Kalashnikov

My trans came with TC ^^. It was a full bolt on, fill fluid, sync and go.

FRUNKenstein

Just speaking off the top of my head, so take it with a HUGE grain of salt. A couple of years ago the tranny in my S430 started acting up. Took it to a well-regarded MBZ indy who replaced the TCU. That seemed to fix the problem for about 3 weeks. Took it back and he repaired something else and that worked for a few days. At that point I'm over $2,000 in and he had the car each time for quite a while, so I'm not inclined to take it back to the guy. I did some research and concluded it was the conductor plate - a very common issue with MBZ transmissions and also a relatively easy and cheap DIY fix. So I did it myself and no problems since.
Moral of the story is don't assume the professionals always get it right the first time. Or the second.
Given that these transmissions have a very good record of reliability, what are the odds you've had two completely crap out? There is something else going wrong here that no one has correctly diagnosed.

krazyk86cu

Regardless of what is the issue, my girlfriend has been digging into the laws surrounding used car sales. It specifically states that used cars MUST be sold with a buyers guide with AS IS or WARRANTY checked. The guide must be conspicuously adhered to the windshield or Windows or under the windshield wiper. I was not given this form when I purchased the car. And in every pic I took of the car prior to buying the car the form is nowhere to be found.

Any chance I could go after the dealership over this?

kromdom

what did the Bill of Sale say?

ZuffenZeus

You may remember my "Dodge story" and if you want my humble opinion, I say a "BIG YES". If they didn't give you anything in writing that states the car has NO warranty, DOA guarantee, and sold "AS IS", then I would contact the owner/manager of Leith Porsche and have a meeting. You have a very unique case and I would give them the opportunity to make things right. If they refuse, then you could either take the "tell the world approach" or take it court and let the judge decide. Unfortunately, this is not a small claims case and so you would have to hire an attorney and all that. Can get very messy and expensive especially if you lose the case.

krazyk86cu

The purchase agreement states that they disclaim any expressed or implied warranties, but according to the Federal Trade Commission, that Buyers Guide must be present.

tharbin

krazyk86cu
Just out of curiosity, did he say what was trashed? It's pretty hard to believe that a tip would be so far gone it couldn't be rebuilt unless the case was damaged. It sounds more like a control issue than a mechanical breakdown. I don't recall you mentioning any significant noise before failure. Why don't you take your old tranny to someone that knows Porsche tips and see what they say about its condition? Since it is essentially the same failure, I would look toward electrical/electronic problems. You may just own two perfectly good tip trannies.

Of course it is also possible he took your old one apart and has no idea how to put it back together.

I know that taking the car back to him sounds reasonable and there are a lot of good people on this forum suggesting to give him a chance to make it right. I am not one that likes to provide on-the-job-training. I have seen far too many exotics that have been damaged by very good mechanics working on cars they are not familiar with. Jaguars, Porsches and Ferraris are very different from each other and the mechanic needs to be familiar with the idiosyncrasies of the marque. It does not follow that a guy that knows MB can fix a tiptronic unless it is a purely mechanical malfunction.

ZuffenZeus

I purchased cars before that didn't have a buyer guide sticker on the window, but was presented several forms that stated the car was sold "AS IS" with NO warranty. I was required to sign them to finalize the deal.

But again, if you signed a bill of sale or other documents, then you need to check them and see if anything states that it was sold without any kind of DOA agreement or warranty. If you have nothing that states the car was sold as-is, then I would definitely be requesting a meeting with the owner. Cheers!

kromdom

And I am 996% sure the dealer made sure that you knew. Really feel sorry for you, best of luck.

krazyk86cu

My point isn't that I was led to believe the car had a warranty. My point is that the FTC specifically states it MUST come with a buyers guide. Not any other document regarding the lack of warranty but specially a buyer guide.

I originally assumed any used car old enough to no longer have a manufacturer warranty is AS IS which is why I mentioned that earlier in this thread. I assumed there was no protection for me as a buyer. But if that one detail (lack of buyer guide) might help me not be out of close to 30 grand (now) for a large pretty paper weight I'm going to look into it.

krazyk86cu

Mechanic just called me. He says that reverse is working and they are able to reverse around in their parking lot. Perhaps I didn't give it enough gas when I tried, but it sure didn't reverse for me. He hooked it up to his computer and it shows that when you put it in whatever gear that the computer knows it's in the correct gear, however none of the gears work.

He is going to get his colleague with the VW/Porsche computer to come scan it as the next step.

FRUNKenstein

This

ZuffenZeus

Hey man, there might be a little light at the end of the tunnel. I'll let the Rennlist technical experts respond on the current performance of the mechanic's install, but at least he's trying to make it right. We're all hoping he didn't install it improperly and toast another transmission. Again, I'm empathize with you over the fact that you bought a car from a factory auth. Porsche dealer only to have it chew up a tranny just three weeks down the road. IMHO, they should have owned up to this instead of charging you for the service evaluation and such. Oh well, here's hoping your indy proves us all wrong! Cheers!

krazyk86cu

Also, I just called a shop that restores and repairs exotics (Ferrari, Porsche l, etc) to see if they had any thoughts. Guy was very nice and is going to check and see if that's something they can handle or at least find someone who knows what they are doing.

sweet victory

Been following this thread for a while. Just here to say good luck!

Before the first failure occurred, did you recently change fluids?