[Robster]

About 3 weeks ago, I had about 6 inches of very wet snow pile up where I live (close to Dallas, TX). The traffic cleared wheel paths, but the snow was piled up about 10 to 12 inches high in the middle of the roads. I plodded along at fairly low speed in third gear for about 20 miles of this and came to a stop. I tried to shift gears to take off again, and my shift linkage wouldn't budge. I drove the rest of the way home, in horribly snarled stop and go traffic, in third gear. This meant to get going, I had to rev the motor and feather the clutch. Everytime I did this I could smell the clutch burning....made me sick to do it, but I didn't relish the though of freezing and there was really no where to pull over on the two lane road.

I got home and found out that I had the equivalient of about 50 gallons of snow and ice in the motor and transmission areas as well as the wheel wells. It seems that the engine guards acted as huge scoops and packed everything tight. I pulled most of the snow and ice out, and let it sit overnight in the garage. The shift linkage was fine now, but the clutch was toast. Now I am the proud owner of a Boxster with a brand new clutch. Next time it snows in Texas, I'll pull over and get a hotel and wait it out.

I looked through the archives, and didn't see that anybody else had ever had a problem with ice being funnelled up into the engine. However, this was the wettest snow that I have ever seen. It was more like slush than powder. The mechanic told me that I was lucky that the snow in the wheel wells didn't get so thick that it prevented me from turning.

Robert