My father just bought a brand new 2009 Cobalt LT. Before that, he drove a Toyota Tercel with about 300k KMs on the clock and the manual transmission was really loose. The transmission was also quite quick and he had a lot of fun throwing it around because it required little effort. Now with the Cobalt's manual transmission, its quite tight and quick shifts simply don't work. Its as if there is lockout preventing the shifter from being thrown from one gear to another quickly. Another problem is when we performed quicker shifts, we'd here a gear grinding noise. Its not too loud and we can't feel anything through the shifter but it definitely raises concerns. Our car has about 900 kms on the clock right now and we were wondering if these conditions were normal for all modern cars and its my dad that needs to get with the times

To summarize:
Dad drove a 92' Tercel with 300k Kms on the clock, it had a very loose transmission and could be thrown around quite easily.
The Cobalt's transmission is a whole new ballgame. The shifter is really tight and quick shifts simply don't happen. A slight gear grinding noise is heard when we try quicker shifts; though we feel nothing through the shifter.
Are these the characteristics of the modern day manual transmission?
Will the transmission get loser after a certain break in period?

Another thing I've found pecuiliar is that GM says the manual transmission is sealed and requires no maintenance. I find this quite bollocks as metal fragments especially during the initial break in would wear into the gear oil and recirculate as abrasives. What would CobaltSS.Net recommend as a good maintenance schedule for the Cobalt's manual transmission? I'm thinking of changing the oil once the car hits 1500Km, am I right to think so?

Cheers,
905BMX

 

with the tight tolerances in modern transmissions you dont get much break in metal, and there is a magnet inside the tranny that all this stuff gets stuck to. i dont beleive anything is fill for life, id change the oil around 25k miles, although that may be considered overkill to some. with the amount of bearing wear im seeing on modern manual transmissions come through my shop (im a transmission tech) on the "fill for life" vehicles, its hard not to think that if the fluid had been changed mabey i wouldnt be putting a bearing kit into this tranny.

as for the shifting, it may loosen up. however the older toyotas have a much different feeling clutch and you can have a lazy clutch foot. you may not realize it but mabey your not pushing the clutch in far enough. id sday drive it for a little longer and try changing your driving tequnique and see if it changes, if not, head back for warrenty.

 

As for the tranny being stiff, it just needs time to break in. Mine did the same for a while but now its getting much easier.

As for the grinding during quick shifts, our trannys have syncros that make it harder to rip through gears, it is still possible to make quick shifts, just not as quickl as your trying to do.

 

what sharky wrote here is really true. not pushing in the clutch enuf? every frickin day i see that... I sometimes do that myself, whodathunkit? good advice from sharkey...