Help with 911 tiptronic

[babyporsche]

Hi guys I'm new here and fairly new to porsche owning too. I've had my 02 911 for only 6 weeks and yesterday it tried to kill my partner. He was sat at a set of traffic lights in drive with his foot on the brake waiting for the lights to change when the car just revved itself silly, the brakes wouldn't hold it and it shot through a red traffic light hitting another vehicle before he could gather hit wits and turn the key to shut it down.

Anyone had any experience of this happening to them, I've heard there are common problems with tiptronic gearboxes, does this sound like one? Any insight gratefully recieved

[thegoose]

Hi, welcome to the forum.

I'm sure you'll be interested in anyone's relevant experiences of this (that's why you posted after all) in terms of the car's misbehaviour.

However, for the highway code and/or driving test procedure, at red lights in an automatic car you are supposed to do the same as in a manual car - apply the handbrake and put it in neutral until the lights change to red & amber (at which point, select 1st/Drive and then release the handbrake). I know most people don't always do this and it isn't good news for you and your partner, but had he waited until red & amber before selecting Drive again, my guess would be that the accident you've described wouldn't have happened. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

[COLNEY]

You will be amazed at how many people use both feet in an auto.
I know a girl who insists that she finds it easier to use right foot for gas and left foot for brake. Luckily she only drives a 1600cc golf.

[babyporsche]

Thanks for the highway code / driving test lesson, you're right of course but how many of us would pass a driving test these days?

I forgot to say the car had been stalling prior to this and I think being in drive was an attempt to stop it doing this. As far as driving with two feet are concerned, both feet were on the brake pedal, is that what you meant? Lol.

I'm trying to decide whether or not to keep this car once it's repaired so really looking for an indication of where or not this kind of behaviour is a known fault that has a fix or likely to be an intermittent fault that could kill me.

Thanks.

[jonlwright]

I think if this failt was common, the cars would be recalled.

Sounds like an unfortunate problem that I certainly have not heard of before - but also a dangerous one, so I hope it is sorted once and for all.

Don't let it put you off Porsche ownership - once they get under your skin, you will never look back!

[babyporsche]

Thanks jonlwright, I am slightly encouraged by the lack of responses, leading me to think it's a rareity. Of course it's early days yet there may be a flood of responses once everyone leaves work. I know a few people who said they'd had problems with the tiptronic gearbox but no-one has ever been specific about it.

I guess we're still a bit shocked over what happened so whole sequence of events might help:

car stalls on queue of traffic approaching lights twice so a gap develops, car is re-started and driven forward to close up the gap, stops and won't disengage drive, no chance to put the hand brake on or do anything because while my other half is being perplexed about not being able to get it out of drive the engine revvs like crazy and off it goes.

Incidentally, a couple of weeks ago I stopped to fill up with fuel, put it in park, hand brake on engine off and the keys wouldn't come out of the ignition, nor would the car re-start. I put it in neutral so someone could push me out of the way of the pumps and at first it would push either, gave a jolt and then pushed smoothly. A couple of minutes later when I'd put it back in park etc I tried to remove the keys and they came away smoothly, leaving us thinking that it got stuck in drive somehow. I guess this latest turn of events could be the same thing but with slightly more dire consequences.

[Erik997]

Jeez guys - someone has just binned their p&j due to a fault and they get highway code/driving lessons in return to a genuine question....

I've never heard of a similar fault but I'm sure one of the techies on here will have an idea as to what went wrong.

Hope nobody is too shaken up and hope you get back on the road soon.

[madala]

...you haven't named the car Christine have you?....

...something similar happened to my Mother several years ago in automatic Golf....only the car was in reverse.

[Grey Ghost]

Given the description of several incidents you have provided I would want the car to be taken to an OPC for a fine tooth comb review of it's actual condition as well as it's repair work. Did you buy the car from an OPC? If so it will have a warranty which could help cover costs of looking into what is/was causing the car to behave in an erratic manner.

The very last thing you want is to have the bent metal and paint put right and the car to begin to behave in the same way again as it is quite obviously not road worthy and dangerous to both you, your other half and other road users.

[Paracetamol]

Grey Ghost said:

Given the description of several incidents you have provided I would want the car to be taken to an OPC for a fine tooth comb review of it's actual condition as well as it's repair work. Did you buy the car from an OPC? If so it will have a warranty which could help cover costs of looking into what is/was causing the car to behave in an erratic manner.

The very last thing you want is to have the bent metal and paint put right and the car to begin to behave in the same way again as it is quite obviously not road worthy and dangerous to both you, your other half and other road users.

or maybe just troll else where

[babyporsche]

Thanks guys, we haven't called the car Christine on the gounds it didn't repair itself overnight , we are calling it suicidal Herbie though.

The car is going into OPC for repair so we know it'll be straight when it comes out, assuming it's not a right off, it is under warranty but if it is an intermittent thing it's gonna be hard to find I guess. Which leaves me potentially with a dangerous car, or possibly it flipped out once and will never do it again???

[dazren]

Erik997 said:

Jeez guys - someone has just binned their p&j due to a fault and they get highway code/driving lessons in return to a genuine question....

Spot on. I'm firmly in the foot on the brake and gear in Drive when stopped at lights/junctions camp.

Not heard of this happening with a Porsche but I think there may have been a similar problem with Audi automatics in the USA in the late 90s. Maybe worth doing a few google searches.

[babyporsche]

Erik997 said:

Jeez guys - someone has just binned their p&j due to a fault and they get highway code/driving lessons in return to a genuine question....

I've never heard of a similar fault but I'm sure one of the techies on here will have an idea as to what went wrong.

Hope nobody is too shaken up and hope you get back on the road soon.

Thanks Erik997, we're a bit shaken up it is kind of the last thing you expect your p&j to do.

[CraigW]

thegoose said:

Hi, welcome to the forum.

I'm sure you'll be interested in anyone's relevant experiences of this (that's why you posted after all) in terms of the car's misbehaviour.

However, for the highway code and/or driving test procedure, at red lights in an automatic car you are supposed to do the same as in a manual car - apply the handbrake and put it in neutral until the lights change to red & amber (at which point, select 1st/Drive and then release the handbrake). I know most people don't always do this and it isn't good news for you and your partner, but had he waited until red & amber before selecting Drive again, my guess would be that the accident you've described wouldn't have happened. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

pretty helpful stuff.

[thegoose]

CraigW said:

pretty helpful stuff.

I don't know if you meant that sarcastically or not, but as others have had a go anyway, I'll explain the point of view I was coming from. It was simply to explain that if the OP was trying to find a way to pass blame for the accident onto anyone else but the driver (as it seemed), IMHO it wouldn't be possible to do so in the circumstances she had described. I didn't mean to condescend to anyone nor be unsympathetic.

[babyporsche]

thegoose said:

CraigW said:

pretty helpful stuff.

I don't know if you meant that sarcastically or not, but as others have had a go anyway, I'll explain the point of view I was coming from. It was simply to explain that if the OP was trying to find a way to pass blame for the accident onto anyone else but the driver (as it seemed), IMHO it wouldn't be possible to do so in the circumstances she had described. I didn't mean to condescend to anyone nor be unsympathetic.

Actually Goose, yes I was passing blame from the driver fairly and squarley onto a fault in the vehicle somewhere. Regardless of what the rules and regualtions are for stopping at a set of traffic lights the car should not, ever get stuck in drive and accelerate without someone putting their foot on the accelerator. If you think that's normal and acceptable then you're a braver person than me.

[thegoose]

babyporsche said:

Actually Goose, yes I was passing blame from the driver fairly and squarley onto a fault in the vehicle somewhere. Regardless of what the rules and regualtions are for stopping at a set of traffic lights the car should not, ever get stuck in drive and accelerate without someone putting their foot on the accelerator. If you think that's normal and acceptable then you're a braver person than me.

I agree the car shouldn't do that (I never suggested any different!) and if you were in crawling traffic and it caused you to rear end someone then you would have a good case for passing blame if you can prove the fault with the car.

However, and I am sorry this is of no help to your predicament, in the circumstances you describe I feel you would have difficulty making a case as the official response will be that the car should have been in neutral at a red light. However, I'm no lawyer - there's a few on here though so maybe one will be along to comment soon and give a more qualified opinion.

[eowen]

I'd be asking Porsche GB to get involved. That sounds bleeding dangerous. How uch damage was done - and how much to the other car?

[LanCat]

Sounds like some electrical gremlins to me. It might be worth you remembering when the different problems happened so the OPC can check if anything strange is stored on the ECU.

Good luck.

[uktrailmonster]

babyporsche said:

Which leaves me potentially with a dangerous car, or possibly it flipped out once and will never do it again???

If it did it once and the fault isn't correctly diagnosed and fixed it will most likely do it again sooner or later. Faults of this nature are not likely to self-heal. Personally I wouldn't drive it again until the OPC gave me a convincing account of a)what the fault was and b)what they had done to fix it. Otherwise I'd want my money back (assuming you bought it from them and not privately of course)