981 PDK juddering when pulling away

[StevenRugg]

Tonight just going to the shops, nearly every time when pulling away from stationary it really struggled, and I could feel it juddering/shaking and making some unhappy noises from the back. It was like when driving a manual and you don't give it quite enough revs, you can feel it really struggle as it just about gets going. It then often but not always struggled again as it engaged 2nd gear until the revs were up a bit. This was all in 'Drive' so I can't be accused of changing too early, etc. Everywhere else in the rev range and other gears were absolutely fine. Just when pulling away.

Once fully up to temperature (after 10-15 minutes of gentle-ish driving) it did it less frequently, but still did it a few times. On the times it didn't do it, it was absolutely silky smooth as I'm used to. There was a clear difference.

So the question is, what to do? It's Saturday tomorrow, and I'm free all day, so should I just head down to my local Porsche centre and see if they'll humour me enough to have a look, or will I be sent away and asked to book it in some time less convenient? The car was bought used and is still within its two year warranty period, but I don't know if I'd be charged for an investigation even if any remedial work is eventually paid for by them.

Can anyone offer any experience or advice?

Thanks

[Green1man]

Is it a Porsche Warranty it has?

If so I would ring you local OPC tomorrow, explain issue and ask for advise, if they say it isnt drivable they will arrange for Porsche assist to take it to workshop, if it can be driven then they will book in to be looked at, it’s not normal and PDK should last many years with no issues so you should not have to pay anything.

[StevenRugg]

Yeah it's the two year warranty you get with used cars bought from a main dealer. I understand its equivalent to that of the warranty from new, so hopefully it'll be fine. Car's also got full main dealer service history, etc...

Thanks for the advice, I'll see what they say in the morning. Reassuring to hear it's not a normal thing, although obviously deeply annoying from a car that's been absolutely faultless for me so far.


Cheers!

[bcr5784]

Obviously could be lots of things. If you have Chronosport then the dynamic engine mounts are a possibility - a couple people on here have had them fail.

[Jack drinker]

Interesting that I had the EXACT same issue on a 981 Spyder two days ago while taking the car for its service, transporter picking the car up this morning to return to OPC.

During the service the OPC did say that they seen fault codes but at present have no idea what the issue could be.

Worth pointing out that I’m in a manual rather than PDK.

[StevenRugg]

That's very interesting, please do keep me posted on what happens with yours. So it happened on the way to the service, yet you still drove it home again only to have it returned?

Also, out of interest, do you get a courtesy car when they take yours away? I'll be phoning the local OPC in about 10 minutes for advice...

[Jack drinker]

StevenRugg said:

That's very interesting, please do keep me posted on what happens with yours. So it happened on the way to the service, yet you still drove it home again only to have it returned?

Also, out of interest, do you get a courtesy car when they take yours away? I'll be phoning the local OPC in about 10 minutes for advice...

Yeah it happened on th way and when I picked it up I asked it it were safe to drive home only for the engine to cut out twice on the motorway on the way home. The car was booked back in to investigate the issue and they offered a courtesy car but I don’t need it. I then called Porsche Assist and asked them to recover the car back to the OPC (as I didn’t want to break down again on the way). Porsche Assist also offer you a loan car.

I’ll keep you posted.

[StevenRugg]

Hi Jack,

Thanks for the extra info. Very useful to know, as this is new territory for me!

I've now phoned local OPC who suggested I call Porsche Assist to get it brought to them. So they're on their way in the next few hours, with a loan car too so I can continue with my weekend plans at least.

Interesting to hear yours actually cut out. Mine just felt like it was on the absolute limit before stalling, but always just about made it and got going every time.

OPC said it'll be looked at Thursday, so more updates at the end of the week. Hopefully positive ones! :-)

[Jack drinker]

StevenRugg said:

Hi Jack,

Thanks for the extra info. Very useful to know, as this is new territory for me!

I've now phoned local OPC who suggested I call Porsche Assist to get it brought to them. So they're on their way in the next few hours, with a loan car too so I can continue with my weekend plans at least.

Interesting to hear yours actually cut out. Mine just felt like it was on the absolute limit before stalling, but always just about made it and got going every time.

OPC said it'll be looked at Thursday, so more updates at the end of the week. Hopefully positive ones! :-)

Glad you got something organised. Perhaps the only reason mine cut out was that it was a manual rather than PDK??? I did have to put my foot on the accelerator to force the revs up after cutting out twice.

I’m sure your OPC will be great and will get on it ASAP and whatever is wrong with both our cars will be fixed under warrenty... quickly.

Keep me posted if your OPC give you any indication of what could be wrong.

[Jack drinker]

Just had a call from my OPC, car all fixed. They had to replace the Valve Lift Solenoid and that has now cleared all the error codes showing up.

[StevenRugg]

Ah, very interesting. I also got an update today and mine was also valve lift solenoid! Presumably the lumpiness was from one half the engine on a different timing to the other half, which would explain why it was fine once the revs were up.

While looking at mine they also found a leak from one of my air con condensers, so that's being replaced too.

All things considered, I'm quite pleased with that outcome. :-)

[StevenRugg]

Just got a call to say it's all done, and will be returned to me today by Porsche Assist.

Very impressed with the whole experience. :-)

[Jack drinker]

Good outcome, happy motoring fella.

[Jonny08]

Interesting, thanks for sharing and keeping us updated. I am glad you got it sorted.

Something similar happened to me on Friday. I started the car up and went to pull away and it bogged down. As soon as it bogged down, I stopped and then tried pulling away again and same thing again. I then turned the car off and back on and it was fine.

My car is out of warranty now though, so I'll just take my chances and see if it happens again. Unless anyone thinks this is silly?

[StevenRugg]

Hard to know, really... If it is exactly the same as ours, I'd definitely advise getting it looked at. For what it's worth I gather the valve lift solenoid was quite an easy and relatively inexpensive replacement. Mine was delivered to the dealer, diagnosed, and fixed, all in an afternoon.

It's got to be worth taking it in for a quick check incase the problem worsens or is something serious. Anything like that should be logged by the car's computer, so they should be able to diagnose it quite quickly.

[fasterthanlight]

I've had a judder from cold in my 918 Boxster S since the summer. The PDK gear changes can be quite jerky after a cold start until the engine is fully warmed up, with rev matched downshifts in particular showing up this problem.

After 3 years of ownership, this is not normal for my car. Got the dealer to look at it and unfortunately they said that there were no fault codes showing up and therefore they did a reset of the gearbox's learning (however that's done) and left me to it.

It did initially seem better but I am back to square one now with jerky cold starts, down shifts that feel that they are unsettling the whole car. Also, I can now detect an in gear sort of stutter in the engine, a bit like a momentary sneeze as you accelerate.

I'm a bit fed up with it to be honest as the car has a 5 year warranty and the dealer's not prepared to acknowledge that anything is wrong. Thinking of getting rid of it.

[SkinnyPete]

fasterthanlight said:

It did initially seem better but I am back to square one now with jerky cold starts, down shifts that feel that they are unsettling the whole car. Also, I can now detect an in gear sort of stutter in the engine, a bit like a momentary sneeze as you accelerate.

I'm a bit fed up with it to be honest as the car has a 5 year warranty and the dealer's not prepared to acknowledge that anything is wrong. Thinking of getting rid of it.

What you have described does not sound totally un-normal, the 981 does not have a particularly smooth engine and an automatic will never be as smooth as a manual gearbox.

Take a look at this thread, and then do a Google search - plenty of US owners complain about the problem.

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[bcr5784]

SkinnyPete said:

What you have described does not sound totally un-normal, the 981 does not have a particularly smooth engine and an automatic will never be as smooth as a manual gearbox.

Take a look at this thread, and then do a Google search - plenty of US owners complain about the problem.

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Accepting that other people have the problem it certainly isn't normal on the 981. My engine Is smooth and the pdk box makes far smoother changes than any driver, however skilled, could with a manual box.

[fasterthanlight]

SkinnyPete said:

What you have described does not sound totally un-normal, the 981 does not have a particularly smooth engine and an automatic will never be as smooth as a manual gearbox.

Take a look at this thread, and then do a Google search - plenty of US owners complain about the problem.

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Yes, I'd had a look at that particular thread before and there are some similarities. While I could live with the slight engine "sneeze", the gearbox issue is so annoying it completely spoils the car - it's nothing like the pleasure it's been to drive for 3 years (and only 14,000 miles). I'd be tempted to get the dealer to change the car's gearbox oil, to see if that improves matters, but that's something that's something that should never really need doing in the lifetime of the car. Probably costs a bomb too, as Porsche aren't going to pay for it if they keep telling me there's nothing wrong. Manual for me next time I think.

[EGTE]

Gearbox oil is not a lifetime item (I think it's 6 years?) and can be done by any garage (thank you, block-exemption) for a couple of hundred. Might not be a lot more at an OPC, to be honest.

Worth a try, perhaps. Certainly cannot hurt.