gedc

Hi Folks. Hoping you can point me in some direction. Local Porsche dealer is struggling to identify as the fault is intermittent and doesn't appear to be dropping any error codes.

Car is a tiptronic with the auto / manual gearbox and switches on the steering wheel.

Around 3 weeks ago thought the car was driving a little oddly and then also noticed it flashed R on and off when I put it into Park.

Took to dealer and they couldn't get it to replicate, checked a cable adjustment which was in order and checked for error codes and there were none.

I collected it back and subsequently noticed the gear indicator on the dashboard would switch from D to M on the display without me touching the stick or the switches. After the 8 second wait it would switch back to D.

Took back to dealer who plugged in diagnostic laptop and we went for a drive to replicate as they are thinking a switch is giving a false reading. 1 hour later. Nothing. Left it with them for a couple of days and no issues. Can't replicate.

I collected back and since then on a daily basis have noticed the following. D light switching to M - then back again. D light disappearing completely so only the light beside the gear is lit up. Few secs later it re-appears. This might happen a couple of times. Also noticed the gear light i.e 2 through 5 might simply go off as well, only leaving D lit. Then it comes back on !??!

I've noticed this more primarily when the car is being driven from cold start and it seems to settle down and drive fine after a while.

Dealer says to bring it into them when ( when passing ) if it does it again and they will plug the diagnostic laptop into the car but this could go on for months.

Is there anything obvious I can be asking them to look for or consider. I presume they know what they are doing generally but do seem stumped with this.


Thanks for any thoughts

Ged

Macster

No Tip experience myself. But the behavior reads a bit like there's an electrical problem. The dash display I think gets its gear indicator info -- via some path -- ultimately from the Tiptronic.

Might be worth the time/effort to get the car on a lift and check all electrical connections/connectors at the Tip. The problem might not a bad or even loose connector or the behavior would be more persistent but probably just a connector with some surface corrosion. Thus just *carefully* (the wiring/connectors are getting old and fragile) unplugging the connector then reconnecting it might be the answer.

sniperonhigh

I would pay close attention to the selector switch on the trans and the wiring connector right under the left axle drive flange. An intermittent problem is very hard too diagnose, but if I had to guess I would say your selector switch has or had water in it or is giving up the ghost.

gedc

Thanks for your help to date. So. I was playing around with it and can make it replicate the issues about 70% of the time. It's going back in again Thursday coming once I told them the following.

This mainly seems to happen when car has been sitting overnight. The D Light was disappearing on the instrument panel again as I was driving along. I started applying pressure on the gearstick while it was in drive. I didn't move the stick from the Drive position but by gently applying pressure in various directors I could get the D light to disappear and / or jump across to M. Stick was still solidly in the D position and didn't physically move.

Each time the D light dissapeared - both by my playing around and also on its own accord from time to time, when I applied backwards pressure to the gearstick i.e pulled it back hard the D light would come back on every time. the stick can't go anywhere as it's in its furthest back position in Drive but the pressure brought the light on the dash back on. Is there some form of microswitch in or around the gearstick ?