orthojoe

Yup. No loaner needed. Got word I will get the car back next week!

Good point. They never changed the part number after they ditched the spline and switched to welded design, right?

trebien

My information sources suggest that with the new part number, came a manufacturing change. Whether this is an intermediate "beta" change to try a fix, or the final change that will ultimately be implemented, who knows.

Concurrently, there are 2 part numbers floating around for the GT4 gearbox. The old part number, of which there is ample supply in the US... and presumably still has the flawed 3rd gear interface. And the new part number, of which there is highly limited supply (essentially 0) in Germany at the mothership inventory.

This new part number for the boxes in Germany supposedly has a different 3rd gear design, but I have neither opened one up NOR travelled to Untergruppenbach to waterboard Getrag's CEO, so I can not 100% guarantee this to be true; simply passing on info.

What I DO know, and we can all likely agree upon, is that Porsche will be very tight-lipped about this issue, the details, how many cars affected, what is the exact engineering fix, etc.... public owner transparency has never been their strong suite.

Dr. Ferdinand

+981. VAG plays this game to perfection. On my B7 RS 4, which platform was plagued by leaky DRC (Dynamic Ride Control) suspension, Audi came up with several part numbers, revision "-a", "-b", and "-c". Guess what - they all had issues!

This BTW was exactly what had happened on the then-prior generation RS 6, which resulted in a Class Action Law Suit against Audi NA, and the claimants won (it helps when several RS6 owners were vocal lawyers!) The settlement resulted in Audi paying RS6 owners a specified amount (and in cases where those owners had gone with an aftermarket setup due to the chronically failing factory DRC suspension - a full reimbursement of their cost). With the RS 4 we followed a similar strategy, where after 3 repeated attempts I had enough and opted for an aftermarket suspension (Ohlins), and was later reimbursed by Audi NA (to the tune of $5,500, which isn't a small chuck of change). Not saying it was a slam dunk (as of course they wanted to reimburse the ppl who had documented failures and proof Audi counldn't remedy it after several attempts), but having 50+ pages of proof helped! (incl email exchanges with Audi staff, from the service adviser, to the service manager, to regional techs!)

Another thing I know having dealt with both Audi NA and BMW NA customer service - the ppl that you speak to are actually NOT Audi/BMW employees! It is actually a 3rd party company! Porsche may be different but I doubt it. Only if you escalate the case (i.e. figuratively scream and shout for some time and be a hyena) would you actually end up connecting with someone from Corporate, where finally things get to move. So while I wouldn't say outright that speaking to customer service is a waste of time, I would temper your expectation of what they can actually do...

4carl

send the thread out to some of the online blogs and websites like automotive news.

Gofishracing

part number the same- No change in manufacturing I'm told.

RDCR

That was quick! Obviously they did not want to be featured in "Orthojoe's GT4 track thread"

My car is a July 2015 build, those where 3rd gear will wait until the car is out of warranty to fail!

trebien

From my understanding:

Old Part #981 300 202 22

New Part #981 300 020 BX

orthojoe

If my theory holds, I think it will be fine. I don't think there are any failures from cars built before 11/2015

d00d

Here's where to check;
http://nemiga.com/cat_spares/pet/por...4/545u/302000/

Dr. Ferdinand

Solid advice, and it has been done before - with fairly good success.

Here is a good example. Years ago I corroborated with Edmunds.com to expose as well known issue (despite VAG's efforts to not formally acknowledge) related to Carbon Buildup, that significantly/adversely affects their FSI engines (from the 2.0 TFSI - through the 4.2FSI as found on the RS4/R8 - to the 5.2FSI engine in the S6). We worked with several owners and proved (through both formal dynos and DME logs) the detriment of CB as it relates to performance.

The car depicted in the Edmunds story below showed a 45awhp attrition (that's 60+ crank HP factoring awd parasitic losses)! All of that was restored after a dealer-provided CB clean (which is a nasty and laborious task, especially on V8 and V10 engines). We had several cars as data points, all on the same dyno, operator, strapping system, ambient conditions, even in some cases - same tank of gas (cars dynoed pre-clean and then immediately post scrub)! The car depicted herein had gone through interim dynoes so you can follow the power losses every 5-7K miles in between carbon cleans.

The Edmunds findings went viral, and thanks to that a lot of customers were able to get 'free' CB scrubs (~$1,500 in almost entirely labor). Audi never acknowledged it formally/publicly, yet if you walk into most dealership today they have a 'fuel system clean special' advertised abound. If you actually were to read their patent documentation, their own engineers have gone on the record as describing the potential ill effects. Of course we all know that now, but this is back circa 07-08 when DFI wasn't mainstream.

Here is the actual article, sadly it appears somewhat taken down (wonder why?!) and the images (e.g. dyno results) don't display unless you right-click them, but the text of the article is still there.

https://www.edmunds.com/autoobserver...-adopters.html

GTgears

Traditionally the part numbers ending in X instead of a number are the remanufactured replacement units.

4carl

Is there any actual proof that in fact the early transmissions prior to nov 15 were actually splined? Or is it just a bad batch of welds?

orthojoe

No proof. Just theories

Alan C.

I believe a few of these have had upgraded/changed gears. Anyone have any data on what was in those transmissions and a build date?

Gofishracing

is this correct /same transmission as GT4 ? From AfterSalesTraining.