tiptronic

hi, am i right in thinking ( or have i read the manual wrong ) that using the steering wheel buttons should manually select gears even when in D auto mode?....mine does`nt!! 98 c2 tip regards etc

Not on a '98 Tip. The feature was introduced later.

Hi I am a 993 Tip owner and if you put the car in auto then the wheel buttons have no effect. It is perhaps unreasonable to expect them to otherwise what would be the point of having a manual mode. I guess that if they did work in auto mode then when you changed gear manually the car would probably change back straight away. The auto mode is best forgotten about in my opinion. All the best Berni

As usual, Richard is spot on. You have to move to M in earlier 996 to use the +/- buttons on the wheel. I personally like being able to use the buttons when in auto mode, as it doesn't just change back again, it keeps the gear for 8 seconds. On 00 onwards, you can change when in A and is useful for things like approach a roundabout and wanting to be in a lower gear, or approaching a bend and wanting to be in a lower gear. You can quickly drop down a couple of gears without taking your hands off the wheel. The box then moves to M (on the dash) for 8 seconds, before going back into A mode. I personally find this useful because I always find that around 40, in order to improve fuel consumption and engine wear, the box selects 4th, which is too high for some corners. I don't know whether this A/M is down to the type of gearbox, but I think it is. Earlier models had something like a AZM version, whereas the later ones have a Mercedes derived one. At least it's something like that anyway.

The Tiptronic S 'box is great to use for the reasons that GD has already stated. It allows you to drop down gears at the flick of a thumb - without taking your hands of the wheel - and is less frenetic than 'kick down'. I don't know when the 'S' box became available but I think it was only after 996.2 was launched. I also don't know whether it was an option or standard after a certain date. Mine was registered in Jan 2002.

Hi That is interesting and a clever idea. It would certainly make the auto mode less unattractive! It is the extra gear I am really jealous of though...... Berni

GD - The ZF (pre-facelift Tip) box is the same - it was the control module which (IIRC) was changed for MY2000, so from Sept 1999, when this feature was added.

No my 98 has a tiptronic 'S' gearbox. The actual gearbox module was changed on later models as Richard H said. TB

thanks for your replies, at least i know its not a malfunction. would be handy for the reasons mentioned though. retro-fit module possible? regards etc.

Tiptronic S was introduced for the Boxster and 996 to coincide with the launch of the 996 Turbo in 2000. The "S" in "Tiptronic S" might as well stand for "software" (it is of course Sport). However, Tiptronic S was the updated Tiptronic gearbox software which adapted the gear box characteristics to the style of driving. Including holding a gear into a corner even if you took your foot completely off the throttle. The S also allowed manual gear changes purely from the steering wheel without having to first slide the gear selector into M (the gearbox would revert to auto if no further inputs were made within 8 seconds). Steering wheel buttons for manual gear changes were in fact introduced in the reign of the 993. This previous "tip" model also allowed manual selection by sliding the lever over and "tipping" forward or back to rather unintuitively go up or down a gear respectively (which may have been another reason for the supplementary gate's demise in the subsequent "S" variant). OLD TIPTRONIC NEW TIPTRONIC S

All 996's, from introduction, were designated Tiptronic S by Porsche. It was introduced on the 993, and I believe the S was for steering wheel control.

informative as always - thanks for that

My post was meant to describe the overide upgrade. As Tiptronic S doesn't designate the 2000 overide upgrade, just Steering wheel buttons, how do you label the 2000 overide upgrade? Does it even have a name?

I'm not sure if the 8-second automatic over-ride feature was introduced for MY1999 or MY2000. There are control units for 1998, 1999, and 2000&2001. (Plus a separate control unit for 3.6 MY2002-). People wil 1999 cars have said they have the feature, but of course these could be MY2000. I have the MY2000 brochure, which decribes it, but the 1998 doesn't. I don't have a MY1999 brochure to check it out. Have you got one?

I have: 8/97 MY98 GB 8/98 MY99 US 9/99 MY00 GB 8/00 MY01 GB 7/02 MY03 Turbo GB 7/04 MY05 Turbo US The first mention of the overide upgrade is 9/99 MY00 GB I have some GT3/GT2 brochures too, but they are not germane to the TipS discussion.