Transmission Broken! & what to do while it's dropped?

Two questions/topics here really, but any advice/suggestions appreciated. I was entering a highway yesterday and shifting up through the gears as I normally do. I wouldn't consider my acceleration "spirited," just normal. As I shifted from 4th to 5th (I'd guess I was around 55-60mph), something didn't feel right. There was a definite "crunch" feeling as I engaged 5th, so I knew something was wrong. I still had the gear however, and was cruising at 70mph. I tried downshifting to 4th and the gear knob wouldn't move at all. I pulled over to the side of the road and got off the next exit. Somehow, I managed to get the car into neutral, but I couldn't move the stick at all so couldn't get it in gear again. Eventually, had the car towed to a local dealership. I immediately assumed that i had snapped / dislodged one of the shift cables, so when the service manager called me today, I was expecting this news. It was WAY worse. He said they were preparing to drop the tranny because it seems like something broke inside. Definitely not a cable. Has anyone heard of something like this? I tried searching for various transmission problems and couldn't find anything with similar symptoms. Perhaps the pressure plate or throw-out bearing... But I won't know for sure what it is until they drop the tranny tomorrow and get inside. Any reassurance / stories of similar experiences would be much appreciated! For the record, I always put the car in neutral when at a stop and keep the clutch depressed as infrequently as possible. Now, onto my second point. While they have the transmission dropped, is there anything I should consider getting done to the car? I'd like to have them check for any RMS issues, and fix if necessary. I have 37k miles and up until now, I've had no problems with the clutch, but since the tranny will already be open, should I just have that replaced as well? It'll definitely add some longevity to the car, and since it'll already be open, should, defer some of the costs if I were to have a clutch issue down the road. Thanks for the help guys.

Hi Chris, I'd have them replace the clutch disc as an absolute minimum. If you want to go further, you could replace the: pilot bearing, release (throw-out) bearing, pressure plate, and/or RMS. Now is also the time to decide if you would enjoy a light weight flywheel (AKA LWF) - there are pros and cons with them.

outstanding...i cant think of a thing to add

You may want to consider an LSD/TBD as well while its down.

Ugh, not much to add here. I hope everything gets taken care of quickly! Do you have another car you can use to get to Lime Rock on Sat.?

I had my ring and pinion broken as i could not get my tranny to get into 5th gear. so when we dropped the tranny, we realized that the ring and pinion had broken and the remained debris, were in the gears of the 5th gear and blocked it so, i could not shift. Since i had the tranny down, i installed a lightweight flywheel (good for Rms also), and new clutch ****, and pressure plate. i hope you have a lesser problem than me.

Thanks for the replied - I'll definitely do the clutch, not sure about the LWFW, still have to think about that one. And unfortunately, looks like I'm out for Lime Rock

A little late but have you considered the IMS as a preventive measure? LN Engineering had a good post on the bearing.

What is IMS preventative measure?

Not too late yet - dealership has sent a sample off to the factory for analysis, so no work has been done - I haven't gotten an official diagnosis back yet either. Preliminary diagnosis is that first and second gear are broken, there were metal filings in the transmission fluid. Strange because I was in 5th when the problem occurred. All signs point to it being a warranty job at least, saves me a pretty penny. IMS (Intermediate Shaft) - I'm not willing to mess with yet. I'm going to keep the stock part at least until my warranty is up, while I praise Jake Raby & LN Engineering for their work, I haven't seen enough data / anecdotes to encourage me to go that route before my factory warranty expires. If I go for the beefier IMS bearing and I have a failure - I'm s.o.l. I have a few years left on my warranty, so until then, I'm going to stick with genuine Porsche - cause if that breaks, at least they cover me.

If they are repairing the tranny GET THE 2005 Boxster S 1-2 Gears!

Hmmmmmm..... How in the world did the 1st and 2nd gears break? Wild.

Chris, Good point on the warranty.

In case anyone is still interested - finally got the car back last night, and boy it feels good to have it back in the garage. Ultimate diagnosis was a broken main shaft & first gear. They replaced those and some other parts, but I don't have the service papers in front of me so don't have the exact list. It took a while to get the car back because they had to send samples of the transmission fluid (with metal particles from the transmission) to the factory for analysis before they could proceed with the labor, and then they found out they needed a special tool from Porsche so had to wait for that to come in. They think that a metal piece broke off in the transmission and lodged in the gear, which broke that and some other pieces. At least that's the best explanation I got, and I'm not an expert enough on these things to know any better. I had every intention of replacing my clutch assembly while they were already in there poking around, but spoke to a couple of the techs there, all of whom said my clutch was in "perfect" shape and wasn't worth replacing. They said they honestly couldn't recommend replacing it at this time, so I took their advice and saved a decent chunk of change (for now at least). Hopefully I can get a lot more miles out of it and make my gamble pay off. I decided against doing anything wacky to the car like a lightweight flywheel - want to keep the major stuff on the car stock until I'm out of warranty (thankfully all this work was covered, if I messed around, I don't want to deal with the hassle of getting it covered under warranty then). And on the plus side, no RMS leaks, so for now, my car seems to be in tip top shape. I enjoyed the fully loaded '09 Cayenne loaner I was given - really liked the PCM 3.0. Touchscreen was pretty neat, but my car already has the iPod/Bluetooth/Navi combo, so it's not a massive upgrade from what I'm used to. I did get addicted to the heated steering wheel, however. On the bright side, my wife loved the Cayenne so there might be one in our garage in the future. There could be worse cars that she likes. I was more than happy to step out of the truck and back into the Boxster - I am appreciating it so much more now after our long separation - what an awesome car!

Glad your car is back in business. There are only 3 things I can think of that could result in a broken main shaft/gear. Very hard abuse, dropping the clutch while the engine is at red line, allowing the rear wheels to hop while spinning, etc.... . A defective shifter cable. If a cable fails, it may allow you to engage two gears at one time. Pow..! . A manufactures defect from the beginning. Nothing you can do about this. That's why you have a warranty. Based on your posts, I don't sense that you'd be the kind of guy to thrash your car hard enough to pop the transmission. So I'd guess at number 3, unless of course you have teenagers in the house, in which case I'd guess that your car took a beating that you don't know about.

A loose bit of metal going through a gear mesh can create all sorts of havoc.

Indeed, especially because a 'constant mesh' transmission has all gears meshed at all times. But a loose piece of metal is usually caused by breaking a tooth off of a gear, which isn't easy. Any other loose particle would fall under #3. I've broken 6 manual transmissions in my day. One Borg Warner, five Saginaws and one Muncie M-21. All because I absolutely romped my car, banged gears, dropped the clutch, roasted the rear tires off, etc...

You better make sure your wife doesn't try out the Panamera. If I had the bread, that would be a nice stocking stuffer!

Gator - I think you hit the nail on the head there. I'm going with #3 there, I definitely don't ride the car that hard at all- have never dropped the clutch or done anything too aggressive with it, so don't think that could be the culprit. They said the shift cables looked fine, and they mentioned something about a piece breaking off and to paraphrase a bit, some sort of manufacturing or part defect. I would have loved to get a Panamera loaner. I love the car but my wife doesn't like it yet (she's only seen it on TV). Not that it's an immediate option, but I wouldn't mind her mind being open to the possibility when the time comes around.