05 S40 T5, 6spd.

The other day, I was turning left out of a parking lot, while shifting into second. I gunned it a little to get ahead of traffic and heard a kind of pop, almost like a bad CV joint.

Ever since, I THINK I notice (it may all be in my head) a difference in shifting. After the pop, I started paying more attention. When bringing it into the gate, it almost feels like it's catching or binding on something as I bring it in gear. Does this in every gear. It's barely noticeable, still shifts fine, not making any noises etc, just the way it feels.

Bushing?

 

I would take a look at your bushings, if they are ok, maybe a misaligned syncro.

 

I'll crawl under there and look at the bushing.

It's got a notchy feel to it, even when the car is off. I've sat there with the clutch in (I know it doesn't matter when it's off, just habit) and ran through each gear nice and slowly, and it does it then too....and sometimes it doesn't do it. It only seems to do it on the up shifts, but sometimes has that notchy feel on the down shift too.

It's very slight, almost sloppy in a way, and some may not even notice it.

I may take it to a tranny shop and have someone take a feel of it. I've read around the internet and some people try a different fluid, and I've seen redline thrown around alot.

 

Ran it by a local trans shop and one of the guys drove it around while I rode with him. I explained to him what it was doing and how it felt notchy. After driving it, he said it feels fine to him, and doesn't see anything wrong with it. He did pull the boot off and checked the linkage immediately under it, and it all looked fine. All the lifts were taken up so I didn't bother asking him to throw it up there and look at the bushing under the car. He also said that if it were syncro's, that it wouldn't be notchy in ALL gears, just the ones that were bad.

I am taking it to a place today to have a front end noise checked out, thinking sway bar end link. Get a popping noise passenger side when I go over bumps sometimes, mostly while cruising through town. Coincidentally, this started happening after I heard that pop when I was turning left, mentioned in my original post, and the same time that I started "noticing" the notchy feeling. When they put it on the lift, I'll give the lower bushing a look.

I've read on some forums (for other cars) that some cars can feel notchy if the clutch is depressed all the way to the floor, and sometimes if you only depress the clutch enough to get it out of and in gear, it can help.

Thoughts?

 

Well, the intermittent popping is a lower ball joint, in the beginning stages of going bad. Don't really have a choice right now but to drive it for a month or two at most. There's not a lot of play, the mechanic had to really get after it in order to make it move, but it's there...maybe 1/16" or a touch more of movement, if I had to guess.

Also started playing with clutch movement while shifting. I've been able to get it to slide in nice and pretty in the gears by not depressing the clutch all the way to the floor. Not 100% of the time, but better than before. I've also stopped being so "gentle" with it and just pushing it in gear, where as before I was just using a finger or two and very gently sliding it in gear...seems to help too.