I had my '03 CTT in for service last week and the loaner was a beautiful 300 mile '06 S. I had a great time in this naturally aspirated Cayenne, the steering input was great, handling was crisp and I liked the feel of the road through the vehicle more than my CTT with the air suspension which sometimes feels a bit detached to me. I also noticed that the lag I hate so horribly in my truck is only in small part due to the turbos, the transmission seems to be creating a good bit of lag that feels very similar to my ride.

The most interesting part however was the shifting on this vehicle. In auto mode, not Tiptronic, this particluar S started in 1st gear, all the time. When cold, warm, hot, day night, all the time, it started in 1st gear not second. And even better than just starting in 1st, it also stayed in a lower gear much longer than my Cayenne. I didn't note specific shifting points but the drive was entirely more spirited and always in a lower gear than mine would have been. Where in mine I'd be in 4th around the neighborhood, this one would be in 3rd, it was always in a lower gear.

Any ideas about this anyone? I'd love mine to do this and think it's the way the thing should be.

 

I would expect that the programmers made some changes which are resulting in the differences you speak of ?!?! I can agree that I don't get that sporty feel unless I turn off my PSM. I have always thought that the PSM-off mode should be that way all the time.

 

I've been hearing about a "sporty" feel with PSM off but in all honesty, I don't notice any general differences with it on or off. The only differences I notice are in the tires breaking traction. This is definitely a programming thing.

 

Josh,
With mine off it is a completely different vehicle. This things breathes fire and rips a$$ with PSM off. On, docile and calm. What year is yours?

 

what lag? i dont have lag on my CTT..

 

I believe he was talking about transmission gearing not lag as in turbo lag.

Its a common occurance in Porsche automatic transmission in non-tiptronic mode. Granted this is about the V-6 but here is a link and quote from C&D.

Found here at C&D Website

 

He's refering to an 06 S.

On that basis I have 2 comments

1 - If you feel no difference with PSM off you have a problem, to check ,when standing still with the engine running, hit the button and yr gear indicator will switch to 1.

2 - I have never heard of a working S which starts in 1 either it was a V6 or its PSM was broken

 

Okay, to clarify, mine is an '03 CTT. The loner the dealer gave me a was an almost brand new '06 Cayenne S. 1st gear starts in Auto, not manual mode, everytime. In addition to that, the gear selection was VERY different from mine, lower gear choices, higher speeds needed to go up in gears.

 

Alex, I have a lag in a couple areas. One is the inherent lag of a turbo, it just takes time to spin up and kick in. The other is the time it takes for the vehicle to respond to my throttle inputs, just way longer than my 996, and I think some or all if this may be automatic transmission, or perhaps a different drive by wire than the 996. It just responds slower. I've come to accept this as part of the truck and while it bugs a bit, it's horrible in relation to how much I like the thing overall. The good news is that this S that I had last week had completely different shift mapping and seemed to overcome automatically what I have to do manually by constantly selecting a lower gear than the auto mode think I should be in.

 

Mudman, I DO NOT get an automatic 1st gear selection when I have PSM off. Never happens. I actually turn PSM off most times I drive the car, partly because of the illusive "spirited" driving others have spoken of that I guess I still hope will appear and also because I just like to be the one making decisions should the thing get squirly. So if there's no difference save for the PSM kicking in when traction breaks, you're saying there's something wrong there?

 

Yes your transmission control unit is bad, perhaps even yr transmission.

The PSM is never completely off, it would kick back in if you were exiting its safety envelope.

The S you had was broken (in a good way), its PSM was off. What you described is exactly that and yes if your TT was working right it would do the same, to the point you would turn it back on for a rest.

I hope your under warranty

Mike

 

Sorry, that night have been misleading, when I step on the throttle hard, to the floor, it does shift down to 1st, but only when I hammer it.

 

I think many would agree that the transmission shift points are a weakness, no matter V6, S or TT. Why doesn't someone (e.g. GIAC, etc) sell software to make this thing shift like it should? Shouldn't be so hard...

 

This is "by design" behavior for early (even in to MY '04) Cayennes.

The 1st gear start and even more sported shifting with PSM off was slipped streamed (via different transmission control modules if I recall correctly) sometime in later '03 or early '04 builds.

This thread details that different build dates have different behavior:
https://rennlist.com/forums/cayenne-955-957-2003-2010/157614-psm-on-vs-off-question-please.html

I'm hoping that '06 that you had isn't broken any more than your '03 is but that Porsche did do some more tweaking and will make those updates available to those of us that are bothered by this issue.

The being in a lower gear '06 behavior that you describe has been noted by people that have had the Power Kit upgrade done on their CTs. That would indicate to me that Porsche could provide at least this enhancement to us.

I don't know about you but I'm not about to throw the kind of money that Porsche wants for the Power Kit at this problem when they’re not willing to step up to the plate. On top of that Power Kit owners note that all their "delay" concerns are not addressed by the upgrade.

 

This is expected behavior even with the early builds I've driven.