drsimon

My 1988 951S had a new Sachs clutch last year by the previous owner. It had since done about 5000 miles. The gear changes have always been smooth even when cold. However, lately they have become increasingly notchy especially 1st and 2nd when cold. After a couple of minutes of driving, the gear changes improve and become smooth like in the good old days. I know in some cars like the older Ferrari, the gears are notoriously difficult to engage when cold. But certainly not in any of the Porsches I have been privileged to own or drive. Is this an early sign of impending doom? I use my 951S as a daily driver and have not tracked it - yet.

Pheedbak

hi,

try changing the gearbox oil (preferably refill with swepco) and get some oil on the gear linkage above the gearbox ... this helps a hige amount and would be the first thing to do before worrying about clutch !!

Phil
85 944 NA

Thaddeus

If a grunchy shift is a sign of impending doom, half the people on this board are doomed. Lots of these cars have grunchy shifters when cold. Many people have been able to mitigate this with the higher grade synthetic gear oils. Search for threads; there are many, and many have detailed discussions of the pro's and con's of using synthetics in the tranny.

cheers

Thaddeus

Paul C 944

I agree ,try some synyhetic,I just changed mine with redline and the difference was very noticible.Much improved,much smooter.

jim968

Simon, yet anther vote for changing the gear oil. Redline MTL, probably. If you're going to do it yourself, the big tip is to be sure the fill plug can be loosened _before_ taking the drain plug out (THX again, Hans).

Just guessing, but I think that there are two things at work here... one, our cars are more likely to have been repeated shifted fast and hard to second than any other gear, leading to synchro wear. Two, the old oil has thickened due to gradual evaporation of its lighter fractions, so its cold viscosity is higher than it originally was.

Just guessing on this, tho'.

Jim, "Why do you press harder on the remote control when you know the battery is dead?"

Hans

Simon
You are located in Kuala lumpur.
Your conditions can not be called cold acc to european standards.
You must have some sort of problem then, so start checking with oil level.

When I bought mine, the gears were shifting a bit difficult when cold and the noise from the gearbox would wake up my grandfather (who passed away more than 15 years ago - get the picture?).
The cause was very low oil level.
The oil was pumped out via the cooler while driving, so no leak signs on the garage floor either.
I fixed the leak and replaced what was left of the oil. All I have now is the famous "layshaft rattle" in idle.
TakeCare

Mike S

I had a similar problem on my 87. Changing the oil help0ed a bit, but the problem returned after a few months. What i found was that the clutch slave cylinder(near the starter) had air in it from what I assumed was not being properly bled. I bled it and the notchiness was gone, perfect shifting. Two months later it returned. Turns out my slave cylinder was leaking. So I replaced it and rebled it again. Problem solved.