Hi..

I'm looking at a 03 996TT with low mileage (25,XXX) on the clock.

Does this year suffer from the 2nd gear pop-out?

Hopefully this will be my first P-car...

 

They all do (996TT 2001-2005) Must drive to insure it doesnt do it.

 

Would it pop out under normal driving conditions or under load?

 

It's my understanding that the pop out will occur if accelerating to a fairly high rpm in 2nd and quickly take your foot off the gas. Under decel the car will pop into neutral. Or during a downshift into 2nd when letting out the clutch it will pop into neutral. It won't do it every time, but once it has happened, it will do it more and more. Even once is too many times and will indicate excessive wear.

I researched this quite a bit before buying my Turbo. I concluded that quick aggressive shifting contributes to this excessive wear on the dogs/syncros and leads to this type of failure. Because of this I chose a low mile car that was stock and one where I was certain the owner was not a hot rodder.

I myself am known to be at times a very aggressive driver, but I also know transmissions, mod them and rebuild them. I understand shifting and can feel that 2nd gear needs to be selected rather slow, positive and deliberate compared to the other gears. It takes a moment for spinning gears to slow and match rpms with adjacent gears before finalizing the shift. If you can feel this and shift accordingly, you'll never have a problem no matter how many miles you drive.