SOS! 04 Boxster S Manual Gear Shift Problem!

[nsosdian]

Casually drove 2 miles to the grocery store, used reverse and four of the six forward gears, car performed beautifully as usual, parked and went inside. As usual, left car in Reverse with parking brake set. Came out 15 min later, backed out and went to put car in 1st. Something felt odd, a little stiff maybe, but I did get the car into 1st then 2nd, but could not move lever to 3rd. Limped home in 2nd.

Trouble shooting at home in the garage, the shift lever will simply not move any further to the right than the 1st/2nd gate. Normally, you know how you can just pull or push the lever to the middle position and it will spring to the middle (neutral)? Well mine is stiff and goes nowhere. Nothing I can do will get the lever anywhere but reverse, first or second.

I have never had any indications of any shifting problems of any kind prior to this.

Does anyone have any advice on where to look and what to check?

[itsnotanova]

I would first look underneath where the cables connect on the right side of the trans. Maybe have a friend try and shift it while you're under there. Look for anything that might look out of place. If you don't find anything out of the norm there. I would say take your shifter boot off and look down in the shifter for any jamming. If you still can't see any problems, you may have to take your center console out so you can get an even better look at your shifter. Anything more than that and you might have some trans issues.

[qstoria]

last year I had exactly the symptoms you have described. I was confident (and quietly hopeful) it wasn't a transmission issue so I took the console off to inspect the shifter and found the shifter had worn away badly in parts which made any movement literally impossible. The shifter was literally impossible to move.

Long story short - new shifter installed and all was back to normal. Plenty of options shifter wise too, OEM 986,996,997 standard and short shift plus aftermarket options. I went with 996 standard as it was all that was available at short notice (in Australia)

Good luck and keep us posted