AdamIsAdam

I will, but that doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I can't imagine a condition that would allow gears to grind except syncro's that can't keep up due to wear or poor design, or of course clutch not being totally disengaged. I'm curious as to what would change with a break-in that would reduce grind, aside from actually wearing down the gears! and that's no bueno!

UncleDude

You will adapt. Also when the car is cold you've probably felt how notchy it is 1-2. I naturally shift like this gal from Soul Performance, and the times when I didn't (fast or slow shift) and didn't get the clutch right, I'd get a grind. Watch for shift around 30 seconds.


I think if you don't have that micro pause, and just pull back fast and straight you'll get more. And even if you do, I don't think it'll really make much difference or hurt the transmission. I've never had a gear box like this, so I try to approach it on its terms not mine, and I also wouldn't expect Porsche to do a thing about it. This is a pretty old unit I think.

AdamIsAdam

Like I said, shifting slowly is kinda BS. But then again, I've driven air cooled 911's with the 914 and I do get it - these are road coarse cars, not drag strip cars. If you're in the neighborhood, stop by and I'll let you drive my GT350. That's an amazing tranny. 526 hp and I can shift it at will! Chirping 2nd and 3rd all day long.

omar0022

This guy also has a slight pause. Right around 1:25 into the video.

Westcoast

I now shift like this, a super short pause through neutral and have been grind free because of it.

Not only did he pause but if you watch his left leg he appears to double clutch as well.

I thought about the last 1-2 shift and grind and it really seemed that I let out the clutch just slightly ahead of being fully into second gear, why... trying to shift it a bit to fast and my timing was just off enough to cause a problem.

My conclusion: the slight delay through neutral and being fully into second gear is the key to eliminating the 1-2 grind, I can live with that!

AdamIsAdam

Band-aide, IMO. And not something I really want to live with. As I said, the two times it happened to me unintentionally, I was certainly not trying to drag race or anything. Just my normal, superior and super-human driving skills at work LOL. Seriously, though, I would understand if I was shifting like I was at the strip, but I was just driving a car with 60 miles on it when it first happened on my first drive. Not acceptable. I just hope it does in fact go away as it breaks in. I won't be upgrading shifter cables either for fear of warranty denial later should the tranny have issues. I could see them blaming the cables should a gear lose a tooth.

UncleDude

You’re still in Phase One: Indignation



I was well up on this thread by the time I got my car so I was somewhat prepared (how did you miss it?) but still surprised the first few times it happened. And I’m sure it was exactly how @Westcoast described it above - too early off the clutch. I don’t think my transmission has changed at all TBH, but I never really got very many to begin with. I’d study your technique and see if you’re coming off the clutch too fast, like I said this box is ruthless with that. Good luck!

AdamIsAdam

How did I miss this monster of a thread until now? Just lucky, I guess!

If I ever get to drive my car again (stupid global warming snowy winters), I'll try and pay attention to my technique. I just feel like it's got to be somewhat of an issue. Even if the issue is that it's adjusted/set up in such a way as to leave very little room for error, because I find it hard to believe that so many are experiencing the same thing without there being something odd. But hey, I've been wrong before. Or was I mistaken?

genevagear

The Synchro-Mesh transmission was invented in 1918 by Earl A. Thompson. He patented the concept in 1922. Here we are more than 100 years later and all the people that have reported problems to this thread have paid $100K plus for a car with a manual transmission and are making excuses for an engineering flaw. Two main elements of good design, and that engineers strive for, are predictability and consistency over the design life of hardware. I can say design flaw because there are plenty of transmissions out there that don't have the problems reported on this thread. This topic would not exist if you didn't think there was a problem.

If you can't shift the transmission from first to second before the rev counter drops below the RPM for a smooth shift, then you have a problem. Why hasn't this problem been addressed by Porsche? Most likely because most have decided not to report it and just live through a period where an occasional grind occurs, or adapt there shift technique to accommodate the flaw. The Synchro-Mesh mechanism is designed to withstand the occasional shift error by the user, but it's likely to fail and present problems sooner if there is a design flaw. You paid a lot of money for the experience these cars provide. It cheapens the whole experience to live through this. Take your car to the dealer and report the problem. Give the engineers the opportunity to address the problem.

Bob Z.

Many of us have reported this to our dealers and nothing has been done, or even acknowledged.

AdamIsAdam

I think it's key to have it on your car's record should there be a recall or TSB on it in the future, even many years after warranty is up. I plan to do it asap. Having it at such low mileage helps prevent them from pointing to abuse as the cause.

Bob Z.

I was able to make email contact with the Service Manager at the dealer I bought my car and we discussed it therefore it is documented...dealer is too far away to take the chance of going there and not being able to reproduce it. And I also sent him a link to this thread - he said it appeared there was a problem of some sort since no other model has had these types of reports.

I encourage others to do the same as I did in regards to connecting with someone in their Service Dept.

Westcoast

they remain the same... from nearly 6 years ago, the same discussion with even a couple of GT3's for a decent mix.

1st to 2nd upshift gear grind - Rennlist - Porsche Discussion Forums

X2Board

The 7MT in my 999.1 S never missed a beat, and that was tracked pretty hard. Fingers crossed on the 6MT as I really want to go back to a manual, my last two Porsches were PDK, with no choice in the 991.1 GT3, and it really suited the 2.5L in the 718 S.

Spyder8286

Hi Adam: I don't blame you if you didn't dig in and read every post in this thread. I think I went pretty far with my dealer. I sent them two videos of the grind occurring in my car (a '21 Spyder). I also did a test drive with the service manager and reproduced the grind during the test drive. I'll note that I did the 1-2 shift a few times on that test drive "as fast as I could move my hand." The car actually handled the first two of those shifts just fine, but I got the grind the third time. The service manager said what I was doing was fine. Aggressive, but not abusive. They kept the car for a few days. During that time (at least as I was told by the dealer), Porsche regional personnel from corporate also came and drove the car. Bottom line- they couldn't reproduce the grind and said there was nothing they could do. This was in May of last year so I had the car for about 6 months and it had 1,500 miles on it at that point. I had maybe 10 grinds in total during that 1,500 miles. In the 9 months since then, I've added another 1,000 miles. Zero grinds during that time. You just need to slow the 1-2 shift a little bit. Call it maybe 80% of "as fast as you can move your hand." You can slam 2-3-4 (up and down) as hard as you want to (not that I'm even doing that on a regular basis) so the car is really still fantastic to drive. All this to say, if I had to order the car again, it would be with a 6-speed, without hesitation.