This sounds like exactly whats happening. Watching my videos it tends to happen when I've braked a little later, started turning and the car's under more load. The gate's definitely not there.... I can try a few times to engage the gear, almost coming to a stop on the weekend, where I tried going into third first, still no success, then got it into first before it allowed me into second. Luckily no one behind me.

Never had it happen on the street, and the problem only started about 3 trackdays ago, and seems to be getting worse.

Perhaps more of a problem as the mounts wear?

 

I have a video of Andy Lally almost money-shifting my old RS at TWS going into Turn 1 CCW.....that's when I got bushings. I figured if it's just happening to me, then I need to learn, but if it's happening to pro, then there is a design/engineering issue that needs addressing.

 

Just came back from a two-day DE on a very tight, twisty track (Shenandoah is 2.3 miles long with 16 corners). Did not have any problems downshifting into 2nd, although most of my downshifts were done in a straight line as I entered the corners. This was my second DE in the car, and didn't have any problems in the first one, either. I now have nearly 4K miles on the car.

 

Same lesson from my .2 GT3.

 

Interesting - so I was at Road Atlanta last Friday for a track day. At turn 10A (left turn) coming in hot - hit the brakes and then shift from 5th to 3rd. Then down to 2nd right about to turn - I hit a lock out several times - may have just started to turn and then had to go back to 3rd. It was very unnerving with cars behind me and losing so much speed. After that I just stayed in 3rd and didn't bother with 2nd on that turn. On turn 7 - sharp right turn I had no issues shifting from 3rd to 2nd.

So - I know that the best practice is complete shift before the turn and it appears that at least a hard left there is a shift related to G's that can cause a lock-out and inability to downshift.

 

Several threads on this. There's a tendency to really push that 3rd to 2nd shift into 2nd way down in the bottom left corner of the gate. Instead try to keep it in the center line of 2nd gear and it'll go in easy. I'm guessing you're using rev matching too?

 

Hello,

Anyone have a solution for this issue? I have a 2022 718 GT4 and ran into the same problem on a recent track day at Laguna - under hard braking entering turns 11 and 2, the car refused to shift down from 3rd to 2nd, and just as described, it felt like it was physically blocked. As soon as I exit the track, the downshifts resume working. I am very sure I didn't get into the reverse gate as that has a distinctive click. I tried to reproduce it on the street, but wasn't able to.

 

I hate to say it but it's probably an error in your shifting technique, basically vaguely slamming it to the bottom-left direction without precisely going down-left-down into the proper gate. The suede gets slippery on hot track days when you're sweating and could exacerbate imprecise shifting in my opinion.

 

Yeah, any time I experienced this in the past it was because I was pulling the shifter too hard to the left. Since reverse gear is over there, it's possible to pull it past where it will slide into 2nd. It can be an adjustment if you're coming from a car that has reverse on the right side or has a lock-out.

 

I do plan to go back to the track soon and focus on my shifting to see if that fixes the problem I am facing. I am new to this car, so driver error is definitely likely, but I have doubts about both the theories:
- My previous car was a Lotus Elise that had to be shifted precisely, so I always go down->left->down to get from 3rd to 2nd. I have a video of my shifting from the last time I visited Laguna before I started facing this issue (unfortunately I wasn't recording when this happened), in case it helps taking a look at the technique:


- I am pretty sure I wasn't getting into reverse. After I came back from the track, I tried on the streets to recreate this issue. Pushing far enough left to get to reverse, there is a clear click before it goes that far left. I can say with some confidence that didn't happen on track, at least not every time I come to the same corner. Also, when it jammed, I was coasting on neutral trying to get it to fall into 2nd with different motions and it didn't help. If I tried going less to the left, it fell into 4th. And literally within 30 seconds when I exited the pits, it fell into second again.

 

Yeah seems to work well there but like you said that's before the issue presented. Kind of in a tough place because if you go to any shop and they drive it on the street to diagnose and replicate the issue it won't happen, so they won't be able to experience the issue making their chance of solving this less likely.

 

when you are hitting the reverse gate at the track it doesn’t feel like the reverse gate does in the parking lot. It just feels like the stick got stuck or the gear is missing. Just because the flex in the mounts has caused the gear to be in a different location.

for those corners I just push slightly less to the left to grab 2nd and more downwards. It’s more vague feeling for sure.

I also used to have a lotus Elise. But I changed all the mounts to 60a durameter. They shook the car like a massage chair at idle but the shifting was consistent regardless of the load.

 

I installed Tarett/Wevo Semi Solid Transmission Mounts (2 @ $!69 ea) a couple of years ago. The car is instantly more visceral, with no sign of this 2nd gear issue. Daily drivers won't like it.

 

Into 3A at Pacific Raceways, noticed this on the first hot lap. Glad to find this thread! Ordering some stiffer trans mounts.

 

Wanted to give an update here. I went back to Laguna Seca a few weeks ago and the advice I got here from @GT4_Rick , @Nate Tempest and @vantage was spot on. Personally, the technique change that worked to get from 3rd down to 2nd was to stop going down->left->down and instead doing more of a diagonal movement. I guess the main issue was I might have been yanking too hard on the left movement... Regardless, moving less to the left fixed it. Appreciate the help in this forum because of which I tried changing technique instead of taking the car into a workshop. @Scott O'Connor I might still try the Tarett semi solid transmission mounts since I care more about track feel, especially at that price! Thanks for sharing your experience.