saint80

I have an 02 Turbo with about 62xxxx miles. About a year ago, I was driving the car when the clutch felt like it was slipping when suddenly the car blew something, some smoke came out and I pulled over and turned the car off.

ISSUE - The car will turn on, but will not get out of 1st or 2nd gear and trying to troubleshoot why this is occuring

Items of note at that time -

1. Clutch pedal was then stuck to the ground (in position) and could not be moved or started
2. First place independent shop in Greensboro, NC, said I needed an entirely new transmission. I did not like that shop or their pricing, so I moved the car over to Porsche SouthPoint (Raleigh, NC)
3. SouthPoint said that I needed
   1. New Clutch
   2. New Flywheel
   3. New Pressure Plate
   4. New / Repaired Transmission
4. After a lot of back and forth, I sent my transmission off to Cogs Cogs (GA) for Joe there to have a look and fix whatever was wrong
5. Cogs Cogs Results
   1. Nothing wrong with syncro's or anything internal to transmission. No damage to internal transmission at all, an he even stated, "Knowing what I know now they could have just put the transmission in as there is not really anything wrong with it as I have taken it completely apart to check it"
   2. Damage was done where the clutch and flywheel came apart (I have pictures if you want them)
   3. Comments about the clutch and flywheel and this thoughts (Joe from Cogs Cogs)
      1. "There is just one thin spot that I am pointing to with my finger that needs to be welded and dressed back off. All this area where the thin spot is just holds the weather out. The rest just needs to be clearanced and look for thin spots. You can see that from the outside you do not see any damage at all so this will not harm the value of the car. These dealers have to be prima donna's to cover the store's *** from liability problems. We can buy a new bell housing for just at $3100 if you want a new one but if it were my car I would just do a light welding and clean up and use your current bell housing. I will freshen all the syncros and there is one problem bearing that we can proactively replace as it fails often and go back together with your current bell housing"
   4. Finally, Joe's last comments before sending the REPAIRED transmission back
      1. "Just got the bell housing back from the machine shop who remachined inside the bell housing. I was able to provide him with an example from another twin turbo I am rebuilding and it turned out looking good. In the process of cleaning now and need to put the transmission together"
6. Transmission sent back to SouthPoint
   1. New clutch, flywheel, pressure plate, and more installed
   2. Everything, including transmission, installed by Southpoint
   3. Transmission Bell Housing - "Client supplied repaired transmission, bell housing is damaged and required extra material removed to properly fit onto engine, installed transmission"
      1. ​​​​​​​I have no idea why part of the Bell Housing was removed, but both Joe from Cogs Cogs and Fabi from Euromotion both said that this SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN DONE
   4. ​​​​​​​I have attached a list of what SouthPoint did
   5. Car then sent to Euromotion in Raleigh, as I wasn't feeling good about what SouthPoint was saying, as well as quoting.
7. ​​​​​​​Car with Euromotion
   1. ​​​​​​​Replaced Master and Clutch Slave Cylinders
      1. ​​​​​​​Car starts and runs, but unable to get out of 1st or 2nd gear and clutch is extremely firm
   2. Clutch system was leaking fluid, so replaced the entire clutch lines and all, resulting in no leaks or otherwise external issues
   3. Belief is that something is NOT aligned properly with the transmission and thus the belief is that SouthPoint needs to go over all this again since they were the ones who reinstalled the transmission into the car
   4. Car is Running, but still cannot be driven as the car will not allow for anything beyond 2nd gear

The belief from Euromotion and CogsCogs is that the material that Southpoint removed from the Bell Housing to get the transmission to fit, is part of the culprit here, but we just are not sure at this point. Ultimately I would like to sell the car and allow someone else to enjoy it, as I don't drive this 911 much anymore, however I obviously cannot sell the car as is. Any ideas, insights, thoughts, or anything else constructive is encouraged and welcomed. Apologies for having to get a new user id, as I couldn't recall my old Rennlist user id.

Thank you for any thoughts!

Asmig

My initial suspicion is the shop that assembled the clutch did so incorrectly. Likely the throw out bearing retaining rings as they can be installed in the wrong direction and could cause the issue being described.

robbddick

maybe its something with the shifter cable .................

saint80

Excellent ideas and seems inline with what I have been reading today (along with the LITTLE bit I know about clutch's and transmissions). Will have both the shifter cable, and throw out bearing investigated. Thank you both!!!!

QwikKotaTX

This link on 6speed talks about the correct order of the shims for the release bearing and how to get the stack on the pressure plate.

https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...tallation.html

Lazurus

I have nothing to add that might help you to mitigate or diagnose your issue. But I just have to say as one having dealt with repairing my own past g50 trransmissions at both indies as well as Porsche dealerships I believe it is unconscionable that the Porsche Southpoint required you to send the box OUT and then back to them to re-install and that some if not all fault for, misdiagnosis and/or lousy workmanship. If their "master tech" is incapable of diagnosis and full repair they should not be a factory authorized dealership.

I empathize with your plight and hope you prevail. In different times? I'd have PCNA involved by now, as I have done in the past. Not coincidentally for the attempted repair and failure to "properly" ultimately repair a M96G50 gearbox. Imagine that. I detect a pattern.

saint80

I appreciate the sentiments, but I should clear one thing up. SouthPoint wanted to install an entirely NEW transmission, which was $35k. The transmission did not need to be replaced, but repaired, which SouthPoint was not going to do. That's why I had to send it out, as in NC, there aren't many good indy porsche shops (Euromotion in Raleigh is great, but they don't get into transmissions). That why I sent the transmission out for repairs, because the place in GA only deals with Porsche transmissions. I trust them over SouthPoint honestly. Hopefully we will figure out the problem, as otherwise I have a $100k+ car that's worthless.

Lazurus

I had hoped I was reading that correctly in that the local "dealership" had it's hands on the transmission at an early stage of the diagnosis ( non repair ). My point was that as long as I've been owning these cars since the late 1970's Porsche dealerships always had on staff at least ONE master tech that was capable of repairing fully ( eg rebuliding ) a g50 gearbox. Admittedly this was always in a MAJOR metropolitan area like L.A. but still that doesn't account for why this smaller metro area dealership was incapable of opening diagnosing and fully repairing the gearbox themselves.

Nearly 20 years ago I had a Porsche dealership a (MAJOR) dealer repair a 996 Turbo while under warranty for second gear popout and Porsche wanted to stick me with a nearly $15,000.00 repair cost as they attempted to claim and maintained over a somewhat protracted "battle" that the damage was my fault and "user error".

I claimed otherwise and was one of the first instances of which I ( or they, if they were to be believed ) had ever heard or known of the car's propensity for jumping out of second gear etc.

Whatever material this "SouthPoint" dealership "removed"? from the bell housing is a curious aspect of this and I'd want specific answers. I realize you can't hope for any goodwill or dispensation made to you by PCNA or this dealership. If it had been years ago, you'd have had a chance. Again, I did battle against them adverserially and was fortunate to have "won" but I had been a previous new Porsche buyer and that I'm sure factored in to their decision to have the work now covered under "warranty".

Still, in your case I would want to know ALL that they (S.Point ) did or did not do. You had an awful lot of parts replaced and a car with only a 1/2 gear transmission leaves it parked and that sucks. I do hope you're able to get it sorted without any further hassle and $$$.

Small towns and small geo areas are terrible for situations like this. I just had a clutch job recently done, also incorrectly, and had to start anew at a different and competent indie tech, 3+ hours drive away. So I paid for parts and labor TWICE for the same job.