As I mentioned in Part 1, the factory shifter in the 718 Cayman T is not as good as the factory Honda S2000 shifter; I rated the GT4 shifter, which comes standard in the T, as an 8 out of 10. It’s still very good and the second-best factory shifter I’ve ever used, but there’s room for improvement. I figure the shifter is one of the parts that’s integral to the driving experience, I might as well upgrade it now with a unit from Numeric Racing. During the process of installation, I figured out major shortcuts from the process documented by Numeric in their installation video.
To get to the shifter, you have to remove the center console. Numeric’s official process has many unnecessary steps. I’m going to start off with telling you how to get the center console off quickly before getting into the nitty-gritty details of the issues I ran into and the tweaks I performed.
Step 1 is to remove the side panels as demonstrated in the Numeric official installation video. Step 2 is to remove the two plastic pieces covering the screws holding in the PCM (Porsche Communication Management module). You remove the plastic pieces by pulling them straight out.
Step 3 is to pry off the shifter boot. The two front corners are the push-in clip retention features. I used two pry tools to pop those up at each front corner. The rear corners are held on by hook features, so you just have to pop the two front corners and lift up for the rear to come out.
Step 4 is removing the shift knob. To remove the knob from the shifter shaft, there is an eighth or quarter turn locking ring at the bottom of the knob. It’s possible to do it with your fingers or use an open-ended wrench. Once you unlock the ring, you just pull straight up on the knob.
Step 5 is to loosen the four screws holding in the PCM. Or you can take the screws all the way off, but you just need to be able to slide the PCM outwards a quarter inch or so. Sliding the PCM out just a bit creates enough clearance to remove the whole center console.
Step 6 is removing the whole center console; this is where I deviate from the official Numeric process and save a ton of time. Remove the six screws holding the center console, three on each side, and then just pull the whole thing up starting at the rear. Follow the video tip of using a pry tool at the forward-most screw locations on each side. Be mindful of the wire harnesses; you may want to put a towel over the aluminum wall of the center tunnel to avoid any possible cutting of the harnesses. You will also need little snippers to cut the two zip ties holding the wire harnesses to the factory shifter. Observe the angle of the two shifter cables relative to each other in this picture and remember that for later.
4 comments
Install the Numeric cables because they make a significant improvement and because the stock cable ends have a reputation for breaking.
Took me two days to do the shifter and cables. Miserable work. Adjusting the cable ends on the transmission is fiddly but the vids online help it make sense. Routing the cables in the engine bay sucks. Trying not to break or damage the interior trim pieces made for slow going. Sometime more force than you want to use is the answer. Sometimes a better tool or technique is required.
Regardless, it sucks. The end result is worth it though. They are that good.
Appreciate the insight. So I’ll plan on a 2-day install. I’ve taken apart most of what is needed in the interior to do the cable swap; the only part I haven’t removed yet is the center tunnel and armrest. Looks like I should bundle it in with an air filter and oil change job. Maybe a header swap.
Numeric video on the cable swap into a 718.
https://youtu.be/-5yQTwCA5EY?si=pn1VrN2GOPMohDIw
Thanks for this- Based on how involved this was, I will wait until I wear the stock linkage out to move to Numeric.
I am very interested in the headers, so I hope you pull the trigger on this.
I would say my experience was abnormal. It seems my car was just at the extremes of the tolerance ranges. The grinding I did to the base of the shifter to offset it is unnecessary, just a tweak that I did. Having some washers ready to act as spacers and knowing how to adjust the cables in case you can’t get into reverse cuts off pretty much all the extra time. It really should be less than an hour job.