New 997 PDK problems?

cap_scarlet · 20 Mar 2009

Has anyone heard of problems with the new PDK gearbox?

I have a three month old 997 (Carerra 4 S). Last week when in 7th gear I suddenly lost traction and the gearbox felt like it had shifted into neutral. Once at the side of the road I switched the engine off - restarted the car and bingo all the gears were again present and correct. The display showed however a failure and said take the car to the garage.

Of course once in the garage they could not find anything wrong.

This morning a similar thing happened. The car froze in fifth gear - display indicates a gearbox failure. I could still shift in manual mode but had no power except in fifth. Same thing - pulled over to the side of the road switch off, switch on and all the gears are again present and correct.

I have taken it to the garage again but so far they can find no problem.

I am now very nervous as without a clear diagnosis I do not want this to happen when I am overtaking.

Any experience of this from anyone? What is the solution?

Jamie_G · 20 Mar 2009

And with that, all Gen2's depreciate by £20K!

I am active on a few forums and haven't heard of such a problem and agree that sounds worrying. You need to have confidence that the car will perform when you need it to.

Have you tried calling Reading OPC as theirs is the biggest service centre (having done the tour it's huge!) in the country and as such their engineers might be more likely to have encountered this early problem if it exists on other cars?

Porsche · 20 Mar 2009

Yes, there are been reported problems with the PDK's which also effected the VW DSG boxes for the early years

are few are mostly software related

cap_scarlet · 20 Mar 2009

Jamie said:
And with that, all Gen2's depreciate by £20K!

I am active on a few forums and haven't heard of such a problem and agree that sounds worrying. You need to have confidence that the car will perform when you need it to.

Have you tried calling Reading OPC as theirs is the biggest service centre (having done the tour it's huge!) in the country and as such their engineers might be more likely to have encountered this early problem if it exists on other cars?

I haven't tried Reading but thats because I live in Germany!

This is my third 997 and I hope I am not going to regret it! My first 997 was bought back by Porsche after it suffered a litany of problems. My second was completely problem free.

I should have added both times this failure emerged was when the engine was cold.

Maxie · 20 Mar 2009

cap_scarlet said:
I should have added both times this failure emerged was when the engine was cold.

Just out of interest, what kind of revs do you do when the engine is cold?

~ Maxie :?:

cap_scarlet · 20 Mar 2009

Maxie said:
cap_scarlet said:

I should have added both times this failure emerged was when the engine was cold.

Click to expand...

Just out of interest, what kind of revs do you do when the engine is cold?

~ Maxie :?:

Very low, both time the failure has happened as less than 2,000 rpm

Maxie · 20 Mar 2009

I know nothing about PDK gearboxes but at less than 2000rpm, is it possible to get up to 5th and 7th gears?

~ Maxie

cap_scarlet · 20 Mar 2009

Maxie said:
I know nothing about PDK gearboxes but at less than 2000rpm, is it possible to get up to 5th and 7th gears?

~ Maxie

With the new PDK box the car will change to 7th very quickly indeed - thats the main way in which Porsche can claim the reduced fuel consumption. When in Auto mode with PDK you are always in a higher gear than you think you should be!

Jamie_G · 20 Mar 2009

cap_scarlet said:
Jamie said:

And with that, all Gen2's depreciate by £20K!

I am active on a few forums and haven't heard of such a problem and agree that sounds worrying. You need to have confidence that the car will perform when you need it to.

Have you tried calling Reading OPC as theirs is the biggest service centre (having done the tour it's huge!) in the country and as such their engineers might be more likely to have encountered this early problem if it exists on other cars?

Click to expand...

I haven't tried Reading but thats because I live in Germany!

Click to expand...

This is my third 997 and I hope I am not going to regret it! My first 997 was bought back by Porsche after it suffered a litany of problems. My second was completely problem free.

I should have added both times this failure emerged was when the engine was cold.

I have heard of a little place in Stuttgart too that has a Porsche workshop :thumb:

If as Sundeep says may be software related, would Porsche have sent out an update? Maybe ask your local dealer to check on the chassis number to see if there are any recalls showing?

cap_scarlet · 20 Mar 2009

Well, the car has now been in the shop all day but so far there are scratched heads all round. They have spoken to Porsche in Stuttgart and not yet come up with a solution. The garage have been to my office and taken the Cayenne they originally loaned me this morning and replaced it with a Cayman S.......so at least I have something to play with over the weekend.

Lets see where this goes - the fact that the gears reset themselves once the engine is stoppoed suggests a software problem but the fact that the problem has so far happened when the engine was cold suggests mechanical.

Lets see. :?:

theogeor · 20 Mar 2009

The problem looks like software related but it might extend to the microprocessor that is driving the PDK that the software controls.
I have seen over the years very strange intermittent problems that related to either a faulty/buggy software but most of the times is an electronic component that makes the software to crash.

anniesdad · 20 Mar 2009

I don't know much about the problem but I am aware of a car that a few months ago, not long after the cars launch, needed a new PDK gearbox after only a few weeks of use. I saw the car up on the ramps at PC Bolton and asked one of the service guys why it was there....he told me "new gearbox".

I hope yours isn't quite so serious and can be resolved quickly. Whilst the buttons are counter intuitive (to me at least) it is a fantastic bit of kit and the new Sports Plus mode on the Boxster I drove so equipped gave a real racecar kick in the back. :thumbs:

S

goodethernet · 21 Mar 2009

I have some friends who bought a PDK C2S when they first came out and that had to have a new gear box, too.

Still, in the interests of balanced reporting and to stop certain people wading in and rubbishing Porsche quality, I also have to say that I have a PDK C4S and it has been fault free.

Also looks like Porsche is doing the right thing and actively looking for the fault (which does sound like software and not a new gearbox issue, I hope) and loaning something to drive. Hope they fix it

cap_scarlet · 21 Mar 2009

Yes overall I agree its a fantastic piece of kit. My previous car was a Gen I C4S and I much prefer it over that.

I don't want to scare monger about Porsche quality either and it may be that I am just unlucky - my first 997 - a C2S - was bought back by Porsche after a series of small problems. The annoying thing was the garage I use was NEVER able to fix a problem first time.

I will give them the benefit of the doubt and hope they resolve this issue quickly.

cap_scarlet · 24 Mar 2009

Just thought I would post a quick update.

My car has now been in the dealers since last Friday. On Monday they rang me up to ask in detail what had gone wrong, which I explained to them again (trying not to get exasperated!). They subsequently acknowledged that there is a problem......but they don't know what it is.

Anyway, they promised to fix it by lunchtime today. At 12:00 today I rang them to find out about expected delivery time, to be told that they had tried reinstalling the software.......they had also tried an older version of the software. Still no joy, so no car back today.

They are convinced however that I will get the car back tomorrow. How they can be convinced when they can't seem to recognise the problem I do not know.

Anyway I am kicking up a bit of a fuss because the loaner Cayman does not have winter tyres and we have just returned to snowy conditions (I live in central Germany).

I have every confidence that they will deliver the car back......but that it will go wrong again within a couple of weeks.

Interestingly my secretary is laughing at me because she has an old 993 which has never missed a beat!

Not happy.

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