Almost every time I shift into reverse it makes a loud grinding sound, and some times the service engine soon light comes on after it grinds, but turns off if I restart the car. It is a manual transmission.

Reverse is not synchronized, the way the forward gears all are. That's why it grinds.

I can't say I can blame the car for complaining when you do that, by lighting the light.

Put the car into a forward gear , before you just jam it into reverse. Have some pity on the poor gears and quit filling your fluid with metal chips.

Shouldn't a transmission out of his year be synchronized? I thought it was only the older trannies that had that problem...

I don't believe the reverse idler can be synchonized easily, and it can float at a lot of different RPMs. My NV2500 in the S-truck does the same thing. You pretty much have to stop the input gear rotation by pulling a forward gear before entering reverse if the driveshaft is moving at all. I like to use 3rd or 4th, since the 1st and 2nd gear synchros already get plenty of wear just from "normal" shifting. I think the 2nd gear synchro actually gets worn faster than 1st.

As for the "SES" lamp, it's hard to imagine what it might be that would be related to the shifting (except for possibly the VSS). However, it's very easy to find out by simply scanning for codes. You may have other things going on, and the rough egagement into reverse may only be coincidental.

¿¿Eh?? What is the meaning of this "should"? Does it change reality?

Regardless of whether it "should" be or not, it isn't. There's no synchro on the reverse of a T-5 of any year. The reverse gear and idler follow the rotation of the countergear, so if the guts of the trans are rotating when you try to shift it into reverse, it's going to grind. No way around it.

Vader's right about the synchros wearing; 2nd & 3rd are the ones that get the most abuse. Yet in their infinite wisdom, the engineers that desgined the W..... Wor...... {ppppuuuuuukkkke} sorry, I just really have trouble with that stupid PIT Team / Total Quality / ISO-9001 buzzword..... 2nd design T-5 decided to put the composition synchro on 1st, the one that really gets the least wear of all, since about 99% of the time that it's used, the trans is at idle speed. But I guess that's the value of a college education to some people, too much reading of books and not enough touching the real world. Go figure.

Putting it into a forword gear before shifting into reverse seems to have solved it. No more grinding

RB,

You're killin' me!

Can't quite spit out the words "[i]World[/1]" and "Class" in the same phrase? If you need some help, just remember what the general standards for the world really are - quite low by comparison to what OUR standards used to be. After all, the "world" includes Kias, Mazaka, Yugos, Mitsubishi controls, those little Russina POS car whose name I can't recall, the Chinese space program, etc. That should give you a little more fortitude when heaving up that term.

BTW - the label "ISO900" to me means only "I See Over 9,000 different ways to do it - however I say I will should be just fine. Even if I'm wrong, as long as I'm consistently wrong I'll maintain certification..." Having been involved in several implementations of the ISO and QS "standards" in various places (then being surplussed out of there) I understand that the term "standard" should really not be associated with that label. There are so many iterations, it loses meaning once analyzed. 14000 is a good start for EHS people, but just a start. As with any standard, it should be considered a lowest common denominator. The better, more successful organizations will consistently surpass such "standards". Companies like Caterpillar, Ford (Q1), and GM (Q145) had quality programs well before the existence of the ISO/QS push.

Feel any better? Didn't think so...

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Maui,

Great that you solved the gear gnashing, but what about the error code? Better retrieve it before it is erased (you have 50 starts to get it before it's gone). It might reveal something interesting.

Gettin the error code checked this week.

Getting it checked? What, no paper clips in Ohio?