Mongo

1A. 1984
1. US-Spec
2. 108,300
3. Ring and Pinion
4. factory specified; fluid changed at 99,000 miles
5. Rubber-Center Clutch
6. Clutch replaced at 99,700 miles with another rubber center. Throwout bearing binded with rubber center shrapnel causing a jam and the pedal suspending itself to the floor.
7. Car was never autocrossed up to the point of R&P failure
8. Turning right when I heard a clunk and my right wheel burning rubber with my foot only feathering the accelerator on take off.

On another note; there was a steel crisis in Germany up until 1986. I do believe this had a lot to do with the quality of manufacturing and metal in these transmissions manufactured by Porsche+Audi at the time.

RMills944

This isn't the most fair survey as there are not many 88-89 cars comparead to 84, but it's worth surveying I guess.

My 84 blew the center of the clutch at the same time as the tranny. The car had 70,00 on it and was 16 years old at the time. It's US spec 84. The rubber center going out caused slop in the torque tube and the tranny locked up (it felt much like hitting a brick wall and coming to a screeching halt). The car was just an around-town driver then. My dad had used it for a few laps at Road America and Putnam, but not autocrossed much.

tifosiman

Thanks for posting! Like I stated before, this isn't scientific. It's good to get a feel for the failure rate and characteristics from within our own little group.

Penz

Tifo,

If you were wondering, the trans blew taking off a little fast (as in letting the clutch out normal but giving it half-throttle after I got going) from a stop sign when I owned the car. The rubber center on the clutch was at least half disenagrated and I don't know what oil it had in it before. After the trans replacement, I imagine it was a high end fluid b/c thats all the mechanic had laying around the shop. Also, I do not think it was ever autocrossed by the previous owner, but i could be wrong.

tifosiman

Thanks for the input Josh! How is life? Shoot me an email and we can catch up.

Take care,

Jeremy

83 TX 944

83, R&P, it's going to blow soon. 150K, 2nd clutch (spring centered) I baby it. Thanks for reminding me.

Forgot to add symptoms: drive line back lash, TT bearings getting louder, syncros in 2 and 3 not meshing, shavings in the case. Just nursing it with Amsoil, and it has made a ton of difference since 5k ago.

Dave

Sometimes I'd rather NOT be a fountain of information, but here goes;
FIRST TRANS:
'86, ~91K miles, non-lsd, original clutch still in car, I assume the trans was original but I'd just bought the car a few thousand miles earlier, I have no idea what lube was in it but it was clean. R&P failure while making a left turn out of a parking lot (over a pretty big bump) at low speed/minimal throttle. At the time the car hadn't been autoXed or tracked, AFAIK.
SECOND TRANS:
Used trans installed in same car by local shop, (same car info), claimed to be a 60k mile (aren't they all?) non-LSD trans with same codes so it may have been another '86. R&P failure while making a right turn off a highway at about 35mph, ~6000 miles since installation (1.5 years), I never asked what fluid was in it. Still no autoX or DE, IIRC. It's important to note that the trans went just 2 days after my car was hit, it was parked and in gear at the time of the accident and the force of the accudent was enough to push the car several feet. The insurance company paid for the trans along with the body damage.
THIRD TRANS:
Another used trans sourced by my wrench, this time with LSD, year unknown (but it's out in my garage buried under a pile of $h!t so I could try to check it out some time). Same car, still unknown lube. R&P failure while dumping the clutch into second at 6300 rpm (read, my fault). This one had 5-6 autoxs on it but only about 2000 miles since it was installed (8 months)
FOURTH TRANS:
From an '87 S with over 300k on it, still going strong after another 3 seasons of autox, a couple DEs and >10k miles.

josephsc

I'm on my first failure still:

1A. 1987
1. US-Spec
2. 115,000
3. chewed up R&P
4. Mobile 1
5. no
6. n/a
7. no -- but this car had a 968 engine
8. decelerating from 5th on freeway ("brisk" commute)

I'd really be curious to see if we get many reports of a 88/89 failure...

By the way, yesterday, I had a discussion with knowledgable 944 guy (Rick in Oxnard) on this topic, and he suggested another contributing factor -- though not the only factor -- the size of rear tires. He suggested that having less rubber back there is easier on the transaxle b/c the tires would give before the tranny would.

Macfreak007

Dave, you are sure that the 3rd tranny was LSD? I didn't think there was a R&P gear in those, but I am not sure. So maybe I am not as safe as I thought I was First LSD failure I have heard of....

tifosiman

There is a R&P in them. The diff (whether LSD or non-LSD) bolts to the ring gear that is driven by the pinion gear.

tifosiman

Whoa! OK, now I am really glad that I am not the only one who is on trans#4.

So the S trans has over 300K miles on it? Interesting.

Regarding trans#3:

1. Whoa! 6300rpm?!?
2. Any chance I can sweet talk you into un-burying it and cracking it open for me? I'd like to talk you out of a few pieces that are inside of it. PM me if you get a chance and let's talk.

Thanks to all who have answered so far! This is all very imformative.

tifosiman

Interesting. And, to add to that, I have been told (and read) that sticky race tires have the same negative contribution to trans life. There was a thread recently on the pelican 911 forum in regards to race tires and the effects on transmissions and CV's.

hoffman912

dont forget your boy fishey

Chris_924s

that was harsh..

I wanted to see the results, so I listed my 88 as a failure, but the flex disk went.
You may want to omit that in your results as it's Automatic related, but a tranny failure nontheless.

tifosiman

That doesn't count! Thanks for skewing the results!