im not to familliar w/ vr4's, but on my 91' ES, my 2nd gear syncro was messed up to where it grinded as yours does. The guy @ the shop that fixed mine also said that u can only replace syncros. He replaced my 2nd gear syncros and bearings and stuff. (im not too sure on what all he did), but it seemed to fix the problem. tho, i still get a weird feel everytime i shift into 2nd and third. But the trip to the shop cost me about $1300 and about 2 weeks w/o a car. Hope this helps.