Hi Everyone! I'm new writing on the forum but have used the site and the forum itself for quite some time now, looking for advice on various topics.

I had a seemingly 'standard' gear shift problem on my 2004 yaris where first and (less pronounced) second gear get tough. The problem was a lot more pronounced when I just got it (used), at the point that the stick would slip into third rather than 1-st sometimes. Changed oil with some Liqui Moly 75w90 and added some of their gear oil additive and it all made a night and day difference.

After all that, it all works fine until at random times, it still gets a bit hard to engage 1-st and 2-nd. The lever suddenly feels like jammed and I have to start pushing slowly the first few millimeters, feeling some hard-rubbing tension under the knob, then it suddenly slips in effortlessly past this sort of barrier like it is supposed to. This only happens at seemingly random times, I'd say more when I downshift in traffic, then after doing it 1-2 times it goes back to working like a charm. Very rarely on cold starts a light snapping click is heared after 1-st is engaged, like a spring but it goes away after 2-3 min and is not related to a hard shift.

My mechanic says this is totally normal on a used car and that I am a maniac but I want to be safe that this is not hiding any bigger problem with the gearbox or something wrong with the clutch.