Stiff Shifter?

[pchase]

Hey folks. Noob to the board here. I just picked up my first Boxster (but 2nd Porsche), a 2000 S with 65k, on Saturday and over the past 48+ hours, I've noticed that the shifter is very stiff (side-to-side only), even to the point of not returning to the 3-4 gate from either the 1-2 or 5-6 gates under it's own spring tension when it's cold. I don't think that this is normal, since when I picked up the car, I tried out the shifter on a newer 996 turbo at the shop and it was very easy to move side-to-side. I've popped up the shifter boot and confirmed that the resistance is coming from the cable/transmission and not the shifter itself. The fact that it loosens up somewhat once the car is warmed up leads me to believe that it's at least partially tranny fluid related, but I'm not entirely sure, being new to the car. Is there a way to lube the cable itself? Maybe try to spray some white lithium down into the cable end by the shifter and also "up" into the cable end by the tranny? Would changing the tranny fluid do any good? I've heard some people say that 60k should be the interval for tranny fluid and not 90k. Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Pete

[usaf-lt-g]

Hey folks. Noob to the board here. I just picked up my first Boxster (but 2nd Porsche), a 2000 S with 65k, on Saturday and over the past 48+ hours, I've noticed that the shifter is very stiff (side-to-side only), even to the point of not returning to the 3-4 gate from either the 1-2 or 5-6 gates under it's own spring tension when it's cold. I don't think that this is normal, since when I picked up the car, I tried out the shifter on a newer 996 turbo at the shop and it was very easy to move side-to-side. I've popped up the shifter boot and confirmed that the resistance is coming from the cable/transmission and not the shifter itself. The fact that it loosens up somewhat once the car is warmed up leads me to believe that it's at least partially tranny fluid related, but I'm not entirely sure, being new to the car. Is there a way to lube the cable itself? Maybe try to spray some white lithium down into the cable end by the shifter and also "up" into the cable end by the tranny? Would changing the tranny fluid do any good? I've heard some people say that 60k should be the interval for tranny fluid and not 90k. Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Pete

Normal... I asked about this myself not too long ago :) It's recommended you "warm up" your boxster S to the operating temp before driving it anyways. You'll notice that once it's warmed up a little, the shifter will run a lot smoother. But yea... short answer is.... normal.

[rsfeller]

My shifting got stiffer over time and it appears to be related to the linkage and return at the 5sp transmission. We rulled out shifter (bushing), cables and with lots of oil on the pivot points of the shifting linkage it got loser and returned to N better. I'll re-oil in the spring.

Shawn

[pchase]

My shifting got stiffer over time and it appears to be related to the linkage and return at the 5sp transmission. We rulled out shifter (bushing), cables and with lots of oil on the pivot points of the shifting linkage it got loser and returned to N better. I'll re-oil in the spring.

Shawn

Great, thanks for the info! So you lubed the linkage at the transmission? White lithium? Regular bearing grease?

[itzbob46]

It would be soooooo easy to make comical some off-topic reply comments about this problem!!!!!!!! :D

[rsfeller]

It would be soooooo easy to make comical some off-topic reply comments about this problem!!!!!!!! :D

Yea, that is why we don't do the obvious...