2nd Gear Grinding problem

[gdalby]

I've read a lot on this topic and I figured I might as well give a perspective in real time regarding a widespread issue on the Boxster and many of Porsche's other vehicles.

A few weeks ago, my 02 Boxster S (70k miles) started grinding at random times when going into second gear. It mostly happened in the mornings and was VERY intermittent, thus I regarded it as not something I could even replicate with a shop and continued to drive it being very careful in second gear in the mornings and night.

On Tuesday night, around 1 AM, I was driving home and the issue occured again. However, I could not get the car into second gear AT ALL, no matter how hard I tried. I took the car into the shop yesterday morning and it has been there since. I have an aftermarket warranty through Elite Warranty, so hopefully this ends up with it being covered under that.

Currently, Elite is telling my shop they will cover up to the cost of a used replacement transmission. I would rather have a new gear box installed, as why would I desire a transmission with a WIDELY known failure of this kind? It looks as though a new gear box will be more expensive than the coverage they are authorizing however, so I may just go with the transmission and if the problem occurs again, well they can repair it AGAIN.

I have to say I love my car, but after an extensive amount of web searching, this problem seems to be inherent in Porsche's vehicles. I understand problems are part of car ownership, but problems that take a repair job in the thousands of dollars that are caused by a well known, seemingly design-inherent problem aren't a mark of quality I want to associate myself with.