You downshift into 1st going 15-20mph? Isn't that bad for the car??

 

I had trouble getting the shifter out of gear and back into neutral at about 1500 to 2000 rpm...it was the ungreased splines that was causing the problem. It seems that some mechanic at Porsche is not using grease on the input shaft. The dealer pulled the tranny , greased the shaft, installed a new clutch,bearing package... It works great now!!! Perfect , smooth , like a different car. It is a 2002 TT. This is a common problem and there are many posts on it. It sounds a bit different than yours , but it might be the same shaft issue.

 

If you know what you are doing (match revs), so that you are not jerking the car and straining the tranny, it's no problem at all.

 

As posted just above, rev matching is the key to smoothness.

If you rev match properly, you don't even need a clutch. I don't skip the clutch in the Porsche, but I many times do all the shifting (up shifts and down shifts) in my 280Z without using the clutch.

 

My '01 will shift from second into first, although it is the most balky or "coggy" (if I can use that word invention) of the shifts in the car. It helps if I let it stop in neutral for a moment and try to heel up a little revs to match the speeds a bit before attempting to slid it forward. A bit like "double-clutching" of the old days. Starting from a stop it also helps to go back to second before going forward to first in my car.

But yours sounds like more of a problem Joe, it doesn't sound "normal" to me.