Kjan4

Hey guys - Having a strange issue with my 2002 Targa with Tiptronic that has roughly 127k miles on it. I went to pull out of the garage this afternoon, with no issues. I put the car into park in the driveway to get something I left in the house. After coming back out, the car would not engage reverse - however, D and M still operated properly.
I rolled into the street and drove it for roughly 10 miles, only to return home to see if it would work (sometimes I like to think cars will "heal" themselves). I took it to an empty parking lot near my house to test things out. Sliding from drive into neutral, everything was fine. I then slid it up into reverse, and the car actually began moving forward. Giving it a slight amount of gas, and it was clear that the gear was engaged... I began moving forward at a faster pace. I came to a stop and slid it into park - only to find that the park was acting as a neutral. I re-tried this scenario maybe 7-10 times - It only rolled forward while in reverse two of those times - The reverse gear operated properly a grand total of 0 of those times.

No recent modifications have been done to the vehicle. All routine maintenance has been kept up. A few weeks ago, I did remove the entire center console - which including removing the shift selector. To my knowledge, it was re-installed properly as everything went back together well and I have had no issues since then.

Has my Tip finally grenaded itself at a random time? I am very confused by this. Im considering removing the center console again and messing with the shift selector. Or potentially just driving it over to San Diego Porsche.

Any thoughts or potential solutions would be appreciated.

Thank you.

kromdom

my vote is check the LAST MOD you did before the current problem came up.

P.S. Has the tranny fluid/filter ever been changed at all?

Kjan4

I'll take it apart this afternoon and see if anything looks odd. The tranny fluid and filter have been changed twice in the life of the vehicle. The last one... Roughly 20-30k miles ago if memory serves correct.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Kjan4

To update; I removed shifter **** and cover and looked around in there, everything seems to be connected. Shifted through the gears a few times without the **** and cover on, and still no luck. Also checked any fuses related to Tiptronic, which I found to be B1 and B8 - both of them were fine.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated as I've exhausted all options to my knowledge - Next step might be taking it to an independent or Porsche of SD.

porschemikeandnancy

My vote is a mechanical misadjustment. Most likely it happened when you were in there doing whatever. If the tranny shifts okay in your forward gears (which are more likely to fail when the tranny gets old than reverse - which is seldom used), chances are the tranny is okay.

Paul Waterloo

^^^^THIS^^^^^

Kjan4

Well, ****

Just contacted a local independent Porsche repair place. I hate when relatively "small" things like this happen as I assume the shop will just want to take the easy way out and tell me the trans is smoked.

Any other suggestions or things I could try before taking it in would be appreciated. Thanks guys.

porschemikeandnancy

Yeah, make sure your mechanic is first "an indie" because any Porsche dealer is going to take the easy (and expensive) way out and say: "need to replace the tranny - $10,000).

Then make sure your choice of indie is someone known to your local PCA chapter as an "honest" place.

I'll also relate an experience I had when living in greater Boston. I owned an older Mercedes S class turbo diesel. My "indie" Mercedes mechanic referred me to
a transmission place (no not Aamco - also an independent). The tranny was not shifting propertly. Turned out it was only a partially obstructed
vacuum line. About $100 later I was on my way.

Kjan4

Yes - Thanks for the heads up. Many of the staff members of Black Forest (the repair shop of my choosing) are PCA members themselves. But even still... It makes me nervous. I will keep you all posted with an update.

Kjan4

Fingers crossed my issue is something this simple. I was getting ready to have some PSS10's installed. Hopefully that install isn't put off too badly by this repair. Time will tell - thanks for the bit of optimistic relief.

johnireland

Sounds like you didn't put things in the linkage back together correctly. When you take it into a shop, be sure to confess your DIY tinkering that preceded the problem.

Kjan4

That's the thing, the linkage was never touched. It was merely the gear selector unlock botton, and then the leather **** itself - only so the console could come out to install an AUX cord. Any linkage or other items related to shifting were left alone. That being said, I still do intend to tell them exactly what was removed.

Ahsai

Were these steps from the WSM followed?

Removal
1. Lever off locking button with an angled pipe. The locking button must be pressed so that the pipe section can be inserted between the shift lever and the locking button. To do this, turn the ignition key to "1" position.
2. Remove the compression spring and spring clip and pull off the selector ****

Installation
1. Assemble the selector **** with spring clip, compression spring and locking button.

Note! • Fit conical compression spring with the small diameter facing the guide peg.

2. Press the complete selector **** onto the shift lever until it bottoms.
3. Check the function of the locking button.

Kjan4

Those EXACT steps were followed with no issues in removal or install.


To update, I've scheduled an appointment for Friday to have the issue examined.

Ahsai

I see. Good luck with it and keep us posted.