PDK failure

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Discussion

Lexington59

Original Poster:

974 posts

64 months

Friday 4th June 2021
quotequote all
I imagine they’ll sell a good few warranties on the back of this!

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/advice/honest-joh...


Grr_Boris

123 posts

35 months

Friday 4th June 2021
quotequote all
Lexington59 said:
I imagine they’ll sell a good few warranties on the back of this!

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/advice/honest-joh...
No warranty, Porsche paying 80% of the bill and he’s still unhappy?!

icekay

221 posts

131 months

Friday 4th June 2021
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I love the PDK and would buy again, but this is the main bill that I dread receiving out of warranty. Just good to remember that this is rarer than rare internet scare stories like M96/M97 issues.

But yep it serves no consolation to those affected, can't argue against those warranties.

Richard718

50 posts

43 months

Friday 4th June 2021
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Grr_Boris said:
No warranty, Porsche paying 80% of the bill and he’s still unhappy?!
Objectively you are completely right. But if he has had it fully serviced by Porsche with that mileage, it really should not have failed in less than five years. I can see why he feels very dismayed. I know I would be.

anonymous-user

53 months

Friday 4th June 2021
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What an an absolute pile of snowflake piffle.

Which bit of £2,000 is an unreasonably expensive repair on a 5-year old car?

Grr_Boris

123 posts

35 months

Friday 4th June 2021
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Richard718 said:
Objectively you are completely right. But if he has had it fully serviced by Porsche with that mileage, it really should not have failed in less than five years. I can see why he feels very dismayed. I know I would be.
Because he’s had it fully serviced by Porsche, that’s why he received a goodwill gesture of 80% of the cost.

Large bills like this are exactly why the warranty exists, to cover you in the event of unforeseen failure. If you don’t want to take that risk, buy a warranty!

Venisonpie

3,221 posts

81 months

Saturday 5th June 2021
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Lexington59 said:
I imagine they’ll sell a good few warranties on the back of this!

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/advice/honest-joh...
I think the PDK gearbox is the best dual clutch in the market but I'd never run one outside of a warranty. Porcshe do have a bit of an occasional Achilles heel with their drivetrains (not all) which has been present for 20 odd years.

Mark-ri571

496 posts

106 months

Saturday 5th June 2021
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Chances are that the mechanicals of PDK box are fine and that it was a software issue. The trouble is that you have no way of really knowing and are dependent on Porsche.

PaulD86

1,641 posts

125 months

Monday 7th June 2021
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rockin said:
What an an absolute pile of snowflake piffle.

Which bit of £2,000 is an unreasonably expensive repair on a 5-year old car?
Aye, absolutely. I mean which part of a gearbox failing on a 5 year old, 15,000 mile car with full dealer service history is unreasonable? Other than all of it.

A gearbox like that should last most of, if not all of, the servicable life of the car. 15k miles is not acceptable. A £2k bill for consumable parts or parts which fail with age is fine on a car that age and mileage, but if Porsche think it's OK for a box to let go at those miles and 5 years old, that's a worry. Although them offering 80% shows they know it's not OK. Warranty or not, I would be pushing for the whole job to be paid for. Maybe that makes me a snowflake then. biglaugh

anonymous-user

53 months

Monday 7th June 2021
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If no warranty, surely would still be covered under the CRA as not of reasonable quality?

100% please...

Grr_Boris

123 posts

35 months

Monday 7th June 2021
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Sorry, the warranty exists for a reason.

From time to time, components will fail, sometimes they will be cheap, sometimes expensive. The car comes with a 3-year warranty from new. Outside of that, if you can’t afford to pay for this type of failure, then you buy a warranty.

I think Porsche’s offer of 80% is perfectly reasonable in the circumstances.

It seems that some people are happy to ‘self-insure’ to save money on the warranty, but still expect Porsche to pick up the tab, when things go wrong!

Charlie_1

1,002 posts

91 months

Monday 7th June 2021
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Ok im puzzled i bought my car it came with a 3 year warranty this was made clear to me , when the 3 years was up i decided to extend it certainly in part because of PDK gearbox , if I hadn't and it exploded how is that down to Porsche and for the record my car is just coming upto 10k miles

Roof down

301 posts

125 months

Tuesday 8th June 2021
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Is this the same issue as the Ferrari ones

PaulD86

1,641 posts

125 months

Tuesday 8th June 2021
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So by that logic, as long as Porsche make a car that survives the initial warranty period (which not so long ago was only 1 year by default) then failures after that are entirely the owners problem as they had the option to take out an insurance policy against failures. If that's your view then fair enough, however personally I think that regardless of what the cars original warranty was, it is reasonable to expect certain components to last a more reasonable time. What is reasonable for a PDK box can be argued, but if Porsche offered 80% contribution at 15k miles, it would appear that they accept the box should last at least 75k miles. That seems low to me, but it does show that Porsche seem to agree with my assertion that 15k is not acceptable.

A reasonable life for one component will be different to another - I'd expect no contribution on a spring or shock failure, for example - but a sealed component that is a critical part of the drive train and which has electronics that protect it from being able to downshift when revs are too high etc, should not be needing replaced after 15k in any car no matter what the original warranty period was.

Grr_Boris

123 posts

35 months

Tuesday 8th June 2021
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PaulD86 said:
So by that logic, as long as Porsche make a car that survives the initial warranty period (which not so long ago was only 1 year by default) then failures after that are entirely the owners problem as they had the option to take out an insurance policy against failures. If that's your view then fair enough, however personally I think that regardless of what the cars original warranty was, it is reasonable to expect certain components to last a more reasonable time. What is reasonable for a PDK box can be argued, but if Porsche offered 80% contribution at 15k miles, it would appear that they accept the box should last at least 75k miles. That seems low to me, but it does show that Porsche seem to agree with my assertion that 15k is not acceptable.
That logic certainly does not follow.

Of course 15k miles for the gearbox is unacceptable, which is why Porsche are picking up the majority of the cost - given the car had a full service history.

However, the warranty exists for a reason.

PaulD86 said:
A reasonable life for one component will be different to another - I'd expect no contribution on a spring or shock failure, for example - but a sealed component that is a critical part of the drive train and which has electronics that protect it from being able to downshift when revs are too high etc, should not be needing replaced after 15k in any car no matter what the original warranty period was.
Hence Porsche are paying 80%.

The warranty is there to protect against high value failures for a relatively small outlay. If you choose not to buy this insurance then you are happy to take on the consequences.

981Boxess

11,119 posts

257 months

Tuesday 8th June 2021
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I don't think it would be unreasonable for Porsche to cough up the lot in this particular instance and in truth they probably should, however, why would any other owners be inclined to buy warranties in the future?

The "why should I, I can probably get them to pay for it anyway if anything big goes bang" logic will start to kick in.

Green1man

549 posts

87 months

Tuesday 8th June 2021
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I think most are missing the most important aspect of this.....

If you run a car out of warranty then people generally accept that they take the risk on parts breaking, however this issue here is that Porsche do not provide any spare parts for the PDK, publish little technical detail and in fact go out of their way to make it as bloody difficult as possible to perform any repairs. I’m honestly surprised that Porsche can get away with this stance, especially in the USA where they seem to have ‘right to repair’ laws.

In my view Porsche taking this stance should oblige them to pay at least 80% for any PDK replacement cost. Paying for repairs is one thing, paying £11k+ for a faulty sensor/stuck solenoid/ seeping seal etc is IMO completely unacceptable.

Evo9lution

637 posts

139 months

Tuesday 8th June 2021
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Tl;dr - each to their own based on their own risk assessment on their own circumstances

Green1man said:
I think most are missing the most important aspect of this.....

If you run a car out of warranty then people generally accept that they take the risk on parts breaking, however this issue here is that Porsche do not provide any spare parts for the PDK, publish little technical detail and in fact go out of their way to make it as bloody difficult as possible to perform any repairs. I’m honestly surprised that Porsche can get away with this stance, especially in the USA where they seem to have ‘right to repair’ laws.

In my view Porsche taking this stance should oblige them to pay at least 80% for any PDK replacement cost. Paying for repairs is one thing, paying £11k+ for a faulty sensor/stuck solenoid/ seeping seal etc is IMO completely unacceptable.
Nissan just replace DSG 'boxes in the GT-R and I suspect that Ferrari, Lambo, Audi, VW, Merc, BMW etc. will all do the same. I think that it's common practice as these are very complicated parts that are hard to assess in sub-optimal conditions (especially without specialised technicians) and are manufactured by a third-party. This needs to be understood when assessing whether or not to extend a warranty.

With the GT-R, though, there are plenty of places which can now work on these 'boxes (AC Speedtech and Litchfield, being two of the best known and most competent). I would imagine that there are companies which can do similar for the PDK but then you have to take the risk of 1) no warranty on the car or 2) voiding any warranty or Porsche goodwill if you go down this route. The pro, of course, is that the repair may be much, much cheaper (almost always the case compared to a new GT-R DSG 'box at "20k!).

Either way (warranty or not), you're just rolling a dice and you can either be lucky or not, be quids in or not ... Each person should make their own risk assessment (is a known cost - warranty - which may not be required, a better option than an unexpected cost in the future, which may not ever be realised). It's up to them and nobody else should judge them on it as it's personal to them and their circumstances / psychology.

homerdog

243 posts

230 months

Wednesday 9th June 2021
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Charlie_1 said:
Ok im puzzled i bought my car it came with a 3 year warranty this was made clear to me , when the 3 years was up i decided to extend it certainly in part because of PDK gearbox , if I hadn't and it exploded how is that down to Porsche and for the record my car is just coming upto 10k miles
Because it's not fit for purpose, not difficult to understand, surely?

981Boxess

11,119 posts

257 months

Thursday 10th June 2021
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anonymous said:
[redacted]
I think what would be more relevant is the number of gear changes and type of abuse the failed PDK may have been subjected to, rather than the mileage.

Car A, normal mixed spirited sports car road driving, driven by someone with some mechanical sympathy.
Car B, weekend car, ragged to death for every mile on the speedo by someone with no mechanical sympathy and the chrome worn off the paddles.

Given that today the dealer can tell exactly what use the car has been subjected to very easily I can see how they may entertain some claims more generously than others. Not making any excuses for Porsche but there are always two sides to any story.