Cayman S - PDK R gear fault while on test drive
Discussion
Hi all,
I took a 981 Cayman S for a test drive today - car is 4 years old but with just 5K miles on clock. It has had Interim service at 2.5K miles, and just had Major service - so all good.
I was really enjoying the test drive on a mix of country lanes and dual carriageway. I tried fully auto, and slotting it in manual to play with the paddles. All was going well (I was sold!) until after about 16 miles in (engine was properly warmed etc), on a fairly tight left hand to join a dual carriageway, there was a audio ping, and a fault displayed - I don't remember the exact wording, but it was along the lines of,
'Gearbox problem, R gear not available, Driving possible'
The gist being some gearbox issue, reverse gear might not be available, but it was OK to continue driving.
I was a bit gutted to say the least.
The car continue to drive normally, and I even was able to selected reverse and back up a little. We drove back to the dealer, and parked up.
After turning the car off and starting again, the fault message disappeared. The sales guy toggled through the menus, and couldn't find any faults listed under notifications (I'm not familiar with the menus, but he said it should show there).
The dealer is going to get a technician to look at it tomorrow, and see what's recorded in the diagnostic system. He said it could be due to low battery as it's been stood a while.
I'm willing to believe it's a one off, but would appreciate opinions on whether such faults are Bad News, and to walk away, or 'just part of the ownership experience'.
Is there any basis for thinking a low battery could be the cause?
Cheers,
SnipsSt
I took a 981 Cayman S for a test drive today - car is 4 years old but with just 5K miles on clock. It has had Interim service at 2.5K miles, and just had Major service - so all good.
I was really enjoying the test drive on a mix of country lanes and dual carriageway. I tried fully auto, and slotting it in manual to play with the paddles. All was going well (I was sold!) until after about 16 miles in (engine was properly warmed etc), on a fairly tight left hand to join a dual carriageway, there was a audio ping, and a fault displayed - I don't remember the exact wording, but it was along the lines of,
'Gearbox problem, R gear not available, Driving possible'
The gist being some gearbox issue, reverse gear might not be available, but it was OK to continue driving.
I was a bit gutted to say the least.
The car continue to drive normally, and I even was able to selected reverse and back up a little. We drove back to the dealer, and parked up.
After turning the car off and starting again, the fault message disappeared. The sales guy toggled through the menus, and couldn't find any faults listed under notifications (I'm not familiar with the menus, but he said it should show there).
The dealer is going to get a technician to look at it tomorrow, and see what's recorded in the diagnostic system. He said it could be due to low battery as it's been stood a while.
I'm willing to believe it's a one off, but would appreciate opinions on whether such faults are Bad News, and to walk away, or 'just part of the ownership experience'.
Is there any basis for thinking a low battery could be the cause?
Cheers,
SnipsSt
See link below - check the post as I think my pic should still be showing with right code.
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=15...
I had the same issue not long after I bought my 2.7 PDK (OPC with warranty etc.) and was a little alarmed to say the least. I took it to the dealer to see if there were any codes recorded but nothing was. This happened at just over 11k miles, the car is now just below 50k miles and the fault has never returned and it has had some very spirited drives throughout my ownership..!
I personally think it may have been down to a few months lack of spirited use whilst sat on the forecourt...
Given my experience I would not be too bothered, however, as above make sure you have the full OPC warranty as if you did need a PDK (for whatever reason...) most of us understand this is a 'change the whole unit' job and not just a repair.
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=15...
I had the same issue not long after I bought my 2.7 PDK (OPC with warranty etc.) and was a little alarmed to say the least. I took it to the dealer to see if there were any codes recorded but nothing was. This happened at just over 11k miles, the car is now just below 50k miles and the fault has never returned and it has had some very spirited drives throughout my ownership..!
I personally think it may have been down to a few months lack of spirited use whilst sat on the forecourt...
Given my experience I would not be too bothered, however, as above make sure you have the full OPC warranty as if you did need a PDK (for whatever reason...) most of us understand this is a 'change the whole unit' job and not just a repair.
Thanks for the replies - appreciated.
To complete the thread, the dealer had the technician check the car out.
As with the other cases where this has occurred on other cars, there was nothing logged in the diagnostics. The technician checked the gearbox oil level which was fine. He said the battery was a little low, perhaps as a result of the car being stood a while not having a good run, and just being moved around the forecourt, so he gave it a good charge. He recalibrated the gearbox, and took it for a short test drive with no issues.
I was still interested in the car, so agreed a deal, dependent on another reasonably long test drive before I put pen to paper.
I did this last Friday, I good 20 mile run on the same roads as the original test drive, and all was fine, so I'm now the proud owner of a low mileage 981 Cayman S - my first Porsche!
I've put 300 miles on since collection, and no problems whatsoever, so I'm confident it was just one of those things.
Worst case scenario, I have the OPC Warranty for 2 years.
Very glad I didn't let this put me off a great car.
To complete the thread, the dealer had the technician check the car out.
As with the other cases where this has occurred on other cars, there was nothing logged in the diagnostics. The technician checked the gearbox oil level which was fine. He said the battery was a little low, perhaps as a result of the car being stood a while not having a good run, and just being moved around the forecourt, so he gave it a good charge. He recalibrated the gearbox, and took it for a short test drive with no issues.
I was still interested in the car, so agreed a deal, dependent on another reasonably long test drive before I put pen to paper.
I did this last Friday, I good 20 mile run on the same roads as the original test drive, and all was fine, so I'm now the proud owner of a low mileage 981 Cayman S - my first Porsche!
I've put 300 miles on since collection, and no problems whatsoever, so I'm confident it was just one of those things.
Worst case scenario, I have the OPC Warranty for 2 years.
Very glad I didn't let this put me off a great car.
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