Help! Can't get car into gear
 

2006 911c2s cab, 6 speed. At a stop light yesterday, in neutral. Tried to engage the car in first, but it would not go into gear. Lots of resistance. Was finally able to shove into second and pull into q parking lot and got a tow. Odd thing is, when the car is shut off, I can move the shifter into all gears fine. Any suggestions before a trip to the dealer?? Tia.

Sounds like a bad clutch. Friction plate probably torn or faulty pressure plate. Or clutch Hydraulics need bled or repaired. The symptoms are of a clutch that is not disengaging.

pressure plate is gone.

Might be something simpler. How long have you been driving the Porsche transmission? If this is your first, you may not have learned the automatic pullback. Before shifting into first at a standstill, you shift into second. Then go forward into first. A full shift into second isn't actually required. Just pull back until you feel the gears trying to engage and then go forward.

Gary

no.

It is 100% not necessary to do this. Does it save a touch of wear on the 1st gear synchro, probably. Furthermore, this has nothing to do with the "porsche" transmission, which is made by aisin anyway.

If it shifts with the car off, something is likely causing your pressure plate not to fully disengage the disk.

I recently had a clutch replaced due to a failed pressure plate. The fingers on half the pressure plate were bent back.

It has to do with sports car transmissions, and particularly with the style of transmission used by Porsche. And others as well, naturally. Sports car drivers have found that technique desirable since about World War II. You can drive a sports car without doing it, just as you can downshift without blipping the throttle. But why go out of your way to do it the klutzy way? The synchros do not respond well to demands that they move the gears into alignment when the car is sitting still. And of course we sports car verterans learned the technique using transmissions without synchros.

People not accustomed to sports cars take the car out of gear approaching a stop and leave it in neutral. That allows a random placement of the gear teeth. Experienced drivers prefer not to do that. It's a pain having to use second gear and a little clutch to substitute for foresight. Instead, we engage first approaching a stop even if we never let the clutch out. Once the car is completely stopped, we take it out of gear, but that leaves the teeth aligned.

If someone forgets to do that, the teeth usually still align close enough to move into alignment from the pressure of the synchros, but once in a while they don't even when the car is warmed up. When the car is cold, the alignment has to be closer to shift into first with reasonable force, so it's just easier to develop the habit and use it all the time.

The fact that the problem doesn't arise when the car's been shut down means nothing. Almost everyone leaves the car in gear at shutdown and all the experienced drivers do. That serves the same purpose.

I don't say it isn't the pressure plate, I just think it's smarter to expect horses when you hear hoofbeats, not zebras.

Gary

Happens to me on occasion. So I either press the clutch down twice or let go of the clutch slowly as I'm trying to push it into first. Works 99% of the time.

I've read it's pretty common actually

Gary, thanks for the tip.

Gary has been right about this forever. Every now and again this topic comes up and Gary's explanation is spot on. This happens to me all the time since km 1 and I am now on km 15,001 and clutch is still going strong.

Thanks Gary

You're welcome of course. You and Vancouver as well. Being an old bugger may not make you smarter but it does give you a chance to remember old tricks that still work.;)

Gary

It is possible you just need to have the gearshift cables adjusted - that could be the problem.

same thing happened to me last year - working fine during a morning drive then out of nowhere clutch pedal was "squishy" all of a sudden and i couldnt get into gear (unless car was off, in which case clutch went into gear fine but couldnt even force it in when car was on) i'll bet a dollar it's a broken pressure plate finger like mine. "known" issue. anyone want to give me odds? :p

I happen to agree with Gary. My C4S has less than 3k miles, and at stop lights, from time to time, but not all the time, I have the same issue. I've driven sports cars before, and I don't feel anything wrong with this new car vs past euro sport cars. I simply shift down into 2nd, then back up to 1st. Works everytime. Now, undestanding that the op states an older, 2006 car, it could very well be other issues. But I'm betting with Gary on this one...

Occasionaly mine wont go into reverse - which leaves you stuck in a parkig place. Enough fiddling will clear it, but its a PITA. Sometimes hard going into 1st - I usually downshift below 10mph.