2ndof2

A close friend just took delivery (from a shipping co) of his 2005 997. He was driving it home then heard some vibration noise coming from the rear of the car. Forward gears were shifting just fine he says. When he put the car in reverse after washing it to put it away in his garage it didn't and won't stay in reverse. The car was purchased used from a Porsche dealership and is supposedly fully covered by warranty. It has 2,000 miles on it. Any tips on what he should do to make sure he's made whole? The dealer he purchased it from is in Penn. while he lives in La Jolla, Ca. Any tips I can pass along that might help him which his attorney may not know about? I think he wants a new transmission given the situation.

OCBen

Tell him to save his money and not bother getting his attorney involved at this stage. Have him take it in to the nearest authorized service center to have it checked out. If it's not drivable, have him call Porsche Roadside Assistance which will tow it for free. The car is obviously under warranty so no need to be concerned. It won't cost him a dime, except for the down time of not being to use his car.

2ndof2

I had suggested the roadside assistance to avoid any costs of towing and he took my advice. Local dealership should have the car now. He wasn't sure if there was going to be any complications between dealerships due to the fact that it is a used car and the dealers are 3000 miles away from each other. He contacted an attorney just to be sure he says the right thing to ensure a brand new tranny rather than having this one repaired. He asked me to post the question just in case someone else had this trouble before and had any tips on getting the whole thing replaced with the least amount of hassles. His attorney is a friend so he wanted to give them the headsup in case things got sticky. I'm sure he'll be just fine. I told him he shouldv'e purchased a 993 instead! (just kidding!) - He'll keep this car about 3 years tops and get his next one. By then it'll only have about 15,000 miles on it and I plan to purchase it. He's been doing this for years....944, 911 Carrera, 964 Cabrio, 996 C2, now this one. Finally he has a Carrera that I'm interested in having at some point down the line so I joke with him asking how "our" Carrera is doing.....probably is why I was so upset he didn't get one with 19's....now I'll have to replace them with Carrera Classic 19's when I get the car in a few years! LOL

Bob Rouleau

Hmm check out the thread in 996 Turbo forum about a tranny that jumps out of gear. Porsche says no warranty, claims abuse. Hope you pal is not in the same boat.

2ndof2

Bob,
I'll check that out. I can't imagine he's liable since he literally drove it 125 miles from the shipper to his home. I think the dealership didn't do a road test of the car prior to sending it to him. On a sidebar, I had a discussion with a guy a few years ago who does a ton of flatbed towing of high end automobiles. When my rather "low end" 928's ignition tumblers were jammed he towed my car and stressed the importance of not leaving the car in gear when shipping/towing to avoid placing unusual stress on the gearbox and other related parts. I passed that advice on to my buddy so the dealer had lots of notes taped on the interior of the car to prevent this. I think we can rule out damage while shipping. As for abuse I also told my friend his car may not be totally broken in at 2K miles and he may want to go easy on the RPMs on the way home. He said he never took it over 4500 RPM - rule out the abuse. Sounds like the "abuse" arguement may be a stretch for the dealer but I'll read and pass along the info. I find. Will let you guys know how it winds up. Thanks.

baboou

New tranny at this point may very well be an over reaction. A simple cable adjustment may be all that's necessary.

Bob Rouleau

It could be simple - a cable which is badly adjusted. let's hope for the best. As I think of it, the 997 tranny is very different from the 996. the 997 box is sourced from Japan.

Best,

2ndof2

Really???? No kidding....its Japanese????? Ironic that the other guy with the 996TT is also from La Jolla.

BC

San Diego is the Porsche capital of the world, and at the center of that Capital is La Jolla. I think many will be watching this thread hopefully. Tell him to take it to Pioneer instead of Hoehn. Both are bad though.

P997C2S

I believe there is a TSB that addresses a shifter/cable related issue but I don't know the specifics. In any case it's most likely a shifter/cable related problem or a simple cable adjustment.

I doubt that your friend will have any problem having it repaired under warranty.

jcnesq

In my 996, I had a bad second gear synchro which made the car pop out of 2nd gear regularly. They replaced the entire transmission under warranty (996 transmissions were not "repairable"). I believe there was a bad batch of synchros and numerous similar problems (02-03 builds). I assume that is completely unrelated to any 997 issues. Hopefully its just a cable adjustment, but it would seem unlikely its a user caused problem with reverse, and hopefully one way or another it should be covered under the normal Porsche new car warranty.

Larry Harris

Not to hijack the thread but.... OCBen where have you been?? Stop by the GT3 threads and visit.

OCBen

I've been here all along, Larry (and occasionally in OT). ... Thanks for the invite. I'll stop in and see what's going on over at GT3.

Riad

Now I want to see what's going on in the GT3 forum too!

2ndof2

Alright now....break it up, break it up...back to work!
Just a quick update regarding the transmission. The car is at Pioneer and the service advisor apparently got the tech on the line with my friend. Vibration noise was some housing or something around the shifter cable. We have a winnah! P997C2S was right. Tech said it was just out of adjustment. My friend asked me to see what you guys think about the grinding causing any damage to the tranny. My friend did it once or twice, tech did it at least once checking it out but says compared to the abuse these things take on the track its nothing. I think I agree with him....couldn't have been worse than what my girlfriend did trying to shift my car to second gear once! So I think the bottom line is these things can get out of adjustment. Car must have sat for the better part of a year...2005 with 2K miles on it. Probably something to stay on top of when buying such a car new. Is there a recommended service at low mileage just to do some minor adjustments to these things when they are brand new? Anyhow the dealer wants to let the car cool off over night and try it again in the morning. If all goes well it will head back to my buddy's garage waiting for "date night" when he can impress the ladies. Should have nice low miles when I buy it from him in '08.