Cold weather Porsche drivers please advise!
12-03-2001, 05:26 AM
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Cold weather Porsche drivers please advise!
As the weather's cooled I've found that my transmission is notchy and sometimes grinds going into the lower gears just after starting, while the car's still cold. This only seems to happen when the temperature's below freezing. Is this at all normal? Will it get worse as the temperature continues to fall?
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12-03-2001, 10:28 AM
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I too have this (although I drive a '94 968 and can only envy you 996 owners). It clears up after a minute or so so I assume it is just a case of tranny oil being too thick when cold. Only thing I worry about is if I am doing damage durring those few cold shifts when I hear a bit of a grind. I find that shifting into second very slowly (not forcing it in fast) helps a bit. Anyone else have any advice?
12-03-2001, 06:27 PM
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Living here in the "arctic north" of Minnesota, I've had a bit of experience with manual transmissions and cold weather.
It's completely normal for a transmission to be notchy and difficult to shift when first started in the cold. Grinding means that you shifted so poorly that the gears did not mesh perfectly. Normally, this is not a problem because the synchros in the transmission adjust the speed of the gears to match as they approach engagement. But in a really cold transmission, this doesn't work as well. Idle shafts coast down a lot faster when that heavy gear oil is so cold it's more like molasses than oil.
The thing to do is shift very gently and carefully for the first couple of minutes. Lucky for us, the transmission in the 996 is closely coupled with the engine, so both the engine heat and the gear motion will help warm up and liquify the oil. Once it has warmed up a bit, the grinding and hard shifting should go away, and once the linkage also gets a bit warmer, the notchiness will go away as well.
You don't say how cold your cold weather is, but around 32 degrees Fahrenheit (freezing), this should only barely be noticeable, I'd think. Below 20, it will be more so, and at zero and below, it'll be real stiff and notchy.
If it's a lot worse than what you think it ought to be, you might have it checked out.
It's completely normal for a transmission to be notchy and difficult to shift when first started in the cold. Grinding means that you shifted so poorly that the gears did not mesh perfectly. Normally, this is not a problem because the synchros in the transmission adjust the speed of the gears to match as they approach engagement. But in a really cold transmission, this doesn't work as well. Idle shafts coast down a lot faster when that heavy gear oil is so cold it's more like molasses than oil.
The thing to do is shift very gently and carefully for the first couple of minutes. Lucky for us, the transmission in the 996 is closely coupled with the engine, so both the engine heat and the gear motion will help warm up and liquify the oil. Once it has warmed up a bit, the grinding and hard shifting should go away, and once the linkage also gets a bit warmer, the notchiness will go away as well.
You don't say how cold your cold weather is, but around 32 degrees Fahrenheit (freezing), this should only barely be noticeable, I'd think. Below 20, it will be more so, and at zero and below, it'll be real stiff and notchy.
If it's a lot worse than what you think it ought to be, you might have it checked out.
