Hi,

I've noticed an interesting phenomenon lately that I've not completely characterized but the details go something like this:

If I put in the clutch at about 10mph or so, push into first gear (goes in smoothly) and coast to a stop... I notice if, after I've stopped (clutch has been in all this time), sometimes it is difficult to take out of gear... this happens in second gear sometimes as well. It's almost as if this sequence of events somehow "loads" down the drivetrain somehow (perhaps related to AWD?) and makes it difficult to get out of gear.

Has anyone else noticed this phenomenon? BTW... when I say difficult to take out of gear, it means not as easy as normal... something like twice the force to three times the force than normal. Also... I hear a little "pop" when I do get it out of gear which sounds EXACTLY like what you'd expect to get if the transmission were somehow loaded.

Comments?

Joe West

 

Finally someone else that has my problem.....

I've had my car to my dealership 2 times, the first they said they couldn't reproduce it, the second, had to drive back and show them how to do it. My exact procedure is as follows...

Drive as normal, when coming to a stop, leave the shifter in 2nd brake but do not hit the clutch until around 1200-1400 rpms, sometimes even under that...then push in the clutch and look at that your shifter is jammed in gear. Works almost 100% of the time.

After it happened they said well we don't know, the car is new take it and drive it for some time and then see if it loosens up. Well fast forward to this sunday

Sunday coming to a stop at a light, sticks in second gear, go to push it out, and POP, not the usual sounds like a popping it out of gear while moving, but broken pop. And it was...The entire linkage broke off of the bottom of my shifter shaft, thats how much force it took to take it out of gear. So now my car sits at the dealership (towed there) not in any gear, with the porsche tech on vacation until the end of the week

Anyway it has happened like 50 times to me, maybe it's my driving style, but hopefully someone on the board can do us a favor and see if they can reproduce it on their cars, and maybe it is a porsche thing. I don't know, but ohh yeah I've had that problem. By the way my car is a 2003 X50.

~ Jason
03 Black/Black X50

 

my 2002 does the exact same thing. I got tired of trying to figure it out.

 

Jason,

Make sure you let us know what the dealership finds... that way, if we need to take ours in to have them looked at; you'll be able to let us know what to tell the service department.

Hopefully (for all of us) this is a simple adjustment problem.

Joe West

 

Just for another data point, I've never experienced this in my '02 Turbo.

 

I experienced this problem the day I picked my 03 TT X50 up. I could not get the trans out of reverse, the gear that it was parked in by the dealer. They had installed an EVO short shift kit and the Techart ss Kit prior to delivery. Long story short, problem became worse over the next two months during which PCNA insisted that I convert the car to stock to ensure the problem existed without the SS kits installed. Obviously the problem remained and PCNA agreed to replace the transmission under warranty. Reluctantly. Well I'm quite unhappy to report that the problem with the linkage sticking in reverse, first, and second, especially in stop and go traffic is beginning to appear in the new transmission ( I have never re-installed the ss kits for fear of this reoccurrence). I am at wits end- this is my third Porsche (second X50) in 2 years. My life long passion for these cars is coming to an end. Soon. And I hate attorneys, but in this case I'll make an exception.

 

I have just the opposite issue....coming to a stop and then trying to get the car into gear is a PITA!!!!

I believe it was Oak or Jack who told me to shift to 2nd and then immediately to 1st. That has helped a lot and will solve the problem about 95% of the time.

 

Coming in this morning... I was playing around with trying to characterize the problem... like others, the problem happened mostly in second gear and was (note the use of the word WAS here ) perfectly repeatable.

Then I thought... hmmmm... what happens if I turn off the PSM button...

PROBLEM GONE!

I went from being able to reproduce the problem everytime... to not being able to reproduce the problem at all.

So... I turned the PSM back on.

Problem still gone.

Don't know if this is related to anyone elses issues... but it certainly took care of my issues.

If you are having this problem... try turning off the PSM and see what happens. Turn it back on and see what happens.

Now we'll see if it stays gone or slowly comes back or resets after turning the vehicle off and back on...

Please post your results... I'd be curious to see if this changes things for anyone else.

Also... for those reporting that they didn't have the problem... do you have PSM?

Kind Regards,

Joe West

 

Am I the only one here who finds it ridiculous that we need to jury rig the transmission in a $145,000.00 car to get it to work? It's almost as ridiculous as the assertion by PCNA that the problem exists because I do not know how to shift correctly (after 25 years of doing it everyday and having no related problems in my 01 C4 and '02 TT X50. They had other problems- so many that they are no longer mine) Me thinks that QC has gone out the window at PAG.

 

Hi Guys,

At around 5K miles, my '02 Turbo developed the same problem. When down-shifting or coming to a stop, I could not easily get the car out of gear, sometimes not at all, forcing me to reengage the clutch and then try again - what a PITA. (Of course, I always push the clutch pedal to the floor before I move the gearshift lever) Ultimately, the clutch was replaced under warranty (new clutch disk, pressure plate and release bearing) and the problem was fixed. Turns out, the friction material was sticking to the flywheel causing the clutch to hold up. The car also up-shifts better, now, more easily coming out of the lower gear and sliding more easily into the next, although, it still holds up a little coming out of first on up-shifts (a little throttle helps).

Rob

 

Rob,

If you don't mind could you let us know where you get serviced, and who your SA is, so maybe they could talk to my SA and see if they can figure something out. Thanks.

~ Jason

 

That's a great idea Jason... it might save us some painful "we can't find the problem" issues with our dealerships.

Joe West

 

Went out at lunch today and clutch was sticking again... tried the PSM trick and this time it didn't work

Came back in and called my dealer, and found out that the service manager has experienced this problem on other vehicles but in addition to a potential clutch/pressureplate/throwout bearing problem he added that the problem could be insufficient grease on the input shaft and/or a bad pilot bushing/bushing interface.

The bottom line is... they will pull my transmission/transaxle tomorrow and go through the clutch assembly and replace everything tomorrow... making sure that things are correct.

I should get it back on Friday afternoon... so I'll report to the group what the results are then.


Kind Regards,

Joe West

 

Hi Jason,

I tried to respond to you via private email... but for some reason, private email is limited to 1000 characters and this response is too long for that... so I decided to post it here.


I ended up calling my service guy and telling him that I'd like to wait to get the work done since the problem seems to be getting better for me... I'd like to wait and see if it continues to get better. To be honest with you, it absolutely KILLS me to think that the incompetent monkeys call Porsche mechanics will remove and replace my engine and transaxle... I decided that right now, the lesser of two evils is to see if things get better as they break in.

This being said; thanks to someone's comments, I know how to make it NOT happen. All you have to do when you find it a little difficult to get out of a gear is to (with the clutch in) rev the engine a bit and it will slide out of gear like butter... a bit of a pain, but worth it to me to keep my car a virgin from the Porsche mechanics. I suspect there are many good Porsche mechanics... but I'm not ready to risk it just yet for something that seems to be getting better on its own.

My service guy, and the head mechanic at Scottsdale Porsche didn't give me a bit of flak... I told them what I KNEW the problem was, gave them all the symptoms, told them what cured the problem (reving the motor) and, armed with all these details, they immediately agreed to check out the entire clutch assembly... I would be VERY surprised if you presented the problem very methodically and in great detail AND provided them the solution, that they would give you a hard time. The key is to act like you KNOW what the problem and not that you THINK you may know. If you place any doubt in their minds, they will take the path of least resistance.

By the way... I'm going to post this to the entire group since I've been meaning to update everyone anyway.

Kind Regards,

Joe West

 

Joe,

That's how I drove the car for 5K+ miles, blipping the throttle to break the clutch free and/or leaving a little throttle open before I pushed the clutch in. At first it was a hassle, then it became a real PITA because it became an all of the time thing. Sometimes, when the car wouldn't come out of gear at all, blipping the throttle would not always work, I had to reengage the clutch and disengage again, then it would usually come out of gear. I'm not suggesting you ignore your instincts, but now that my car is fixed, it's a pleasure to drive. Thankfully, the dealer who did mine (nowhere near your area) had recently done another Turbo's clutch (the car was jumping when it was started), so that made me feel a little better. They did a great job, the car feels like it did when I first got it. Maybe you should give them a chance, or find another dealer that has done one before. The dealer that did mine is not even my local dealer where I bought the car, they gave me the run-a-round for months. The bottom line, I was not putting up with this problem in a 100K+ car that I bought specifically for driving pleasure. Just some food for thought. Rob