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1 I only had to remove the rear most cover beneath the transmission, that gave me enough access.
2 I highly recommend removing the rear passenger wheel and coming at the car from the side. This will help you avoid having your entire torso under the engine, which makes me nervous as another poster also said
3 You can use the transfer pump to accelerate the draining process. Once you remove the fill bolt and the drain bolt, you can pump air into the transmission from the filler hole and this pushes out the remaining oil much faster as you essentially pressurize the transmission
4 It is very convenient to change the engine oil at the same time, adds maybe 30 minutes to the total time
I'm off for a test drive to see how different it feels!
Thanks for the tips. I didn't like the position under the car from the passenger side and I broke a fastener on the upper panel.
I've scanned this thread but didn't see if it's the same volume for the manual trans on a 997.2 (i.e., 3 litres) - at $40 per I'd rather not order the extra litre if I absolutely don't need it? Thanks,
Same quantity for 997.2 and 997.1 gear oil change. 3 liters. Sunsetporscheparts.com has the best price on the Mobilube PTX. Search for PTX. $28.23 per liter.
I used a box wrench with angled head to reach the filler plug -- it's very tight.
Also, I only removed the rearmost underbody cover but I would recommend removing the next one also. Lots of fluid dripped and leaked during the procedure and got all over the plastic underbody cover. I assume the car had a factory fill but when I removed the fill plug a fair amount of fluid leaked out in a slow stream for a long time.
New Mobilube PTX fluid (2008 w 35k miles) made a night and day difference. Shifting is so smooth and easy now and seemed to fix the problem of occasionally not wanting to go into first from a stop. If your shifter is not buttery smooth, change the fluid now!
I bought the fluid from Suncoast but later read that Sunset is cheaper.
Last edited by jeffsnavely; 12-19-2016 at 01:05 PM.
Thanks for another great write-up!
Since this seems to be the go-to thread for 997 manual transmission changes, I thought I'd tag on my experience with my 997.1 turbo.
For the turbo, you don't need the 24mm socket. Instead, the fill/drain plugs are 10mm hex bolts. (Note - not 10mm sockets, but 10mm hex). Taken from the driver side near the rear jack point.
I changed the transmission fluid on my 2012 911S last week. I have be using Mobilube PTX from Sunset Porsche for each change. Removing and reinstalling the rear panel is a pain. Draining and refilling the fluid is very easy. I checked and found that the plugs on the transmission are exactly the same size as the oil pan plug. So that lead to replacing the drain plug with a magnetic plug and a brand new aluminum seal ring. Now, for a confession...inadvertently, I removed the upper refill plug and installed exactly 3 liters of PTX. I had drained the old fluid for more than 1/2 hour. Guess what? The earth still turns and the transmission shifts perfectly.
I just did this job over the weekend in my 2011 C2S. The original fluid had 26K miles on it, and I was having some slight difficulty shifting from 1st gear to 2nd gear when first starting the car in the morning when the transmission was cold (especially below about 40 degrees F). After doing the drain and fill, I immediately noticed an improvement even though the temps are in the 70s now. The true test will come in September/October when the thermometer drops again. I'd recommend changing this fluid ever 20K to 25K miles maximum, and I don't agree with Porsche that that fluid is good for 100K miles.
Here are my notes from this job. Much has already been shared about it (and some of this info came from others here in this thread and on other threads), but this will hopefully help someone else with a 997.2 doing this same job.
Get car up in the air, and as level as practical
Remove large rear undertray (sounds like the 997.1 had to remove two undertrays)
13 T25 torx fasteners and 6 10mm nuts (at the front side of the tray) to remove rear engine undertray (see picture, looks like it may only be necessary to remove the two outer 10mm nuts, but I removed all 6)
Crack the fill plug before removing drain plug (will need two new crush rings)
Don’t need to move the junction box out of the way from the fill plug; that must have been 997.1-only.
24mm fill bolt is located on the passenger side of the car. Be careful to find the correct fill plug since there are two plugs on the right side of the transmission. The correct plug is the one facing the front of the car and located a bit lower than the other plug.
Drain plug is on the bottom, leave drain for 10-15 minutes.
Clean out the magnet inside the drain and fill plug (use q-tips or paper towel corners to get all the oil/particles out of the plug center)
When assembling, mark 13 holes on undertray with blue painters tape. Then re-install the undertray, hand-tighten all the fasteners. Then tighten each fastener and remote the tape. Make sure you have all 13 pieces of tape when you come out -- I’m glad I did this, because I missed tightening one!
I used 3.2 quarts with spillage; was glad I had ordered 4 quarts of fluid from Suncoast.
I also ordered a 24mm 3/8” socket for next time (OEMtools from Amazon, $15), so I don’t have to use 1/2" drive and torque wrench
The Porsche workshop manual recommends 30Nm or 22 ft/lbs for the fill and drain transmission plugs. Not 30 ft/lbs.
Also, the fill level of fluid should be 7-11mm from the bottom edge of the fill plug and should not be filled until the transmission overflows. Having it filled until it dribbles out I do not think is detrimental but that is what the manual recommends. I just thought I would chime in. (I didn't do this...I filled until it ran out, which is maybe why I needed slightly more than 3 quarts. -SL)
Sealing crush washer part number is 99730180800; this item is $14/ea (need two). Supposedly oil crush washer (p/n 900-123-009-20, $0.60/ea) is similar. The engine oil drain washer is 1.5mm thick and the transmission drain washer is 2mm. Most people just re-use the crush washers. I ended up ordering 4 Fischer & Plath washers from Pelican parts, $0.80/each plus shipping (came up as alternative product to OEM washers, which they also sell). These worked fine.
Coincidentally I just finished changing my 997.2 gear oil this morning.
My process differs a bit. I used Suncoast's PTX oil and the result is quite discerning and it seems to eliminate the odd case of 1st gear jam.
Also, there is plenty of room reaching to the drain plugs after removing just the rear panel. A 24mm socket wrench normally comes with 1/2" ratchet and it is just too bulky for the limited space getting to the 24mm fill plug. I use a 24mm box wrench instead. Also, I replaced the drain plug with a LN magnetic plug.
The same motor oil drain plug fits the transmission drain plug perfectly. Since the magnetic drain plug is aluminum just remember to torque it to 19ft/lbs, not the 30 ft/lbs for the original steel plug.
06-20-2016, 07:25 AM
