Stiff 1st-2nd gear change when cold?

[ChrisG89]

Hey,

Picked my 997 C2S up last week, it is better than I thought it would be. But when its cold, its sometimes hard to get into 2nd gear, just wondering if a gearbox oil change would help this at all? Or if it could be anything else? Every now and again, there is a slight crunch aswell. Thats only happened once or twice though to be honest.

Thanks in advance

[SteveM46]

Sports shift, or standard? Not that I know what I'm talking about, except that there have been several discussions on here about the merits of the short shifter, and one point that has come up is that the first couple of gears can be stiff until the gearbox has warmed up. My local OPC acknowledged this when I took two 997 C2S back to back, one standard, one sports shift.

[sportsandclassic]

Hi,

997 gearboxes have real problems with 1st to 2nd gear change, Porsche still have not recrified the synchro mesh on these as the parts supplied will not fit early 997 gearbox synchro hubs ! There basically is no real fix for this as of yet as the parts supplied will not actually fix the fault. We will obvioulsy be looking into this fault and offering a cost effective soloution in the future but as of now the parts will only repair the later gearboxes. We think this is from 2006/7 onwards. Earlier ones have different size hubs and a different amount of oil spalsh rails amongst other differences.

Mike

[monthefish]

SteveM46 said:

several discussions on here about the merits of the short shifter, and one point that has come up is that the first couple of gears can be stiff until the gearbox has warmed up. My local OPC acknowledged this

Also states it in the options brochure...

[ChrisG89]

Thanks Mike.

It's just standard, no sports shift.

Thanks for replies

[Steve996]

My 07 C4S without sports shift is also a bit stiff 1st and 2nd when cold.

[s_mcneil]

Standard 911 problem from cold, if you have trouble selecting second try going back to first then second again, that's what I got told and it kind of works. Selecting should be rifle bolt when warm though.

[ChrisG89]

Thats what I've been doing.

It was similar in my Boxster, but this is abit worse. Or maybe I just don't remember it being like this in my Boxster?

Good to know it's okay though

[rlw]

Thought this was a mis-post and should have been on the Ferrari forum.................

[Martian O]

I have the sport-shifter option, and although it is a little notchy when cold, changing the gear oil to Redline 75W/90NS made a marked improvement.

[RatBoy M3CSL]

..you should try getting 1st in a 7GT3 from cold.. !

[Matlaw01]

I’ve just bought a lovely 997 from an OPC it’s a 2008 Carrera 2 with 22,000 miles sold with Porsche warrantee. After a few journeys I started to realise it has this issue with first and second gears until oil temp has reached 90 it’s terrible to get into 1 and 2. I never experienced this on my test drives as they had always run the car before I drove it. Getting it from an OPC gave me confidence in the car so didn’t think I’d need to ensure I drove it from cold etc. Totally gutted now and the car back with them. I think my only choice is to refuse the car as it’s such a major issue the gearbox being wrong when sold to me.

[Milnsey]

Matlaw01 said:

I’ve just bought a lovely 997 from an OPC it’s a 2008 Carrera 2 with 22,000 miles sold with Porsche warrantee. After a few journeys I started to realise it has this issue with first and second gears until oil temp has reached 90 it’s terrible to get into 1 and 2. I never experienced this on my test drives as they had always run the car before I drove it. Getting it from an OPC gave me confidence in the car so didn’t think I’d need to ensure I drove it from cold etc. Totally gutted now and the car back with them. I think my only choice is to refuse the car as it’s such a major issue the gearbox being wrong when sold to me.

Wouldn’t reject the car because of this. Every manual I’ve ever owned was/is stiff in first and second until oil warmed. Never given it a moment’s thought.

[David W.]

There were issues with synchro on 2nd with some 997. Yes 1-2nd when cold is never the best change but it shouldn’t be a issue like it is in V8 Vantages for example (had to double de-clutch mine, some go from 1st to 3rd to avoid the issue).
I reported mine soon after I had the car for it the be looked at at next service at OPC, when checked out it was judged to be not up to standard and warrenty covered cost of new box. Its been perfect ever since, now over 90k miles.
DW

[STiG911]

Milnsey said:

Matlaw01 said:

I’ve just bought a lovely 997 from an OPC it’s a 2008 Carrera 2 with 22,000 miles sold with Porsche warrantee. After a few journeys I started to realise it has this issue with first and second gears until oil temp has reached 90 it’s terrible to get into 1 and 2. I never experienced this on my test drives as they had always run the car before I drove it. Getting it from an OPC gave me confidence in the car so didn’t think I’d need to ensure I drove it from cold etc. Totally gutted now and the car back with them. I think my only choice is to refuse the car as it’s such a major issue the gearbox being wrong when sold to me.

Wouldn’t reject the car because of this. Every manual I’ve ever owned was/is stiff in first and second until oil warmed. Never given it a moment’s thought.

Seconded - It's a cliche, but they literally all do this. It's not a reason to reject a car as there's nothing wrong with it.
PS. The Oil temp is for the engine not the gearbox, but 90deg is when the engine is fully warmed up, so by that stage there would be some heat transfer helping the cause however, bear in mind that on colder days everything takes longer.

[rabbitstew]

Ive heard a lot of people say about issues between 1st & 2nd. However, I run a £30 ebay special short shifter on my 997 turbo and have never once had any issues. The change is nice, smooth & slick between 1st & 2nd. Even when today it was -5 degrees out there.

[m444ttb]

My 996 C4 is like this. I kinda assumed that having done 100k miles was part of it. After about a mile of driving from stone cold it's usually pretty good.

[jakesmith]

Mine was like this. I used to slam through the gears. Then a grinding noise started on cold shifts up. £4000 later and a new box, it was fine and, as I drove it more gently with less 'slamming' it did not come back

[Bullet-Proof_Biscuit]

Standard second gear synchro wear, common to 996/986 also.

NEw synchro available on design911 for sub £200, fitting costs somewhat more..

I've got a good used box to send off for new synchro fitment to then swap the whole box for less downtime.

Yes new box oil will help a bit

[jackliebling]

I had a 2 year old Cayman and then 997.2 Targa 4. Always found the 'boxs to be difficult to get into 1st gear.

The trick is to go from 2nd into 1st. I.e. Not neutral into 1st.

So to get into 1st gear at the lights the proceedure was - N 2 1.

Annoying but I was told at the time that it was a quirk of the box...

There were often little grinds getting into gear. Was one of the reasons I got rid.. Didn't think the gearbox would last long.