Shifter Improvement Suggestions Wanted

[Sandy G]

I have a nice 2000 Boxster S with 45,000 miles and everything works great! The main thing I want to improve is the shifting. It works fine, but there are a couple of issues I’d like to address:

1. When the engine is cold, the first shift into 2nd gear is a little balky. No grinding, just kinda stiff going from 1st into 2nd. After it warms up, it shifts ok into any gear. My solution is to start the engine and then row thru the gears before I drive away, and then my first shifts while driving feel better.
2. Overall, the shifting feels “thick,” both when cold and fully warmed up. There’s a fair amount of slop in the shifter, too. One time I drove another 986, probably with an aftermarket shifter, that felt great – nice and snappy and tight – so I know mine could be a lot better.

Here are the options that come to mind:

• Use an alignment tool to adjust the shift cables. Cheap, just time consuming.
• Clean and regrease the shifter while I’m in there. What lubricant should I use?
• Replace the shifter with a new one of the same type, or a short shifter, or from a different model Porsche.
• Replace the cables. Living in a condo, I’m pretty limited on work I can do without taking it into the shop, so this would be a little pricey.
• Drain and replace the transaxle fluid. This would also need to be done in the shop.

Any thoughts? I prefer to keep it close to stock and I don’t want to spend a whole lot on a minor issue. Thanks in advance for any comments or suggestions!

[A 986 S]

First off, I think that any Boxster will be a bit reluctant to shift until the transmission warms up. It's just the nature of the beast. Your solution to address this seems to be right on.

My Boxster didn't shift as well as I'd like when I bought it. Installing one of Ben's short shifters made a big improvement. Shifts now feel shorter and more precise. The exact shifter that I installed doesn't appear to be available any more but this - https://www.uniwerksdesign.com/product/bens-porsche-996-986-short-shifter/ - appears to be his current version. Installing the new shifter really wasn't that difficult, you can see how I did it here - https://rx19jones.wixsite.com/projectboxster/projectboxster2

I changed the transaxle fluid in my car as part of its routine maintenance and didn't notice that it made any difference in the way it shifted. It's possible that changing the fluid would improve the way your car shifts but frankly, I'd be surprised.

Good luck getting your Boxster to shift the way you'd like. Do let us know what you decide to do.

[Sandy G]

Thanks for the links!

Question: What type of grease is appropriate for the wear points?

[redpepperracing]

I will second the BAD shifter. I had a cheap ebay short shifter, and it was way too short of a throw, and a Porsche mechanic who's opinion I highly respect said it would wear out the trans much faster, that's when I switched to BAD. It's shorter than stock, but not as short as the ebay one, and the quality is miles better.

For the lubricant I use silicone grease.

[alexc0814]

I have the BAD shifter and side lever. Was a big improvement but still have some side to side play in gear which i thought would be totally eliminated. To be fair I still am on stock shifter cables though

[madtown986]

This sounds like what I've been through with my Boxster. I have a 2002 Boxster S, just passing 30K miles. I've done everything you've mentioned in stages over the past 18 months.

I think the main reason the shifter feels like garbage to me is I grew up on Japanese imports in the 80's & 90's. I learned how to drive a manual in an RX-7, later had a Nissan 300zx, and then an RX-8 when i was older. I think those cars spoiled me a little bit as to what a shifter should feel like. The RX-8 is the best shifting car I've ever driven. I think it ruined me.

This is a long read. Short answer: Start with a gear oil change. Use genuine Porsche gear oil. Maybe do it twice with some driving in between.

Here's everything I've tried and my thoughts on the result. My Boxster takes some muscle to shift when cold. It eventually smooths out which i think is from heat built up in the transmission from gears spinning. It's more that just warming up the engine (but that does help). Sounds like your experience and that of others.

1. Short shifter (no-name from Amazon) and new bushings (Phoenix Engineering) in stock plastic shift cage. Felt a little better once warm (placebo effect?) but no difference to the clunkiness when cold. I really didn't like it, Overall waste of money for me ($150 total) because of where I went next.

2. Numeric Racing shifter. Improved overall but still wrestling into 1st and 3rd when cold. Very nice shifting when warmed up. A little tedious to set with stock cables. Numeric can be adjusted to tall, regular or short on the handle. I didn't like the short and keep it in the middle (stock-ish) spot. The Numeric really narrowed the shift pattern. Not as much sideways motion needed 2nd to 3rd or 4th to 5th etc. Significantly reduced the slop. But again, didn't eliminate the clunky cold shifts as much as I wanted. There was noticeable improvement though. No placebo effect this time.

3. Drain and refill transaxle gear oil. I confirmed with the shop that maintained the car for the previous owner they once changed the gear oil and refilled with Redline Synthetic. There are a lot of opinions on the proper gear oil for the Boxster and Redline specifically. I don't want to enter that debate (because I just don't care). I drained and refilled with the recommended Genuine Porsche gear oil I found from Suncoast. This made a big difference for me. Still not perfect, but much much better.

4. Numeric Racing shift cables. I just put these in last weekend. It is a big improvement from where things started. But STILL takes some force when cold in the up gears (1, 3, 5). Shifting is significantly improved when warm, just like previous things. I haven't gone on a really long drive yet to build up a good heat soak in the transmission. But it does get significantly better after about 10 minutes of driving from cold.

My next and final thing to do is to repeat the drain and fill of the gear oil. I want to make sure all the Redline has been flushed out, and I think I may have overfilled slightly when I did it the first time. After that, it is what it is. I can live with it.

None of the work was very hard to do but the cables were a giant pain to install and get attached under the car (take the wheel off). The gear oil stinks like crazy, I don't recommend getting it on anything you care about. If you are not a member of your local PCA chapter, try joining. You might meet some people there able and willing to help. Some cities even have do-it-yourself garages with lifts you can rent to do work.

Overall, I've spent well over $1000 and the tough clunky shifting when cold persists. It's maybe 30% better than when I started. It's moved around each time I tried something. 3rd gear got better but 4th gear became tough. That sort of thing. Once warmed up, I think shifting is definitely 100% improved over stock. But aside from being a little sloppy that really wasn't bothering me in the stock setup.

[Sandy G]

Thanks for your history and results. I’d rather not replace the shifter, but I might as a last resort if my other attempts don’t help. I KNOW these cars can shift like tight machine — I once drove one with an aftermarket shifter and it really snapped into each gear. Big difference.

I already have a shifter alignment tool, so I’ll use that and clean up & lube the original shifter to see if that helps. And next time I’m in the shop, I’ll have the gearbox fluid changed.

Cheers!