Is this normal - difficult to shift in reverse when cold?

[achtung98m]

Searched the threads for my symptoms, no real leads other than shift pin issues.

Lucky if I use the roadster as least once a month but yesterday I needed to use it in a hurry and had difficulty getting the gear in reverse. I noticed that it was only after the engine had somewhat warmed up (needle was at 10 or 11 o'clock?) that I was able to get it in reverse. I got paranoid when I proceeded to drive and tried to observe if anything about shifting was off - didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, after arriving to my destination i even played around shifting in reverse several times without issues. I dont think its the clutch, (and why only when shifting in reverse) the car has 48K miles. The only thing I could think of was that maybe it had always been like this (hard to get in reverse when cold) since on times when I do get to take it for a drive I would more often than not let it idle for a few minutes before I back up out of the driveway.

Btw, I'm in Cali so we're not talking about frozen tundra conditions.

[Mr Bingley]

Change your trans fluid and warm it up when cold (I am running AMSOil). Next step is to replace the clutch line and flush the brake fluid. Unlikely to be the shift pins unless the shifter is also leaning off of center.

[Randy Forbes]

To engage reverse, you have to depress a fairly heavy spring, via a plunger in a bore. It is conceivable that when cold (Mark Twain is famously quoted as saying the coldest winter he ever felt, was summer in San Francisco...) the clearance is tightened up, causing increased resistance.

The reverse and 5th gear detent plunger bore bushes were part of a SIB (service bulletin) but typically, the symptom is a lazy lever that doesn't return to center itself with the 3rd-4th gear gate.

I guess you've just found another reason to have the service performed. If you can live with it until your car needs a clutch (or the SIB for the 1st-2nd gear being hard to engage mandates it first) just have both of those SIBs performed while the trans is already out. Neither of those two (2) SIBs can be done with the xmsn in situ.

[2002Z3]

In OC, it does drop to the mid 40's sometimes and yes, it can be a little harder to get in reverse when really cold. Nothing terrible though for me, just more force than I would expect. If it really balks, I just go back into neutral, clutch off, slightly rev (maybe 800 to 1000 RPM?), then clutch, put it into 1st, then go into reverse.