Slight scratchy grinding noise in 5th gear
 

Only when my car is cold when I shift into 5th gear I hear a very slight grinding noise and when I push in the clutch it goes away. This kind of sucks since the car just turned 21,000 and I have never beat the car one bit. No wonder they (Ford) are going down. Its not a constint noise either and when the car get a little warmed up it will not happen.

use the clutch to shift every time...

what i can think of is if you let the rmp get to the proper rev level before shifting into gear for the speed your doing at the moment. say when your goin 100, the rmp lvl should be somewhere close to 2000....if your rmp is still high from 4th gear, wait in neutral with the clutch open untill your rmp drops to 2000. shift then.

edit: make sure your in the gear properly aswell. metal tends to stick when it get too cold.

You say you don't beat on it but you clearly don't let the car warm up. That's the fluid in the trans being too cold. Common problem on all cars, and for autos, it means slow shifting. And who said Ford is going down? I don't see them begging on the Capitol's steps like the other two...

Yeah I think you might be right. The car sits alot in the garage and it is winter. Sometimes it will sit 3 to 4 weeks before driving it. Some guy told me that 5 gear sits all by itself and that could be why just 5 is doing it?

I believe it's also w/ reverse but regardless, like I said, don't worry, it's normal. Just warm up the car before you drive. Also, it's better to drive it once a week since letting sit longer isn't the greatest since water condenses in the engine so that needs to be evaporated out periodically.

Thanks bro!