I have owned my '06 911 for about 1 year and it has occasionally been a little hard to get into 1st gear if I am stopped at a light. Recently, it has gotten more frequent and now I am starting to feel the shifter push back as it clicks into 2nd and 3rd when I am accelerating. One day a few weeks ago, the gears started grinding when I tried to put it into 1st even though the clutch pedal was pushed to the floor. It has not happened since. Any ideas what might be failing in my clutch or transmission?

 

It just sounds like a routine clutch job is in order, Mike. Porsche designs their clutch so that the pedal position at engagement doesn't change with wear. Usually those symptoms you describe are among the first signs that the clutch has reached its life limit. I suppose a problem with the pressure plate could cause them also, but you'd certainly want to replace the clutch itself if you'd already committed to the labor to get to the innards.

Gary

 

You might want to have the adjustment on the shifter cables checked.

 

^ you mean shifter cables, right?

 

Yes, edited above.

 

Thanks guys. Any of you know what I should expect a new clutch to cost at a good independent?

 

$1500 for just clutch, $2300 Clutch and Flywheel

 

So I've been cogitating on this one for a bit, maybe Gary you could chime in.

I've never had a clutch start to go bad and grind the gears. It's always just slipped when you give it throttle. What are the mechanics that could make it grind, I mean a bad clutch should just have problems engaging, right? Not disengaging, that could cause a grind, I guess.

OP please report back with what you've found. Cheers

 

A hydraulic problem that does not open the clutch enough...

 

Honestly, I don't go through clutches very fast, usually 80 to 100k miles, so my experience is mostly vicarious, that is, through other people reporting symptoms as their clutches fail. Older clutches would start to slip as they reached the point that the intended friction material was actually worn away around part of their circumference. But you could get the gears grinding also because the rest of the system for disengaging the clutch was at its designed limit of movement at that point. That is, the clutch couldn't deliver its rated torque when fully engaged, but it certainly could deliver some useful amount of torque and that would be enough to make the gears grind if you couldn't fully disengage.

How all that translates to the new compensating clutches Porsche uses, I can't say. (At least not until my own clutch starts to go.)

Gary

 

I agree that it sounds like it may be a clutch hydraulic problem. Pedal feel is very stiff and engagement/disengagement is more abrupt and not as smooth as it used to be. Also, it does not always seem to engage/disengage at the same pedal location. That really keeps me guessing...There has never been any slippage at all.

It will be a few weeks before I get it looked at. But, I will post the diagnosis after I do so that you can experience it vicariously through me.

Thanks for the feedback.