My son has a 2000 Legacy, manual transmission. Last night on the way to work he said he couldn't get it to shift down into second gear from third. He braked and coasted into a place he was going to stop at, anyway, and after it seeming cooled down, it did shift but rather with more difficulty.

I told him check his transmission fluid and get it to the dealer when he could because it's under warranty. Could low transmission fluid cause this type problem?

Has he modified the shifter in anyway, I would take it straight to the dealer if it's under warranty.

Nah, hasn't done any mods. Just got the car in April. Yeah, he'll be going to the dealer. I just wondered what problems low transmission fluid would cause if that was the case......

I don't know if this will help, but I can't downshift to first unless I rev match (pop the throttle to get the engine speed to match the wheel speed). Try reading up on heel-toe downshifting.

user error?

Sounds to me like you need to check clutch fluid, not transmission fluid (although it never hurts just to check). I used to have a similar problem on an old Toyota every once in a while, and I just had to top off my clutch fluid and pump the clutch a few times.

Can he downshift if he pumps the clutch?

As for rev matching, I think you really only need to do that on Model T's; that's why God invented synchros, right? Unless I have been unconciously revmatching my entire life.

Rev matching is a good idea to keep the transmission from heating up and allowing a smoother shift.

The clutch could be bad. I broke a clutch on an Rx7 when shifting into 3rd, instead of 5th (oops). After that, it wouldn't shift very well at all. The disk itself actually broke, quite amazing really... Anyways, the clutch could be bad, bad sycros, no fluid, not sure what else.

Regards,
Chad
AMD TSC

Thanks everyone! As usual, you can expect some helpful and interesting ideas and responses here to any problems!!