Clutch slipping and then not?...oh oh
 

So was driving home from the gym and was at a stoplight on a steep hill. Park brake on, and drove off. Accelerated and noticed clutch burn smell and revs rise without that much accelerating. Clutch slippage. Kept driving and after a minute, no more slipping. Pushed pedal down in 4th gear and still no slipping. Car drives fine again. Is my clutch gone soon or just glazing of the clutch? Anyone have this happen on their 986? Oh, and car has 74k miles on it.

Time to get dirty.Keyboard doesn't help much.
RMS leaking onto clutch ?
At least with Boxster the trans removal is easier than a 996.But the' while you are in there' jobs are the same.

Thanks. May have to do that, but just took her out again to get some food, and the car drives perfectly normal again. No sign of any slippage. Weird...

Any oil drips under the car?

I haven't looked today yet, but did oil change a month ago, and everything was dry at the time.

A while back I took off quickly, and my slipped. I backed off right away, but the nasty burnt clutch smell was there for quite a while. It had never slipped before, and it didn't slip again after that (even at a track day).

The next week I had the clutch (and RMS and IMS bearing) replaced. The old clutch disc was worn down to the rivets, so the time had come for replacement. That might be the case for the OP, it's time for a new clutch!

It prob is time for a new clutch, but I'm all about if it ain't broke, and I drove it today without any issues again, so not gonna change it till it slips again. :D Thanks for all the feedback though guys.

Once the clutch slips like that, it means that its time to start thinking about a replacement.

It will continue to work fine but will have moments of slippage becoming more and more common - until it fails completely.

Don't wait too long to have it replaced.

Once a clutch starts to slip, it is not going to heal. The longer you let it go, the more damage it is going to do, primarily to that $1K dual mass flywheel.............

I hear ya, and thanks. I guess I've been wary ever since my last Porsche dealer told me my clutch was going out at 30k miles when I asked them if the clutch should be squeaking when I press the pedal. 40k miles later, the clutch is still grabbing. But I understand that slipping isn't good. I had a clutch totally give out and leave me stranded once in a BMW 3-Series. It, however, never stopped slipping and eventually just gave out. It's strange to me how the clutch is acting normal now though. I'll keep an eye on it. It's not my daily driver, and so I'm not that concerned.

also, replacing the clutch it's way cheaper than replacing the synchros…

Synchros? You mean in the transmission? Or is there a synchro in the clutch assembly? Regardless, it's weird, but I continue to drive the car without any issues with the clutch. Not slipping anymore.

I had a similar experience, clutch slipped suddenly at a light and then not again that day.
Next day it didn't happen at all as I was being gentle with it.

Next time I was trying to drive in my normal spirited way and the clutch was clearly getting a bit worse than the last time so I decided its time to take it offline rather than break something.

First time I ever did a clutch job and it was surprisingly easy. Biggest pain was getting the right size Star pattern bit to remove the 1 transmission bolt that uses a security bit. OMG Really! You will need a shorty one else the socket wont fit in the tight space.

What I found was that the clutch plate was worn quite a bit and the throwout bearing was very sloppy and had apparently been binding as well.

I got a clutch disc and replacement throwout bearing in and the issues were gone.

Consider your episode fair warning that the clutch wont last much longer.

The good news was that I stopped using it before the surface on the flywheel got damaged by rivets so its better to take care of it rather than milk it, as running down to the rivets might add a flywheel to your clutch job.

I did a DIY on my clutch job http://986forum.com/forums/boxster-general-discussions/62364-clutch-replacement-3.html#post503130

Thanks for sharing your experience. I have been driving this thing hard still, and it hasn't started slipping again. Gonna wait a bit I think.

Maybe you are getting the throw out bearing binding that momentarily prevents the clutch from fully engaging.

I guess I would wait and see what happens next if I was in your shoes too as it has not reoccurred with hard driving.

It would be nice to have a porthole in the clutch area so you could stick a fiber optic camera in there and look to see what is happening.

Yes, it would be cool if you could see inside the clutch area to see what kinda wear is in there!