NewShark

Hello Rennlisters!
I believe I'll be needing a clutch job and I'm trying to decide whether or not to do it myself or have a reputable shop do the work. Here is some background. I've owned the car (2006 Cayman S - 6sp) for almost 3 years. Bought it with ~60k miles, now at ~92k. Daily driver, city driving. I don't know if the clutch has ever been replaced. It has always felt just a little bit soft, but I never had another Porsche to compare. One weird characteristic is that on cold mornings (California cold) the clutch could act very jumpy for the first minute or two and the car would lurch. Not sure if this is a normal thing but sort of got use to easing into it for the first few shifts. Recently the clutch felt just a little bit different/softer - hard to pin point but I did notice something. Then coming home from work, it was suddenly very hard to get the shifter to engage into gears to the point that I thought I was going to break the shifter/linkages. I nursed it home and there she sits. I checked that with the engine off, the shifter feels normal and I can go through all the gears as expected. I started it up in gear and with the clutch fully depressed the car now move a bit in what every gear its in, so there seems like some engagement even with the clutch pedal fully pressed. Trying to shift again is nearly impossible. I can turn the engine off, shift and restart. I did a quick bleed on the slave cylinder and it didn't seem to help.
Getting quotes ... first one $2000 (includes machining the DMF). Do people recommend machining the DMF? From what I've read ... at almost 100k ... it should probably just be replaced.
I've done quite a bit of work on the Cayman include shocks, brakes and I'm in the middle of a 928s restore so I pretty sure I could do the job, but I don't have a lift and I'm not sure this job qualifies as "fun" so I'm on the fence about it.
Could my issue be something other than the clutch or pressure plate?
Comments welcome!
TIA

Georound

Sounds like clutch. Consider changing the shifter cables too as they are known to break! My indie charged $800 for labor and I paid $750 for parts. You might need the dual mass flywheel, although I have heard of someone rebuilding. It's an easy check to see if it's serviceable. Some don't recommend resurfacing, but I felt just stoning the surface would be fine (my mechanic's suggestion). They're around $7-800 I think.
Clutch feel was better, much more normal afterwards. My parts were just in spec at 45k. The car was new to me and I didn't much care for the clutch's feel.

I bought the throw arm and the spacer. Didn't need them at all, so have them new in bag (981, may work). Let me know if you want them, you can pay shipping. Can get the part numbers to you.Los Angeles are, so shipping should be reasonable. Better to have and not need, than wait for parts!

NewShark

I ended up taking it to an independent shop. Upon inspection, it turned out the Pressure Plate was cracked at the base of the spring fingers. Everything appeared to be original and so after 93k miles, I felt like it had done its job.
The shop replaced the dual mass flywheel, clutch, pressure plate, rear main seal, and a number of other parts all for a very reasonable price i felt. Very pleased with the shop (Personalized Autohaus, Inc. - San Diego) and my clutch feels great!