Loss of 1st Gear

1998 Carerra 2 Manual with LSD and 144k miles. Taking my car off the drive this morning, I seemingly experienced a total loss of 1st gear. It has occasionally been jumping out of 1st when cold for some time and last time I drove it (in traffic) 1st gear was a pig. This morning I couldn't find it anywhere in the gate at all, it just generated a grating / crunching sound. Besides this, 2nd (and other) gears seems fine and it doesn't make much whining noise generally. Going to look more closely at the gear linkage tomorrow (the cables themselves certainly don't appear to be broken) and anything obvious. Anyone else got any experience of this or thoughts?

Clutch?

Clutch and IMS bearing are both only a couple of thousands of miles old and feel fine. I tried double declutching etc to no effect.

1st gear syncro sounds like its totally failed .. you will just get a crunching gear on gear noise. Turn the car off .. put it in first gear .. foot on clutch and start the car .. if you have 1st gear even breifly then that confirms it. gearbox strip im afraid is the bad news .

Which part of the country are you in? Sports and classic in knutsford near me are Porsche gearbox repair specialists if that's anywhere near you, they do a rebuild and fix a gear for 2k to give you an indication on price, I'm saving up as my first gear is pretty hard to engage and generally requires a double declutch, hoping a trans oil change and new mounts will help, I live in hope

I had the same with mine and was first gear syncro, kept popping out then after some time I couldn't select the gear. I got it fixed by a gearbox specialist in Bradford for around £2000 but I did have a new clutch and flywheel at the same time while the box was off all for £2k. A gearbox is a gearbox, it doesn't really need to be a Porsche specialist as such but if you do use a Porsche specialist the hourly rates will be a lot higher.

Well said infra! A lot of responses on here to gearbox problems are "You simply must use X, Y or Z!!" when in reality any good gearbox guy can rebuild one at a much more reasonable cost. They aren't black magic. There are even some folk who've DIY'd them. Mine is almost done. Been away for months mind but, lots of freak circumstances have worked against me, as ever. It's been fully stripped, inspected and rebuilt. I'm looking at £1000 worth of parts and I'm hopping for £500/£600 labour. The parts are the 2 main bearings (£300+ vat each), taper bearings for diff, a couple of other smaller bearings (one of which is still £200+) and some oil seals. Like I say it'll be about £1500 all done. Plus about the same for all my service work back in November and I'll be good to go. My guy had to buy a new 50T press mind which I'm hoping he doesn't add onto my bill. :wink:

My guy told me I could do it easily myself if I had a decent press, everything comes off in order and as long as you can recognise what is worn, it all goes back together in the opposite that it came apart.

It wouldn't be so bad if he did, so long as you have somewhere to keep it. If it happens again you will already have the press and can do it yourself :thumb: MC

Confirmed its definitely the box and sounds almost certainly the 1st gear syncro ring. So I'm looking at a rebuild or possibly a good secondhand box. I'm in Dorset.

Yes and then you can do everybody else's gearbox on here :thumb: Does anyone here know if a 997 box will go on a 996? the bolt pattern looks the same, but the gear cables are on the other side. Might have to use 997 gear cables? Not sure if the boxes were redesigned.... but might be more chance of finding a low mileage box.

Thanks for the nomination but I'll pass. I wish I had the time to learn though as it's interesting and like I say, it isn't voodoo like some internet folk would have you believe. Having said that, the guy doing mine has had it for 11 weeks yesterday! As said it's due to a few things such as his business partner emigrating hence double the work load on him, then Xmas, then his dad passed away a week or two ago. I'm happy to recommend him once I get mine back and get it home, but if you're in any sort of hurry I'd probably look elsewhere. Jon, having gone through the hassle I did I would strongly suggest you go down the rebuild route. My box was perfect apart from it whining a bit, over 50mph. I bought a "rebuilt years ago and not used since" gearbox of a piston header. My Indy fitted it and it was popping out of 2nd. Luckily the guy gave me a refund. If not I'd have wasted £1000. Most breakers don't even know what they are selling. I messaged a few saying "My box is perfect apart from a whine, so I need to know your box doesn't whine please". No replies from any sellers. That speaks volumes. Rebuild your current box. It's a known quantity and an easy fix for a decent gearbox place. If it's your daily car buy an old Volvo like I drive for £500 and sell it for the same amount once your 996 is back. This is coming from a man who ended up with his car stuck up on a ramp with two knackered gearboxes sat on the workshop floor underneath it, thinking "What now?!". :wink: DIY here if you've got your brave pills. https://rennlist.com/forums/996-for...-replacement-diy.html#PhotoSwipe1510830501148

Thanks again for the very sound advice from experience! The 996 hasn't been my daily driver although I'm actually inclined to make it such once the gearbox is fixed (when I'm not on a motorbike anyway). I think you're right about the rebuild route, although I'm still nervous about what else they might find and the fact that you are somewhat at the mercy of the repair shop and their honesty. On the flip side, you don't want them to open a box up once to fix a single issue before needing to reopen it in the near future because something else pressing has not been addressed. My initial discussions seem to suggest that the repair parts themselves are mighty expensive but I've not seen a clear breakdown of these costs anywhere...

Evenin' Jon, Well the guy had a quote to sort the second gear pop out on that box I sent back and it was £1700, but as you say, there will probably be more once you're in there. As I've said I'm looking at £1500-£1700 for mine which includes the 2 biggest most expensive bearings in there, which you'd definitely want swapped as they are a known weakness. Then the diff taper bearings, a couple more other ones and oil seals. So if I was you I'd be hoping to be in the same sort of range, maybe upto £2500. The company quoting for the box I returned was - Gloucester Road Gearboxes, Bristol. That's where I had it couriered to. I don't know if the guy I returned it to went ahead though, so I can't say whether they're good or not. You'd have to do a bit of research. Good luck. :thumb:

UPDATE :lol: So having weighed up the advice, I ended up agreeing a good deal with a German Ebay seller seemingly of good repute who was selling an 87,000km (54k mile) gearbox from a 2000 model year 996.1. I had the box fitted today by James of JMB Automotive (Dorset) - a great guy with extensive OPC experience and very reasonable rates, using the lifts and some help from Andy over at AW Motorsport, Southbourne, West Sussex. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend both of these outfits. It just needed a new RMS (didn't appear to have been fitted correctly when recently replaced along with a clutch and IMS by another specialist prior to my ownership). This time it went in with the correct Porsche tool... We filled the new box with Millers NT+ gear oil. So the new box is silky smooth, much nicer to use throughout the gears than the original, commensurate with it having a very low mileage. Any thoughts as to what my G96.00 1998 box with an LSD and 144k miles but in need of a rebuild might be worth?! Thanks for all the tips. Jon