Noticed when I leave the car in fear when parked that it's difficult to pull out of gear when starting - any chance this is killing my syncros?

 

Not unless you park on a steep grade and don't put on the parking brake to keep the car at a full stop before you kill the engine and let out the clutch in gear.

 

Always park in gear with the parking brake set. 1st or 2nd usually.

Don't want to have my car down the street when I come back to it.

 

Ha! you said "when I leave the car in fear when parked" I'm always in "fear" when I park in public parking space. Hoping it's in one piece when I get back!
As for leaving it in gear. I park the car, pull up the e-brake, idle turbos then shut off car, put in gear.
Are you putting the car in gear, then shutting car off, then letting the car roll a bit, then e-brake? If so it's resting on the gears causing a bit of resistance when you are trying to get the tranny out of gear.

 

With a manual once you depress the clutch there should be NO pressure on any gears even if you roll it all over the place....

I always leave a manual tranny in gear when parked

 

Ha, not sure if that was a iPhone error or Freudian slip...

It just seems odd to me that when I start the car back up it is difficult to pull out of gear into neutral. That normal?

Also, do we need to let the turbos cool after driving before shutting the car down? Thought more modern models had electric pumps that operate after the car shuts down to resolve this issue.

 

It should never be hard to take it out of gear. Putting it in gear may occasionally be hard, but never out of gear.

If you've been driving out of boost for at least maybe 5 minutes, then you're fine. I normally let my car drive out of boost for the last few miles to my house (996 Turbo). The cooling fan will operate after the car shuts down, but nothing will circulate through the turbos. It's just cooling the engine. It doesn't matter what kind of cooling system the car has, either oil and water cooled turbos or straight oil cooled. It's always better to make sure they weren't boosting a lot before you shut the car down.

 

Do you have a short shifter, i.e. B&M? Could be that it is not adjusted properly.

 

The owners manual says to let the engine idle for 2 minutes before shutting down.

 

I've read the whole leave in gear when parked tip. Just wondering why? Is it simply to prevent the car from rolling back if the e-brakes fail?

 

Something in Florida we don't have to worry about

 

Well not just if it fails, but sometimes you could set the brake and maybe somebody bumps you or a big gust of wind or anything could jostle the car and make it start moving.

 

I usually only leave it in gear when parked on steep incline.

 

No, the shifter is factory. I tried to gas forward or backward (depending on what gear it's in) just a bit then stop and take it out of gear to neutral - no problems in this case.

 

Porsche Driving Experience course I took back in '03 recommended to never use the handbrake when parking, just leave it in 2nd. Potentially warps rotors and overheats the shoes said the instructors. Of course we were just coming in after hot laps and we were parking in a level pit lane. Since then I leave it in gear with no handbrake when flat or in the garage, and use the handbrake/in-gear combo only when parking on on an incline.