimately lead to my transmission failure with only 3200 miles on the car, leaving me without my car for 31 days while it sat at the dealership waiting for a new trans.

I think we all need to start complaining to GM about this problem and hope they do a massive recall to fix it or else we are all doomed to a life of having to short shift out of first gear and never being able to hard shift into second gear...

I regret buying this car altogether because of this...

 

I regret buying this car altogether because of this...

I'm there with you, man. I actually was going to head down to Chevy to see about trading up on an auto tranny. unfortunately, the new Eco auto car is about $3k more than what I paid for mine. Ugh.

How did the grinding gear cause a total failure on yours? Did it just wipe out the shifter altogether? Also, does the car still do it after you had the tranny fixed?

I was trying to see what the exact variables were today and I can pretty consistently recreate the problem. WOT in first, shift at 5500, grind, then into second. Going to try to take it in next week.

 

And for all our troubles they should provide us all with TravsCruze's setup or a SPEC stage 2 upgrade over the stock unit!!!

I'm just saying lol

 

Good information! Is there any slave cylinder modification that could be done to help the pressure plate release more thoroughly?

 

I was thinking the same thing but in one of Travs clutch threads he stated that the clutch line and slave look pretty standard and there is no damper or anything to bypass to get a better response from it....

 

Does it only grind at high rpms? What happens when you shift during normal acceleration?

 

Normal acceleration is a vague term. Normal based on an observation of where GM put the redline or cutoff for this car is everywhere between 0 and the red. If by normal, you mean what most drivers would shift at, I'd assume around 3k at the max, then the shift to 2nd from first is just fine.

The reason I make the statement above is because Ford tried to muff me on a warranty claim because they said I was operating my previous car beyond it's specification. I had to inform them that if Ford deemed the specification appropriate to kill the injection on the engine at 6200, then anything below that would be within spec, not outside of it. 6100 is still within spec.

I need to backtrack for a moment. Can one of you describe the grinding sound? I just want to make sure that what I'm hearing is close to what you guys are hearing.

If you want to know what the sound is like, pull forward in 1st gear very slowly and get up to around 10mph. Then try to shift into reverse. It sounds exactly like that.

 

I need to backtrack for a moment. Can one of you describe the grinding sound? I just want to make sure that what I'm hearing is close to what you guys are hearing.

I hear a very short "thunk" sound sometimes when upshifting to 2, and very rarely when upshifting to 3. I think it occurs when I place the shifter into gear; it has no relation to the operation of my clutch pedal. I can be driving quite slowly when this happens. I am wondering if this is what you guys are talking about...

 

I need to backtrack for a moment. Can one of you describe the grinding sound? I just want to make sure that what I'm hearing is close to what you guys are hearing.

I hear a very short "thunk" sound sometimes when upshifting to 2, and very rarely when upshifting to 3. I think it occurs when I place the shifter into gear; it has no relation to the operation of my clutch pedal. I can be driving quite slowly when this happens. I am wondering if this is what you guys are talking about...

mine has done this from day one. It actually isnt as bad as it used to be but still makes me cringe when i hear it.

 

In the spring, I just may try Redline 75w-85 GL-4 gear oil in the transmission to see if that offers some relief over the Castrol BOT 303 in there now. I've never liked Castrol/BP products, just in general. Deepwater Horizon sealed the deal for me that BP is incompetent at best.

 

redline is one i plan on trying as well. I'm swapping out this pennzoil i had to settle for just because I couldn't find another GL-4 on the shelf anywhere locally. And my amsoil dealer dropped the ball on my order and got me GL-5 version.. /sigh..

 

Ok mine does he same thing almost defy time I shift at high rpms into 2nd and now even at just normal driving after I shift into second(no grind at low rpm shift) il hear and feel a slight grind or something scraping but juts briefly like a 1sec sound and it's already in gear so could this be my transmission starting to **** up now some one either pm me some info

 

You know, I'm still trying to figure out why you didn't get a Lemon Law deal. Isn't that evoked if you have the car in the shop for 30 consecutive days within a certain time frame?

I just took mine into the dealer today for service on the grinding. The adviser called me this afternoon and told me that the tranny tech couldn't reproduce the problem. However, the adviser had taken the car for a test drive and was able to reproduce the problem. :question: So anyway, the adviser asked if I could come in tomorrow and take him for a spin to see what it is that happens while I drive. He said it only happened for a short second while doing a quick shift. Correct.

I'm not sure what the purpose of this is other than they want to see if I am hotrodding the car. The adviser was able to recreate it, so they should look into a solution. End of conversation. He said if the problem popped up while I was there tomorrow, they would have to order some parts. So we'll see what happens.

According to Skillz above, I fully expect the same thing to happen after they do a repair. That's assuming they do a repair after I take the dude for a spin. They may try to say I shouldn't be driving the car like I am. Who knows.

The adviser did say that there was some TSB I needed to be informed about, I assume it is for the clunky shifting.

I really think everyone who is experiencing this needs to go to the dealer and have it investigated. That's the only way Chevy is going to get rid of the crappy parts they put in the car.

 

The reason I couldn't lemon the car is because they purposely dated the service records that car was done two days earlier than it really was, making it look as if it was only in repair for 29 days when it was really 31 or 32 day (depending if you wanted to count the first day they had the car).

There really is no "fix" for this problem, every M6 trans does this. My new trans grinds exactly like the old one did as well as the two other Ecos I've driven when doing the 1-2 shift above 5000 rpm. This is why people need to keep complaining about it until GM finally comes up with something.

If they tell you you're driving the car too hard, tell them that's total bullshit! This is one of the slowest cars in production today and when you need to merge into heavy traffic you need to accelerate like that at times, if they didn't want the motor revved that high they would have set the rev limit even lower. They must had some idea there was going to be a problem, because first gear already has a lower rev limit at 5500 rpm than any other gear.