Boxster S Gear selection problem - Help

[Lanby]

Hi,

My missus has a 2004 Porsche 987 Boxster S 6 speed Manual.
As she was reversing in to the drive tonight it sprang out of gear and in to neutral. Now the gear stick will only move forward and backwards allowing it to select what feels like 3rd and 4th and no other gears.

Any suggestions other than get your cheque book out?

[samman7]

sounds like gear linkage cables broken,were it fits to gearbox.hope this helps

[Lanby]

Does that mean a trip to the garage or is it repairable at home?

cheers

[Pope]

They cables have a tendency to either pop off their balljoints, slip out of the brackets or break at the point where the cable joins the balljoint.

Get a torch and look underneath the rear of the car to the right of the gearbox, (in front of the exhaust) you will see the two cables as they terminate at the 'box, if one has popped off, snap it back on. If it has slipped out of the bracket, press it back in and maybe attach a cable tie to stop it coming out again. If it's broken, it's a recovery job I'm afraid - unless you want to strip out the console and fit the new one yourself....

[Lanby]

We have a winner! Pope you are correct Thank you

It was actually stuck in 3rd because the rubber in the ball-joint has split allowing it to pop off.
Can you buy just the rubber or do you have to buy the whole part and more importantly
How hard is it to fit?

[Pope]

Individual parts were only available on the earlier cars - 1996/1997 IIRC there have been numerous part upgrades since. You may be able to secure it with a tie but TBH the flexing during normal use may cause it to come adrift again. If the rubber is intact and the outer is in good shape it may bond back together? As long as the rubber can move in normal operation it'll last.

Complete cable replacement requires centre console, engine cover and a bit of trim removal - actual replacement isn't too bad, okay if you have a garage / room to put stuff and work on the car. There is a special tool that holds the gear lever in place to fit the cables accurately - there is a work round but the tool is only about £7

HTH

Edited by Pope on Sunday 25th October 21:05

[Lanby]

Why is nothing ever easy?
I'll have a better look tomorrow when it's not raining.

Not been a great day today, washing machine broke this morning, so swapped it for one we're storing in the garage for someone - that lasted 20 secs and went FLASH/BANG! and a tenants washing machine broke as well... aaarrrgh, then the car...
I'm off to have a beer now

Thank you
Richard

Edited by Lanby on Sunday 25th October 21:20

[stevesx]

Hi, just had the exact same problem on my 987 3.4S. It's on the drive at the moment stuck in 3rd gear. Lanby - how much did it cost to sort in the end?

[Lanby]

The first thing to do is get underneath the car. At the back just forward of the exhaust is the gearbox, on top of that the two cables are a push fit on.
If they have just come off push them back on and you can drive again for a bit.
If not you'll need a new set of cables (£175+VAT) and if a garage was to fit them expect about 3 hours labour so probably £5-600 all in.
I stripped the car out to do it myself but haven't had time to finish it yet but should be a fairly easy but time consuming job.
From underneath you can select any gear so you can drive it to the garage if necessary.
PM me if you want any advice on how to do it.

[stevesx]

Thanks for the advice. I had a quick look underneath but it was dark, i could see 2 s/s rods coming from the gearbox and both looked like they were connected to a balljoint and they looked ok. I'm guessing its the guide cables under the gear stick. The gear stick only moves forwards and backwards (loosely) and doesn't select a gear - its stuck in 3rd. I've got a local independant PSR of Bishops Stortford coming to pick it up tonight. I've got a tesco finest warranty so hopefully that will cover it.

[Lanby]

It does sound like the cables but it will be interesting to know if it's covered by the warranty

[stevesx]

After a few days wait due to PSR moving into new premises, it's one of the gear linkage cables that has snapped! Its only done 40k and coming up to 3 years old. Unfortunatly, cables and linkages are excluded from the warranty so it looks like £200 for the cables + £150 labour - good news is that it should be back on the road soon.

[cslwannabe]

Experienced this last night in my 2007 987S - luckily roads were quiet but grinding to a halt in the RH lane of a big roundabout on a DC wasn’t fun. Managed to move it off the roundabout and hoping I didn’t trash the clutch in the process but as I only had my youngster in the car with me attempting to push it to a safer place wasn’t really an option. Had the car recovered to home late last night and trying to get it booked in with Jamie Nelson ASAP.