Would appreciate if anyone can held shed some light on this. It's for my 2000 996 C2 6-speed.
Was just cruising last night ~40-50mph and the clutch suddenly disengaged. Engine was just idle. Couldn't re-engage the gears to continue accelerating so coasted to the roadside. Engine also turned off and wasn't able to re-start even though it cranked ok and electric power seemed ok.


Towed it to the dealer last night. This morning spoke to the service manager. He said the car started fine and drove fine. Will check codes and get back to me. No CEL light as far as we can tell.


I thought it might be a fuel pump issue but doesn't make sense with the clutch disengagement.


Any ideas? Anyone run into similar issues?


Thanks
Ben

 

Assuming we are talking about a manual transmission equipped car if your leg/foot doesn't work the clutch it doesn't get worked. Thus I'm puzzled by the report the clutch disengaged on its own.

Otherwise, the behavior suggests a fuel supply problem, possibly a fuel pump problem.

If this was due to an e-Gas throttle problem I would expect a CEL and an error code pointing to the e-Gas system.

I note you have Saratoga, CA listed as your location. I am somewhat familiar with that area.

Were you perchance driving on one of the roads in the hills/mountains near Saratoga? Were you heading up or down a grade and thus could a low fuel level have partially starved the fuel pump of fuel? If it gets a bit of air ingested the pressure can drop to where the engine gets just enough fuel to idle.

On a related note, does the fuel level system work ok? If the level shows a half a tank does the tank take 8 or 9 gallons before the fuel nozzle shuts off and then the fuel level gage reads full? Do other fuel levels and fill amounts also jive?

 

Did you have a radio blaring full blast and in the wrong gear for a steep up hill. ie:-in 5th instead of 3rd gear. The car shuddering before the stall should have told you the wrong gear but who knows how people drive their cars. You say you were cruising bet 50 and 60mph so my question does not make sense. Well neither does your description of what happened either so we are both puzzled. As Mac says, the clutch should not disengage unless the left foot is used. BUT under severe shuddering, maybe it could, who knows.

 

It's more likely that the transmission popped out of gear, the clutch can't really fail the way you are describing, I would focus my efforts on checking out the transmission & shift linkage

 

Possible answer: On the 996 MT the shift cables "attach" to the side of the transmission. These need to be disconnected for the tranny to be removed for work on the clutch, IMS, RMS, etc. Sometimes those cables are not reattached securely, and that could result in the synchros on the particular gear not being fully engaged, allowing it to slip out of gear without any help from the clutch being disengaged.
If troubleshooting this issue the first thing I'd be looking at would be whether those cable were firmly reattached to the side of the tranny. And sometimes mechanics will use a tie-wrap to hold it tight.
Just my 2¢.

 

Thanks for the replies and sorry for getting back late. Turned out to be a failed throttle sensor which caused the car to disengage the gears for safety.