Porsche 996 shift linkage break

[zman]

Changing down to 4th gear this morning a plastic sounding snap robbed me of ability to reselect another gear. I made it the mile home stuck in 4th & luckily didn't have to stop on the way. The gearstick will not move laterally now but is totally loose on the vertical axis.

I've yet to fully inspect the patient as I was running late for work however I've heard reports of this failiure on 996's due to the OEM plastic linkage. Has anyone else experienced this & if so did you replace with an upgraded part? Is this a specialist procedure or something a monkey with a star drive set could undertake? Any advice would be much appreciated.

It's a 98(S) 996 C2 58k miles.

[fastfreddy]

I had this. Got it replaced under warranty at the time, but I took a look when it happened and managed to cable tie it as I was about 150 miles away from home and didn't want to wait for recovery.
The OPC thought it was the linkage inside the car but it took them at least an hour to find out it was actually the linkage on the gearbox itself.
Either way, the part won't cost much and once you have got access to the linkage it won't take long to fix.

Edited by fastfreddy on Thursday 15th February 16:31

[dazren]

When my shiftlinkeage broke it was the plastic bit at the bottom of the gearstick as opposed to at the gearbox end of the cable. Accordingly I bought an uprated part from www.evoms.com

Details, fitting instructions/picture links here in Aug/Sept 2004:

www.pistonheads.com/members/showServiceHistory.asp?carId=2685

[paulio]

Hi Dazren, completely unrelated to this subject, but it`s Paul saying hi from Korea! Hope your well, and your new metal linkage is still holding up!
To add a small amount for this section, since i am writing, yes, go with the modified non-OEM metal linkage, it is much better, and doesn`t break every 30,000 miles.

[bluesatin]

I had the same problem as Daz. I had to pay for the repair despite it being a known fault- best part is it went again on the day they returned it. I also have the same Evomsbit.

[egbert]

another vote for the evoms bit, i like it.

[Chris_w]

does the uprated Evom's bit improve the shift quality or just last longer?

My shift action has been getting noticiably more notshy over the last year and wondered whether there was anything to be done to help it out. Car's booked in for a service next week so will mention it then...

[dazren]

paulio said:

Hi Dazren, completely unrelated to this subject, but it`s Paul saying hi from Korea! Hope your well, and your new metal linkage is still holding up!
To add a small amount for this section, since i am writing, yes, go with the modified non-OEM metal linkage, it is much better, and doesn`t break every 30,000 miles.

PAUL

Welcome aboard. Great to have more technical knowledge on the forum. Hope Korea is treating you well.

DAZ

Edited by dazren on Friday 16th February 11:28