ufischer

So, I had a "Transmission Emergency Run" failure last week. It has been about 2 months since I picked up my 2009 C4S (28K miles). Here is what happened:

I was driving on the highway in Sports mode (full auto shifting) at around 70 MPH, slight uphill. Felt a sudden decrease in power, a beep and a readout of "Transmission Emergency Run" on the display. The car went into limp-home mode immediately. Wouldn't rev over 3000 and at slow speeds the shifting was deliverate and clumsy (I think skipping even-numbered gears). When I was able to stop, the car would not go into reverse. Turned the ignition off, then on and the fault reset itself.

Next day, care was fine on drive in to work (about 25 miles). Later in the day, however, I had the same fault while driving at low speed. Again, it reset fine after I re-started the car. But at this point I got concerned and brought the car to the dealer.

At the dealer, I was told they suspected a fault in the control module for the PDK and they replaced that. They did a test drive and apparently the fault persisted so today they told me they were going to install a new transmission . At this point I should mention the car is CPO (thank god) so it will not cost me anything.

I don't know if I should be happy or sad. On the one had, I just got this car and this is a bit disconcerting to have a transmission failure. On the other hand, a brand new transmission should go along way to extend the life of the car which I plan to keep for a while.

Anyone care to share their thoughts on this? Anything I should be asking or anything to look out for?

utkinpol

as you did not have to pay for new PDK out of your own pocket i think you should be very happy.

it is exactly what makes me to double guess a common sense to buy this transmission. it is all fun until you get issues and as it is practically a non-servicable item all you can do is to order a new one.
just out of curiosity, if you will see a full bill with full PDK replacement price - post it here.

Macster

You know what happens. It happened to your car. Well, at least to the PDK.

Bummer!

But the PDK is being replaced under warranty. Hurray!

I can understand your sense of at least some disappointment but the car is with just 28K miles still just a puppy. Thank goodness for a 4 year, 50K mile warranty.

Relax. Let the process unfold. The dealer and its techs have encountered this or something similar more than once since time (Porsche time anyhow) began.

All you should do is when the car is ready to pickup budget enough time to give it a good test drive to make sure the new transmission and its installation is ok. Use this opportunity to treat the car like you are going to buy it used and give it a good (nothing gruesome though) test drive. Be sure the tranny shifts/behaves not only cold but warm and hot. Check the engine temp is ok and the heater/A/C works and so on.

It is unlikely but if you spot a problem have a question get it taken care of then and there. The word I get is the warranty on the replacement PDK is in effect only as long as the car's existing warranty is in effect. So you do not want to postpone or delay bringing any problem to the attention of the dealer.

As an aside, my 03 Turbo (bought used with 10K miles) at under 40K miles developed a 6-speed transmission selector shaft seal leak, spotted by a tech when I had the car in for an 'early' tranny fluid service. The transmission was replaced under the car's CPO warranty. No muss. No fuss. (Well, it did take a bit over 2 weeks for the tranny to come from I was told Germany. No PCNA parts warehouse had one in stock.)

(Oh, I asked and was told that if I had to replace the 6-speed out of my pocket it would have cost over $10K. The techs told me though the Turbo tranny and NA 996 tranny share many parts and the shaft/seals are some they share and had I wanted the tranny could have been 'rebuilt' (fixed) at the dealer for far less than $10K. It would have still be several $K though...)

Which brings me to this: The problem might not be that difficult to fix, but generally Porsche will with the car under warranty just swap out the bad part for a new/rebuilt part. The bad part -- PDK in your car's case -- goes back to the factory for a postmortem and possible resurrection. At some point the factory learns what it needs to learn and the techs are sometimes allowed to repair these at the dealer.

So if the car had been out of warranty, while the repair might not have been than cheap, the transmission might have been repairable at way less than the cost of a new PDK.

Sincerely,

Macster.

ufischer

Thanks guys. I will be sure to post a follow-up. According to the dealer, they are getting a new PDK today and will install tomorrow. Car is supposed to be ready the day after tomorrow. I told them to take their time. The tech did tell me that they could probably figure out what is wrong and fix it but they are under strict orders from the mothership not to crack open the PDK.

Mumbles

Just thank God you were covered.

Macster

Just one additional comment: Be sure (well, try your darnest) to get paperwork that explains why the PDK was replaced. What it will read I won't try to guess, but you want it to read in a way that absolves you of any blame.

Just a small point but when (if) you go to sell or trade in the car, it is better for you if you have the paperwork (a copy to keep the originals safe) that shows the PDK was replaced because it was bad but bad through no fault of your own. It is one thing to look at a car with in this case a new PDK because the original one suffered some internal defect and had to be replaced under warranty compared to viewing an otherwise identical car that required a new PDK because of something the driver did.

When (if) you go to trade in/sell the car you can use the fresher PDK as a selling point.

Sincerely,

Macster.

alexb76

I guess this makes PDK less of an ideal track day transmission, no? Like if out of warranty PDK goes, how much would it be to replace? vs. rebuild of a manual transmission?

Also, interesting to know how does the manual-PDK transmission of 991 is going to be, and whether or not if that's servicable?! I am still baffled why they did that on 991, while they used a regular manual transmission in new Boxster?!

91469972

They replaced my control module and still had issues with the computer communicating with my trans and the factory finally found how to do the update. I guess your dealer made a guick decision which sounds like a good decision.

ufischer

So, I have an update. My p-car was in the shop for about 12 days and I just got it back yesterday.

Here is what I can decipher from the tech's notes: The initial codes scanned by the techs were P1736, P1990, U0148. They cleared them and test drove the car and P1736 came back within a mile. They then replaced the PDK control unit, again test drove and P1736 came back. So, they replaced the whole PDK and no further codes came back after that.

Car is driving great and I have a brand new transmission. Almost worth the week+ without the car.

Can anyone post what P1736, P1990 and U0148 codes mean?

utkinpol

those are generic ODB2 codes. what specifically got broken in the PDK is only possible to see with PIWIS that has detailed testing abilities.
generic mapping to P*** codes is nothing.

to be specific, P1736 is a "Second Gear Switch Circuit Malfunction".
malfunction. go figure.

Aisin manual tranny in good shape runs about of $3K. that i can aford. new PDK is probably something in the $2xK area. not exactly peanuts.

ufischer

On further review, the tech notes say "P1736 Speed Sensor Clutch 2 Short to Ground"

Macster

Error codes P1xxx are manufacturer controlled (specific) and I have nothing in my references for P1736 or P1990.

U0XXX are network communication related error codes and U0148 is: Lost communication with Gateway 'C'.

Sincerely,

Macster.

spourreza

I had the same thing but mine was caused by something else. Its now fixed. it wasnt the transmission - I think it was a fuel pump or a bad sensor. Transmission replacements seems extreme but whatever.

TxBob74

Per a Service Advisor I spoke with last month in the process of correcting my GTS' DME power supply issues (the "loose" relay; everything is still fine), a replacement PDK transmission is $11k. There are few (any?) dealer serviceable parts, so replacement is the norm. I was asking a tech during my test drive about the PDK and he mentioned the temperature sensors (2 or 3?) that may go bad and that Porsche will pay for replacing the tranny instead of fixing a relatively minor issue. Not a bad deal for the customer as long as it's in warranty, but the SA dreaded the first time he will have to tell a non-warranty customer the repair cost for a minor problem that may cause major driveability issues.

I guess I will just have to enjoy my Aisin (I assume) 6spd.

Macster

Not extreme. In fact it makes good sense.

The factory swaps out the old transmission and supplies a new (or remanufactured) transmission.

The old one goes back to the factory for resurrection, repair, refreshing.

During this process the cause of the problem is identified, possible corrections or improvements are arrived at (or applied), and last but not least a step by step procedure for doing this transmission work is put together and polished and expanded upon.

At some point the factory can provide dealer service departments with this and let the work be done at the dealer.

By way of an example: my 03 Turbo's transmission was replaced under CPO warranty. The reason was a leaking selector shaft seal.

The techs told me that the 6-speed in the Turbo shared a lot of parts with the 6-speed in the NA cars, and the selector shaft seals were included but they were not permitted to work on the transmission. (PCNA was contacted and the response back was the transmission was to be replaced. It took a couple of weeks though because the replacement transmission had to come from Germany. There were none in stock in the PCNA parts warehouses.)

Had the car not been covered by warranty and had the techs the factory produced work/repair procedure to guide them (along with I think some hands on training at one of the PCNA training facilities) they told me they could have replaced the seal.

In fact the techs indicated they could do the work already -- it is not that hard for techs with good experience with similar transmissions to be able to do a good job when it comes to a slightly different transmission, to remove, rebuild and reinstall this similar transmission. (In fact they have the remove/install parts down pat and had the manual transmission out the car in pretty short order.)

But factory rules prohibited them from doing and transmission repair work while the car was under warranty.

It would not have been an inexpensive job (roughly $3K) but a lot better than having to cough up the cost of a transmission R&R (roughly $10K).

The old transmission was of course shipped back to the factory where I'm sure the leaking seal was replaced and the transmission freshened (it didn't have many miles on it and was in otherwise good condition).

Regarding the PDK: At some point I expect the techs will be permitted to work on the PDK once Porsche has sufficient knowledge/experience and possibly even a training program in place to certify the techs for this kind of work, in order to ensure a high level of success.

Sincerely,

Macster.