Hi everyone, I have a 1995 993 with 40,000 km on it. I recently got it as a present from my dad. When I took to the dealership about 2 months ago I told the mechanics that my my gearbox felt a bit tight. When i came to pick up the car they said it was just the gearbox oil, and that it was running like new. I drove the car on a highway for about 300km, and then 50 more in the city, and suddenly the car got stuck in third gear and wont come out. I spoke to a friend of mine who's a mechanic and he said it was the gear selector. Then I spoke to my dad and he said he had already taken the car in 8000km ago complaining about the gearbox, but they made him change the clutch, wich cost us about 2000€. I'm planning to go down to the dealership sometime this week and demand that they do the job for free or at least with a big discount. Can anyone give me some advice on talking to them, or tell me if I can get them to do it for free? If not, does anyone have an estimate on how much it would cost?
What really makes me mad is that this is an official porsche dealership and i expect better servicing from them. I wouldn't be surprised if it was a skoda or something...

 

Well ... really, the car getting stuck in gear and the clutch itself are not related items. Changing the clutch would not cure the gearbox, so it's unfortunate that the dealership suggested that as a remedy, although it's possible the car needed a clutch anyway. Did your dad feel it drove better after the clutch was installed?

Changing the gearbox oil wouldn't really hurt anything, so it's unlikely that anything the dealership did actually caused the car to get stuck in third gear. It's more what they did not do, which would be diagnose the problem correctly in the first place, but there's nothing to say that the repair they might have had to do if they had diagnosed it correctly would not be exactly what they are going to have to do now anyway.

It's hard to say what it could be; on an older 911 gearbox the shift rods could become misaligned and the car could get stuck in gear, but that was a pretty easy fix. I'm not that familiar with the 993 gearbox, but in the US, a worst case scenario would probably be tear it down and rebuild it, and that price would vary depending on what parts might need to be replaced.

I don't think you will get very far by "demanding" anything there; better to talk to the service advisor or service manager very reasonably, bring the receipts from the clutch work and the gearbox oil change, and try to come to an amicable solution.

Like I said, it's likely that nothing the dealership did caused the car to get stuck in gear, the car was having a problem and they were not able to diagnose it properly; they didn't actually break the car themselves, unless they left the drain plug for the gearbox out and it lost its oil and seized up on you or something. Keep in mind that their mechanics are probably much more familiar with the newer cars, where the philosophy seems to be to just install a new engine or gearbox instead of knowing the particular foibles or weak spots in the assembly or being well-versed in tearing them down and actually repairing them. An independent who specializes in 911 transmissions might be a better way to go, if there is such a person nearby.

 

I understand what you're getting at, but I believe that if the problem was adressed straight away then the damage wouldn't have been nearly as bad. Now the odds are it'll be a much more complex job and cost me more money. After this I think I won't take my car to them anymore. There's a place that specializes in porsches by my house, they were mechanics that worked for a porsche rally team and I trust them much more, but my dad demanded that I take it to the dealership because of the "quality service". So eve though they did nothing to cause the breakdown, they didn't stop it and I think I deserve to be compensated for that.

 

+1 on Vic's assessment/comments



Not sure what this means (inadequate quantity? wrong type? contaminated? some weird mix of lubes?), but this might be the root cause of your problem. If you had some sort of non-spec trans lube and you didn't tell them and they topped off with spec'ed lube, that might be a problem, too.

 

The problem with the oil was that it hadn't been changed in a while. But what I don't understand is how a simple mechanic can tell that the problem is the gear selector by just jacking up the car, but it had to stay a week at the porsche dealership just to be misdiagnosed. My friend does have some experience with porsches and I trust his opinion. He completely re-builds cars and does some porsche tuning, but he was only here on holiday, therwise i would have asked him to fix it. But does anyone think I can at least get a discount at the porsche dealership? Because otherwise I'm not taking it back there.

 

Vic hit in on the head-

[QUOTE=vjd3;4697970]
talk to the service advisor or service manager very reasonably, bring the receipts from the clutch work and the gearbox oil change, and try to come to an amicable solution.
QUOTE]

 

Ok guys, thanx for the help! We don't really need to show receipts though,because they have a record on every car they've ever serviced, so they can look up everything that's been done to it on their computer. I'll see what I can do, in the past year we've spent about 14000€ there because of accidents so maybe they won't want to lose a customer like me:P Thanx again.
DAMN I MISS MY CAR!!! Sad to just see it standing there in the garage.....

 

Did the 993 have an accident?

 

Ye it had an accident but it onli hurt the bodywork...Great story actually! The day after newyears my dad and I were in the car, and goin about 120km/h on a public road....and my dad almost missed a turn and he slammed the brakes... then all we hear is a siren behind us and squealing tyres... there was a police car behind us goin just as fast but not chasin us... they were driving a jeep and the brakes on it were crap...he slid about 40 metres after he hit the breaks... his right front tire hit the rear left side of my car, and literally drove over the left fender haha. The cop got out of the car and started yelling at us for braking too hard. my dad looked at him and said "you should've kept your distance":P..the cop went crazy haha. The police payed for all the damages in the end.

 

The 993 in 95 and 96 had a problem with an incorrectly lubed gear selector shaft. The symptom was hard shifting and finally getting stuck in gear,often 3rd. Ask you dealer to look back at service bulletins issued in 1996 as I recall. The problem was a mistake at the factory.

 

Thanx Rob! That really helps! thats exactly what happened to me. First the shifting kept getting harder and harder, theneventually it just stopped workin. So should they fix this free of charge? This could deffinitely be the case because the car has barely been driven, so the problem coul have appeared just now. It's onli got 40 000 km on it.

 

It was typical that the problem surfaced at around 30K kms. Was covered by warranty and often involved a new clutch and flywheel. Hope it is still covered. It should be since it was a manufacturing defect.
Best

 

Thanx Rob, feel much better going in there knowing this, really helps. I owe you one:P

 

so its no longer a "dealership" problem?

 

Guess it is their problem if it's covered by the warranty lol, but irregardless they should've picked up on it and I doubt I'd trust them in the future.