I bought my 2017 991.2 last year with 12k and change on it.
After about 4 months in the middle of summer, the car threw 4 or 5 yellow warning lights with one red pullover light.
These all happened Not during spirited driving rather in between stops lights or in like a Home Depot style parking lot driving slow.
Took the car back to my dealer and they said it was a passive fault not directly attributed to any failure.
They told me to see how the car performs during the winter months.
All was normal until late May, leaving a doctors appointment with a cooled engine i threw a light between stop lights.
First yellow then Red, When it throws a light the transmission goes into a default neutral. You turn the engine off and restart.
Car fired up and was fine.
Took it back to the dealer, which they reset fault and traced it to a heat sensor which controlled Trans cooling fluids.
The heat sensor is part of the PDK and doesn't have its own part number.

Dealer put in for a New PDK under warranty. It was oked by Porsche today which is 4 days after it came in.
Service manager said it would be "New" due too low amount of .2 failures.
So no real inventory of refurbished PDKS.
Very Happy how Fremont Porsche has handled the whole situation.
should be the car back next week, but have a 2018 Panamera loaner in the garage which has been a pleasure to drive..

 

Interesting. If the issue is truly a sensor, how is that not replaceable? Seems odd, right. Are sensors now built into, as one, with the transmission? Glad you got a new one instead of a refurb.

 

Supposedly it's wired into the trans and us not replaceable

 

This don’t sound good for us PDK owners, small sensor require to replace the entire tranny unit. I am on the fence about purchasing an extended warranty just for this PDK failure issues. Not sure I pick the correct transmission when I bought my 991 now.

 

This transmission is engineered and built for Porsche by a third party. Porsche has decided not to invest in making it a serviceable item because what's $20k these days?
(This means there are zero parts available and no procedures to replace anything on the transmission)

 

Replacing entire PDK because of a sensor? Reminds me of the guy who had to replace his PDK because his backup lights did not work. Incredible? No, just total BS. Come on Porsche, no one has $15 -$20K to replace tranny and even if they did, who would? Am seeing these issue at less than 40K miles.

https://rennlist.com/forums/991/1077...-says-15k.html

 

Even though the failure rate is 1% from what was posted on rennlist it is no different then the current recall for the GT4 tranny . Porsche should cover them after the factory warranty expires PERIOD

 

Does Porsche make their own manual transmissions, or are these also outsourced to a third party?

Also, which is more reliable (manual vs PDK) if I will keep the car for 10+ years and 200k+ miles?

 

Both trannys are manufactured by ZF, and both are very similar to one another. There have been reported issues on both, but they sell likely 85%+ PDK's so you are likely to hear more PDK stories than manuals, just because of pure numbers. That said, reported failures have been few and far between....but when they go, its not cheap to replace them.

 

Sounds like the infamous PDK temperature sensor. Supposedly,it is wired into the PDK harness. So what?! Just take the insulation apart,cut the wires to the sensor and solder a new temp sensor that comes with pigtail wires. I think it's been done already. Absolutely RIDICULOUS to replace the whole unit for a sensor that costs a few bucks!

Just buy manuals folks,it's a sports car-more fun...thank me later...

 

Do Porsche dealers every use refurbished PDK's to replace with faulty ones? I had a new PDK put into my .1 after the old one had rare but intermittent clattering issues, and I assumed all they can use is a brand new unit.

 

On the 991.1 you can bet you will get a refurbished one...just allot more out there.

 

If Porsche can refurbish a PDK why won’t they repair them instead of replacing?

 

$$

 

Keep in mind that refurbished PDKs mean basically just the case is reused.