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I haven't good luck with my 991.1 GT3 lately. Last three track events in a row, it has gone to the shop on a flatbed. First, the engine failed and was replaced under warranty (second engine replacement). Second, an aluminum coolant line fractured. Now, this past weekend, a seal for the PDK blew, dumping quite a lot of transmission fluid. My shop thinks there's a 50% chance that replacing the seal will fix it, otherwise a replacement remanufactured transmission costs about $15K plus labor ($32K for a brand new one). Seems like the profit margin on these replacement parts is rather high.
Seems like these cars aren't really built to last, at least when they're tracked as Porsche encourages us to do. A shame, since the car is awesome when it works.
What have other people's experiences been with transmission issues on the 991.1 GT3?
When I was considering a Cayman GT4 CS in place of the GT3, I visited a local race shop that campaigns several GT4 Clubsports in amatuer endurance and sprint racing, they seem to also get about 15k race/track miles out of their PDKs before needing to replace them. Their lead mechanic warned me that once you see a leak, the PDK will give up the ghost shortly after...which sounds about right for what you're experiencing. On the bright side, I hear BGB Motorsports is going to offer a rebuild service soon, which should be a softer blow than entire replacement PDK. I'd contact them to see if they could help you out if possible.
Porsche isn't offering any help with this, so it looks like it's going to cost me $17K to replace the transmission. Buyers of these GT cars probably need to assume that the PDK transmission is only good for about 15K track miles, which is roughly 100 track days. The transmission would probably last a lot longer with normal road use, but I don't know if any of these PDK GT cars have racked up several tens of thousands of road miles to test that hypothesis. I'm ok with getting ~100 track days out of the transmission, but dismayed at how much they charge for the replacement transmission - it's more than double what I expected. For $17K, you can buy a used Boxster - a whole car.
Porsche isn't offering any help with this, so it looks like it's going to cost me $17K to replace the transmission. Buyers of these GT cars probably need to assume that the PDK transmission is only good for about 15K track miles, which is roughly 100 track days. The transmission would probably last a lot longer with normal road use, but I don't know if any of these PDK GT cars have racked up several tens of thousands of road miles to test that hypothesis. I'm ok with getting ~100 track days out of the transmission, but dismayed at how much they charge for the replacement transmission - it's more than double what I expected. For $17K, you can buy a used Boxster - a whole car.
Sorry to hear you need a new trans. 17k isn't cheap but it's less than 10% of the value of the msrp, I don't think that's terrible. And is there another car out there than the engine / trans can take 15k track miles??? Maybe i have different expectations but I think that's INCREDIBLE.
Sorry to hear you need a new trans. 17k isn't cheap but it's less than 10% of the value of the msrp, I don't think that's terrible. And is there another car out there than the engine / trans can take 15k track miles??? Maybe i have different expectations but I think that's INCREDIBLE.
I see your point, and I'm not totally peeved about it. But $17K for a transmission seems overpriced, and Porsche won't even sell parts to rebuild the transmission, so I think the game is a bit rigged on the transmission. BTW, MSRP on my car was $140k.
Also, my second engine only provided about 3K track miles before it gave up, which I think reflects design and/or manufacturing problems.
This past weekend when my transmission leaked, our GT4 also had a weld fracture in the exhaust which rendered the car undrivable on the track and loud as hell to drive home for 4.5 hours.
Having had until resently two 15 GT3's that had trans leaks that Porsche dealers were not able to repair and had to replace both, I feel Porsche needs to step up and come up with a better solution to replacing. We were lead to believe these cars were made for track use, if there is something that we need to do differently they need to let us know or replace at their cost, even one of the rebuilt units they installed did not work properly and had to be replaced. Hard to understand why no one else but Porsche can repair the PDK, we need help with this issue.
Having had until resently two 15 GT3's that had trans leaks that Porsche dealers were not able to repair and had to replace both, I feel Porsche needs to step up and come up with a better solution to replacing. We were lead to believe these cars were made for track use, if there is something that we need to do differently they need to let us know or replace at their cost, even one of the rebuilt units they installed did not work properly and had to be replaced. Hard to understand why no one else but Porsche can repair the PDK, we need help with this issue.
Agreed. I think it's a bit of false advertising to claim that the cars are built for track use, but then you have engine and transmission failures with 15K track miles or much less than that, and then you have replace rather than rebuild, at very high cost if those components are out of warranty. Seems that Porsche is counting on only a small percentage of these cars actually seeing significant track time.
It's not in my interest to say it, but I wouldn't buy a heavily tracked GT car after the warranty has expired.
After enough track miles, everything on the car becomes a wear item. To put things in perspective, the mercedes AMG GT4 race car requires a transmission rebuild at 7500 miles. 15k track miles on a street car pdk seems pretty good.
After enough track miles, everything on the car becomes a wear item. To put things in perspective, the mercedes AMG GT4 race car requires a transmission rebuild at 7500 miles. 15k track miles on a street car pdk seems pretty good.
Race cars are designed with the assumption of needing frequent engine and trans rebuilds. I would like to see the GT3 engine and trans built to last, even if that means a little less performance.
05-19-2021, 05:11 PM
991.1 GT3 Transmission Leaks & Failures
