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Gearbox Fault amber light-engine control fault? WTH!


Ian ferguson

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Guys hi,

Has anyone come across this possible issue?

Car has 72000 miles on the clock, its a weekend car kept in the garage on trickle charge and all services are unto date.  Went out the other day (50 mile run), got back to my house no issues funny noises etc and then out of nowhere the 'gearbox fault warning' came on.  Initially it was only reverse that wouldn't work but then NONE of the gears would work and i had to enlist the help of my friendly neighbours to help me push the car into the garage.  This morning i tried to do a PDK reset steps to take back to factory settings but didn't clear the faults.  Was going to wait until tomorrow to call my Indi to see what possible issue and how bad and also get it towed there, in there meantime thought id reach out to the community for any ideas?  thanks in advance, ian.

ps the pic files are too large for this site and i dont know how to post them in a different way-sorry

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5 minutes ago, mark-yorkshire said:

Has the PDK gearbox oil ever been changed ?

Wouldn't expect it to have been as it's only due after 12 years or 120k for the 981

 

Edited by CMA
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24 minutes ago, mark-yorkshire said:

Has the PDK gearbox oil ever been changed ?

No it hasn't as its not due for 120k miles or 10years i believe, however i was thinking of changing both fluids as i guess i may not own the car by the time either of these two timelines happen and feel i want to have the car in the best condition it can be to get the most enjoyment out of it.

Does anyone have a view however on an earlier PDK gearbox oil change in advance of the manufacturers guidance?

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I think that if a lot of the 72000 miles were cold stop/start miles a change of PDK oil can’t do any harm. I strongly believe that the PDK box is mechanically robust but it’s potential Achilles heel is the software that controls it. I have mentioned before that in 2010 I bought a 3 month old 987.2 Cayman PDK and within 12 months the car developed a PDK drivetrain fault where I could not get any gears. Porsche flew in a brand new gearbox but when fitted the car would still not find any gears. Porsche Leeds then did a full reinstall of the entire engine and gearbox software and the car once again was fine. The old gearbox was inspected back in Germany and found to be fine.

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A number of things come to mind. 

981s have an issue with a brake pedal bush getting hot resulting in a slightly sticking pedal - that normally results in a PSM error but the cars often report gearbox issues when other things get upset,

I have heard of coil packs causing misfires that the car reports as pdk issues.  Resulting in emergency run modes  and bizarre behaviour 

And I have seen 987.2 with early stages of Aos failure throw gearbox errors because the ecu can’t work out what’s happening and the gearbox seems sensitive to something odd is happening 

but.  not  getting gears isn’t a good sign and I suspect that any diagnosis over the internet will be worse than guesswork but my point is “oh my god my gearbox is broken” isn’t always as terrible as it could be   
 

you need a good Indy or someone local with some decent kit to read the brain and see why it’s sulking.  
 

good luck 

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6 hours ago, Ian ferguson said:

if the news isn’t horrendous I will post back with an update soon.  

Fingers crossed for you. Look forward to a positive update soon.

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Right morning guys,

 

Bit of an update for you to ponder over.

Fault code is coming up as P1732 - displacement sensor shift rod gears signal implausible.

i am being told that a new gearbox is required but im NOT sure thats right or indeed the only solution.  Having spoken to an OPC centre the only 2 sensors that parts dept sell is a temperature sensor or pressure sensor.  Apparently a 'displacement sensor' sits within there gearbox unlike the Panamera PDK box.

Any thoughts or experience around this would be most welcomed.  Thanks in advance

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These things are my GRRRR! on modern cars. Reminds me of the 80s when my boss had a Jag with 2 fuel tanks. The sensor in one tank decided the tank was empty.  It wasn't. So it shut down the engine. He was on the M6 at the time. 

Sensors have become the tail that wags the dog. OK if you get a bad reading then by all means flash a light on the dash or even put the car into limp mode but to immobilise a car because of a sensor that's inaccessible inside the gearbox is idiocy. At the end of the day if there is a problem the box is not repairable outside the ZF factory anyway. If it's only a sensor there ought to be some kind of check that can be done. I know - another sensor on the sensor....

I suspect it might be worth doing as @mark-yorkshire said above - get it to someone who can completely reinstall the software. Even if that works it's still annoying. Can't believe they can't design some latency into the system - esp on such a thing as a PDK box.

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I don’t know that it provides any specific solutions to your issue but the following rennlist thread is worth looking at.

https://rennlist.com/forums/997-forum/1172826-guide-to-repairing-a-pdk-transmission.html

To me even suggesting a whole gearbox should be replaced because of a dodgy sensor is outrageous.

 

 

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Unfortunately the PDK box is somewhat of an Achilles heel on a Porsche, they cannot be repaired or worked on by anybody other than Porsche themselves due to the licensing law with the gearbox manufacturer ZF. If you have an issue you have no option but to take it to Porsche for them to diagnose the problem and if they say that the issue can’t be repaired in house by them they’ll tell you their only option is to replace the entire box at great expense. I went through this in March/April this year albeit with a different problem. The car wasn’t under warranty and they said the PDK box needing replacing at £8500.00. My car was so low mileage and a full PSH I fought them and they eventually caved and fitted me a brand new box at a nominal fee to me. I wish you the best with the repair. 

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Just now, iborguk said:

And where they got the part from ...

http://t-design9.com/porsche_PDK_displacement_distance_gear_position_sensor.html

 

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That’ll be £2000 by the time the part is landed in the UK, problem then is getting someone to fit the part as nobody over here will touch the PDK box because if they fark something up they won’t be able to get replacement parts for it. It’s an awful situation to be in and Porsche will probably have the OP over a barrel like I was. I hope he can get a cheaper solution. 

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If it is the displacement sensor the above gives some insight into what the part actually is and how it works - may help someone out.

Another option is pull one from a non-working PDK and they will be like hen's teeth.

I wish @Ian ferguson all the best in getting it sorted.

Edited by iborguk
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Porsche should provide some goodwill here as they have for others, their policy is preventing you from having the box repaired.

If not I'd expect that you can pick up a box from a breaker for less than £3k, you may even find a buyer for the other one in its current state. You should mention you'll be releasing the old unit into the open market when you take your discussions with Porsche.

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So. When does there be a market in a high mileage pdk car being bought for 15k and broken for parts if a 2nd hand box is 11k. 
 

you could split a decent car and buy yourself two more. 

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