Difficult Neutral when warm
 

Hello everyone,

Been scouring the internet to find where my issue may be and I am coming up empty, so I am hoping I get some ideas here. Pulled apart center console the shifter and there was nothing visibly broken or out of place. All connections on the transmission are tight and move freely. The shifter mechanism still feels tight and there is very little play.

When cold there is absolutely no issue, the car shifts in and out of all gears with no issue. When the car is warmed up and hot it becomes increasingly difficult to return to neutral after shifting from reverse. Yesterday after a long 40 min trip, I could not shift into 5th gear.

2000 boxster base 5 speed US spec. stock shifter.

Thanks in advance
Mike in PA

Check to see if your shifter cables are firmly held in their U shaped brackets near the transmission. These pop out occasionally and cause shifting problems.

jessejames - thanks for the reply. they are seated into the u brackets. It looks like the mechanic who did my IMS even ziptied them as well.

mw

awesome, after having everything apart, seeing nothing, I go to the store to get brake fluid to fix my suburban. As I turn into the store, it wont shift into first. Leaving the store I wiggled it into first and did not have any issues with shifting the rest of the way home. wtf.

How many miles on it?
If you can't find any mechanical issues. If it's high miles may be time to check trans oil level or do a trans oil change.

blue62. thanks for the reply. There are about 75k on my boxster. clutch, ims, and a bunch of other stuff was done about 36k.

I will check the trans gear oil out. thanks!

Are the shift cables properly adjusted? Also, are the connections between the shift cables and the arms on the transmission good?

If your car is a 5 speed I'd suspect the adjustment on the cable from the left/right movement. I think its the one on the left.

checked gear oil this morning, it looks fine. Ordered new gear oil to change it anyways.

Anker - Yes it is a 5 speed. I need to hit the manual on properly adjusting. I did order a SSK, so I will be pulling the console apart again soon to check.

All the connections on the transmission are attached and dont feel like they are falling off or anything.

Thanks!

blue62. thanks for the reply. There are about 75k on my boxster. clutch, ims, and a bunch of other stuff was done about 36k.

I will check the trans gear oil out. thanks!

update - the difficulty shifting into any gear has not been present the past 3 or 4 days. But today during a 2+ hour trip to check out an ML500, it began not syncing into second gear, and one time it did not like 3rd gear.

The parts all came in to replace shifter, adjust shifter and change out the trans gear oil.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

mw