55K on an '03? No idea, but that is low mileage for a 10 year old car. Best wishes! *NM*

Howdy,

Need to pick the collective brain...

'03 base Boxster w/ 55K. Driving up a fairly steep grade on the way home this morning, immediately after letting the clutch out after shifting from 1st to 2nd I heard a noise similar to something letting go that was under tension. Lost all power to wheels. Shifter feels normal, clutch feels normal, and engine revs under throttle. Feels like its stuck in nuetral. It rolled easily back down the hill to a spot on the shoulder.

Off to tow it home, but thought to get this on the air ASAP for ideas.

Thanks.

neutral...I knew that

If so, i'm kinda confused by your earlier statement that the gearshift and clutch felt normal. Presumably to find out you put in in various gears and let out the clutch....
Grant

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com

The shifter moves thru all the gears (although I'm not yet sure its moving anything in the tranny) and the clutch pedal feels normal. Nothing happens when I put the shifter in a gear and let the clutch out. The shifter did not physically pop back in to the neutral position during the initial problem as you would expect it to do if the transmission actually popped from 2nd to neutral.

Heading outside to the garage now to inspect the shifter cables at the tranny and drive shafts. Will report my findings.

Again..Thanks.

1. a driveshaft came disconnected ( or snapped)
2. the clutch actually broke - very unusual

#1 is can be sen from beneath the car
#2 is hidden

Clearly it could have simply slipped out of gear, but you say the shifter feels normal - and i presume by that you mean it can slip into and out of the gears.

Working backwards you have wheels --> driveshafts --> differential --> transmission (with controlling linkage) --> clutch --> flywheel (connected to motor).

Motor runs. Flywheel is I believe on a splined shaft, so its staying put. I keep wondering about linkage and if it simply slipped out of gear....

Grant

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com

Just in from a look see underneath. Cables are attached and any movement of the shifter seems to move the the appropriate levers at the tranny. Both elevated wheels spin freely regardless of shifter position and the shafts are fine. I've eliminated the clutch as a problem for now, as the pedal feels normal and I assume any malfunction of that system between the pedal and the clutch itself would result in the clutch disc against the flywheel (or whatever it rests against).

Wonder if there is a failure that would result in the clutch in the 'clutch pedal pressed in' position with the pedal out?

Oh well!

Of course, now I get to consider RMS, IMS and new clutch parts when they have the thing in pieces.

Thanks.

the lever there was no real resistance and of course the gear box remained in gear, 2nd IIRC. Had to have the car flat bedded to the dealer and the nylon socket that the lever's ball snapped into had failed. After a new shifter was installed (a 997 shifter which offers a bit more precise shifter action than the stock 996 shifter) all has been well since.

But its hard to say for sure.

Even with a failure, i'm surprised it popped out of gear on its own. Is that normal?

Grant

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com

It FELT like it popped out of gear, in that I lost forward motion and a bit of rev as the engine was unloaded. Moving the shift lever results in what appears to be normal inputs at the transmission end of the cables. Because the failure happened as I was letting the clutch out, I'm thinking this is going to be some kind of rare catastrophic clutch related failure.

Probably no way to tell until the tranny comes off.

connections to the transmission to be sure it is not a shifter or shifter linkage problem.

Also, this includes a careful inspection of the clutch linkage and system as much of it as can be inspected to see if there's anything amiss.

If nothing turns up then probably the tech will want to remove the transmission.

If it comes to this the likely failure is due to the clutch disc losing its splines due to wear which weakened them. If my (layman's) diagnosis is correct, the transmission input shaft splines will need to be checked to be sure they are not worn or the new disc will be loose on the worn input shaft splines which can lead to premature failure of the new clutch.

Quote
grant
But its hard to say for sure.

Even with a failure, i'm surprised it popped out of gear on its own. Is that normal?

Grant

If the problem is a linkage failure and depending upon when the linkage let go the behavior could mimic a popping out of gear situation. The gear shift gets partially completed then the linkage fails and then the gear set disengages from being partially disengaged already.

....that the splines could fail....., that i pretty much wrote off ( and specifically said so), btu not based on any experience, just based on nits seeming so very difficult!

Grant

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com

When you say "spin freely" I'm not sure if you're referring to being able to spin them with your hand or if the engine is spinning them when they're in the air but not on the ground.

Minus 40 degrees... Is that Fahrenheit or Celsius?

which is the only symptom I can recall at this time but even with my lack of total recall I'm pretty sure I do not recall anything about the car not moving from a DMF failure.

With the wheels off the ground and the gear shift in 1st, I could spin both wheels. Spinning the left tire forward resulted in the right tire only moving backward about an inch or so. An indy I spoke with indicated the right should have continued to rotate rearward.

Starting to think differential.

..one i've not heard about before, but a possibility.

Grant

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com

I posted this thread last November just prior to putting the car away for the winter. As it looks like the Seattle weather might be turning the corner, I thought it was time to find out what happened last fall. Work accomplished by Chris's German in Bellevue, Wa. and in on Monday, finished Wednesday. Erik (Porsche dealer trained tech) did a great job and took time to explain the failure and repair. Great experience.

The center of the clutch disc that slides over the transmission input shaft is riveted to the disc. In my case, the rivets appeared to have become loose at some point and began elongating the hole in the disc. This eventually led to the rivets shearing resulting in no power transfer from engine to tranny. No idea as to the WHY and Erik has not seen this failure before. We bought the car in '07 and have put 15k babied miles on it other than an autocross and 3 skills day events.

New flywheel, clutch kit, slave cylinder, latest generation rms and tranny input shaft seal AND OF COURSE L&N ims bearing. Mine had some play in it and oil had penetrated the bearing seals.

I have had the center of the clutch disc break free from the disc it self in this very same fashion. Sound just like what happened in this case. Very rare but I am proof that it happens. I say broken clutch.

got stuck in a horrible traffic back up on an upgrade. Part of the disc material had delimitated from the main disc.

I posted this thread last November just prior to putting the car away for the winter. As it looks like the Seattle weather might be turning the corner, I thought it was time to find out what happened last fall. Work accomplished by Chris's German in Bellevue, Wa. and in on Monday, finished Wednesday. Erik (Porsche dealer trained tech) did a great job and took time to explain the failure and repair. Great experience.

The center of the clutch disc that slides over the transmission input shaft is riveted to the disc. In my case, the rivets appeared to have become loose at some point and began elongating the hole in the disc. This eventually led to the rivets shearing resulting in no power transfer from engine to tranny. No idea as to the WHY and Erik has not seen this failure before. We bought the car in '07 and have put 15k babied miles on it other than an autocross and 3 skills day events.

New flywheel, clutch kit, slave cylinder, latest generation rms and tranny input shaft seal AND OF COURSE L&N ims bearing. Mine had some play in it and oil had penetrated the bearing seals.