Selo

Sorry to have to ask for urgent respsonses (as if this is the most important thing any of us have to worry about) but my buddy just bought an '09 C2S Cab with PDK and he's bringing it to my house in a biit for a susnset test drive.
He's concerned that the car hesitates off the line, and he doesn't know if this is normal or not for PDK. The problem is, neither do I, as my car is a 6MT, and I've never driven PDK. My overall impression is that all automatic variants have some kind of hesitation, unless power braking or using launch control, but I don't want to assume this about PDK.
Thoughts?

Bob Rouleau

Hesitation off the line can be the hill holder fuction built into the brake system. If he brings the car to a stop andpushes HARD on the brake pedal, the car will think it is on a steep hill and engage the hill holder. Remember the PDK is a manual transmision after all. Brake lightly and it does not engage. Brake hard but release gently as you roll to a stop and there should be no hesitation.

GuyIncognito

I drove a number of PDK-equipped cars (at a Porsche driving event) and they all did that. supposedly it was a combination of the clutch engaging and the traction control keeping the wheels from spinning-at least, that's what the guy from Porsche said.

w00tPORSCHE

Same problem with my '09 C4S happens from time to time only in first gear, more so during the first, cold start of the day. After that no problem at all. Would love to know if others have this issue too. I am hoping that this issue is not exclusive to the earlier PDK equipped cars so if the second (2010) and third year (2011) owners chime in it would be great. I know what the dealership would say: The common mantra seems to be "Yes, this is normal".

dbosche

In non-sport or non-sport-plus mode there is a slight hesitation for me. 2009/997.2/PDK/SPORT CHRONO. Its even more pronounced if the hill assist is engaged (quite obvious here in San Francisco - per the note above). If you just floor the thing in non-sport mode, its fairly quick to respond, faster than say not engaging the button on the floor when you floor the accelerator. However, if you just lightly tap the brakes, and lightly tap the accelerator, its not as quick to respond as compared to say, if you engage launch control or had suddenly stopped just after driving the car very aggressively. I chalk it up to the PDK being very intelligent. If you had been driving hard, it starts hard, if you have been cruising around, it seems to ease its way off the line. Its important to note that PDK is not like an 'auto' transmission. Its more like there are monkeys in the tranny operating two different clutches and if you tell them to be lazy, they are lazy, if you tell them to freak out, they freak out. Throwing a banana in there (launch control), well, makes them almost untamable...almost.

This is all relative of course. A lazy 977.2 isn't really that lazy now.

dbosche

997.2 that is...

RED HORSE

Only time I notice any hesitation is when the transmission is cold, as when first starting out in the morning. When it is cold there is a hesitation but it goes away after a couple the couple of stop and starts to get out of the subdivision. 2009 997.2 C2S PDK, September 08 build.

Leader

'11 GTS with PDK: I, too, only notice a slight hesitation in first gear when the car is cold. Once it warms up, no hesitation at all.
The PDK is not a silky smooth Lexus 7-speed automatic transmission. Nor should it be.
I actually like that it's not "invisible," if that makes any sense.
I drive in Sport Mode about 95% of the time.

91469972

I don't have any hesitation at all (2009 C2S). I drive Sport 99% of the time!

Selo

Thanks for the responses. We went for a drive last night and he was making too much of it in my opinion. I'm a MT guy, but I thought the PDK performed really well. I didn't notice any significant hesitation - then again, by the time he came over to my house the car was already warm.

stevepow

Ditto - PDK 1st gear is engaged in a "crawl" mode even when stopped and if you lift off the brake the car will move forward with no throttle pressure. Thinking about it as an auto may make its response more confusing. Any car cold will act "cold" and probably should be driven more gently until it warms up.

As some pointed out, the hill assist can really seem at odds with forward motion if you are not used to it - I have sort of learned to live with it, but it does seem at times a bit heavy handed.

ralt12

Every auto needs to be at proper temps to operate as intended. I have found that the hill assist is at times intrusive, but that's something you get used to. I have also thought that the ABS system was way too sensitive and intrusive for my tastes. But I also think we have the best brakes on the road, so I'm not complaining.