shawn_nj

Got me new to me 996 yesterday. Everything seems great but just one question I have.

Reading the manual it says not to lug the motor down low. But the trans in auto mode seems to always shift up, and keeps the rpms below 2000. Is this normal? Guessing its doing it for fuel mileage but it always seems to be a gear higher then I think it should be.

Thanks for any feedback.

jbob711

Mine does the same thing. Usually starting in 2nd gear. I enjoy driving the car in automatic, but it seems like it needs a sport button like our 991 pdk has. Good luck with the car. I really enjoy my 99.

ejdoherty911

Shawn, I own a 2002 tiptronic. Yes, the auto mode seems to seek the highest gear possible as quickly as possible. So the rpms are almost always low. If you 'floor it' the auto mode will adjust and shift much higher in the RPM but this only seems to work when you really mash down on the gas pedal. I often times drive in manual mode because it works so damn flawlessly. When I'm in auto mode I don't worry about it. You can down shift in auto mode anytime you want, you don't have to move the gear lever over to manual. I do this quite often when I just need that extra burst of RPM. Not unusual for me to down shift from 5th to 3rd or even 2nd when I need some more power. When you get to know all the little tricks and features of the tiptronic, it really is a thing of beauty. So well thought out. Don't know why anyone would want a manual, which offer zero advantages, except of course the physical act of shifting the gears which I don't miss at all.

jbob711

Mine has to be in manual mode in order to make the buttons work. Could it possibly be a difference from one year to another?

Mark I

The transmission will shift manually whether you have D or M selected, but only within certain speed/rpm limits. This effectively puts it in manual mode until the next gear change. It also has an adaptive process that you will find resets if you've disconnected the battery for a while. Mine pretty quickly adapts to starting in second gear, as jbob mentions. I haven't read that part of the manual, but if I understand correctly "lug the motor down", it's advising against manually selecting a higher gear than normal for that speed, which most people would be unlikely to do anyway.

Mark I

Missed the last 2 posts prior to posting. Yes, the MkI and 02 & later tips are different manufacturers with significant changes.

shawn_nj

Could not agree more to the sport button...lol Thanks man.

shawn_nj

Thanks for the all replies guys. I got a 2002 with 55k miles. First day I bought it I dropped it off at a local P-shop and had them do the LN Pro bearing. 02+ Tips have to have the motor dropped to do IMS, so took the time to hit all the usual suspects. AOS, RMS, coolant res, plugs and coils, and everything else they could find. Just got it back yesterday and its all I can think of...lol Ironically we discovered one of the previous owners swapped out the IMS, but with some non LN bearing.

What everyone is saying about the trans seems to be same experience. Starts off in 2nd. And it like to keep the rpms low. I am sure my MPG to work will be better because of it. A sport button would have been great....lol I have the Benz trans and it will let you shift without being in M. Will drop down nicely when you stomp it once. Loving the car! Thanks for all the replies.

Kalashnikov

In 2002+ the Mercedes transmission has unfortunate tuning compared to how trans is set up in the Mercedes cars.

My E55 has 3 modes for the same transmission: comfort, sport, manual.

Comfort: starts in 2nd gear. The default and only mode in the 996. Second gear start, and car up-shifts as fast as it can.

Sport: first gear start, holds gears long, much more aggressive for downshifting, and car keeps the same gear for long time if it senses that you are being aggressive on the throttle, steering, or car senses that you are overtaking or lift off suddenly.

Manual: steering wheel buttons or stick shaking changes the gear.

911Syncro

I am with you guys, the Tip is really the way to go. Only gripe/concern I have is the downshift from 3rd to 2nd seems a little slow. When going into a curve I wish to drive in 2nd, while downshifting before the turn starts, it just seems to be a slower downshift and the computer doesn't do a good job matching the RPMs to 2nd at the downshift. I try to blip the gas a bit, but I am not very good at getting the timing just right.

I addition to a **** to select one of the sportier shift maps, I sure wish they had put some type of manual shift capability on the stick itself in addition to the wheel buttons. My 968 has a Tip and manual shifting is done by slapping the stick back and forth. I'm not a big fan of the wheel buttons, probably too many years in manual trans cars.

Vincent T.

I'm in the market for my first Porsche (996) and deciding on manual or tiptronic. I heard tiptronic is almost a second slower from 0-60 is this true? I want to have fun driving this car and I'm afraid I won't get a fun driving experience with the tiptronic. Any feedback is appreciated.

Splitting Atoms

I have a manual, but almost all the threads I have read talking about the tiptronic state that it is a good reliable transmission. Since both the tip and manual are good gearboxes, I would base your choice on whichever you prefer for your driving experience.

shawn_nj

The ONLY reason I went Tip was because I sit in an 2hours of rolling traffic commuting to/from work 3 days a week. I have had manual's prior and the daily bumper to bumper grind gets old real fast. If you do not have a similar need 100% go for 6speed. Yes the Tip is slower 0-60. And yes it is rather lame in pure automatic mode.

All that said the car in manual mode shifts very well, and is super fun to drive. And while its no PDK....its not bad at all. The TIP is a good compromise for those of us who daily in heavy traffic. Otherwise a manual is going to be a much better driving experience in every possible way. PERIOD.

Keep in mind with 02+ TIPS with the Mercedes trans the motor must be removed from the car in order to remove the trans. This adds $$$$ to things that would otherwise be a much smaller job. ie RMS, AOS, IMS, ect.

Vincent T.

Thank you for your feedback. Are all 02+ models with TIPS have Mercedes trans or just some? I find it odd to have Mercedes trans on a Porsche.

shawn_nj

If I remember from my shopping the 3.4L's have a Audi/ZF trans. The 02+ 3.6L got the MBenz trans, same as the Turbo Tip models. The older transmissions you cannot manually shift via button without putting shifter into M, where as the MB you can. New one supposedly has like 255 shift patterns.... that all seem to just shift up too early. LOL. Good luck in the search.