Dealer diagnosis - Internal Transmission Failure

[SFBox"S"]

Hi, i'm new to this forum. Let me introduce my car; she's an '03 Boxster S. For the last few weeks the shift from 1st to 2nd would sometimes grind or pop out of gear if the shifter was not held before 2nd gear engaged. In other words the shift was not smooth like it used to be. So, I brought it to the Dealer to diagnose. Their diagnosis was "internal transmission failure". They would pop in a new transmission and everthing would be fine. Well, I picked up the car this afternoon and drove it down the freeway for about 20 miles. All seemed OK. Got home parked it for about 30 min. and then jumped back in to test how the new tranny really felt. Started doing the same thing; popping out of second if not held before gear engaged, and a slight grinding noise. WTF? Needless to say, but i'm bringing her back tomorrow morning. Any ideas what the DEALER mis-diagosed? Thanks for any experienced replies.

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[Tool Pants]

What is the name of the dealer?

[SFBox"S"]

Carleson in RWC........OK, just got my car back this afternoon. They stated that the new transmission they just put in was also defective ("internal failure"). So they popped in another new tranny and everything seems to be OK so far.

[986Jim]

In my experience problems like this are generally related to the shifter cables being totally out. 1st and 2nd are on the same selector in the trans so if your having problems with both, theres a possibility that it's the cable.

My Talon is cable and when I swapped out the motor/trans for a new fully built motor and shep tranny my cables just didn't seem to be the same. I had to mess with the alignment at the shifter a few times. It would pop out and give me all kinds of problems. After I got the alignment of the cables on it was ok.

Not sure if this is also applicable to the boxster but it's cable and must have some adjustment somewhere. Either way sounds like your under warranty so shouldn't be too much of a concern.

[Jameslovesporsches]

On the subject of shifter cables, 986Jim, would 1st and 2nd gear "unclear" shift gates be due to need for cable adjustment? From my 5 speed, there are only 2 cables. Could it be that one of the attachments is off spec? I don't think the cables can be adjusted, but I'm not sure. I've only heard that the stick shift can be aligned (and that's it's almost never out of alignment). Is the metal arm under the car (connecting transmission to one of the 2 shifting cables) what people refer to as the shift linkage? How often does that metal arm get bent or otherwise out of spec? Thanks.

James