Tiptronic tranny hesitation - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

Hi all, I've been a member for many months (lurking) and just recently bought an '02 Boxster with tip. 27000 miles. Everything is great with the car and I'm incredibly happy with it! BUT... I am noticing a hesitation with the transmission in second gear... During moderate acceleration from a stop, the car starts in 2nd gear and pulls on up through 2500 rpm. At 2500 there is a hesitation. Then is goes right on past up to 4 or 5000 until the next upshift. During soft acceleration, the gears shift up at about 2000 to 2500 rpm and it works fine. During hard acceleration, the trans kicks down to 1st gear, rolls up smoothly to the redline in first through second and on up. Anyway this is the perfect question for my upcoming 30k mile service. It may even be a warranty item. What might be going on here? Is this the kind of thing that can be easily reprogrammed into the control chip? What are the questions I should ask at the dealer service? Thanks and keep having fun!

You betcha it's a warranty item and don't settle for anything less than a properly working transmission... force them to fix it and refix it until you are happy with it. Last thing you want is a buggy tip tranny after it's gone out of warranty. That would be oh-so expensive to fix or to take as a hit when selling the vehicle. Could be a lot of things in my estimation... software or programming issues or actual metal or a cable that needs to be adjusted or replaced.

Randall provides good advice. The Tip DOES have many shift programs and it tends to learn your driving style over time. It is POSSIBLE this is normal adjustment going on but who wants to chance that?

can the box do all the upshifts automatically?

Not sure what you mean here?

is there a fully automatic option like on other tip/paddle sportscars?

Yeah the tip has a fully automatic mode. When the shifter is on the "D" then its fully automatic. When the shifter is in "M" then it is controlled by the gear selectors on the steering wheel. There are two cool features that I like about the tip: 1) When in manual mode, it will still upshift you out of first gear if you redline it. Then once in second you can stay there all day long until you shift it yourself. 2) When in automatic mode, of course it will downshift one gear if you press hard on the throttle. But there is a "kickdown" button on the bottom of the throttle pedal... you mash it down and then you "click" the little button with more foot pressure and the car finds the lowest gear it can for the given speed. Usually it drops two gears. I wonder about all I've heard regarding the tip learning your driving styles... somedays I drive like a granny, and some days I drive like a maniac. I think it just adapts to the driving style currently in play. Also it senses high lateral g's, and thinks twice about upshifting. If I use the auto to downshift and take a turn, then the auto will not upshift until a few seconds past the turn. If I force a downshift in a straight, then the auto will upshift immediately when I relieve the pedal pressure. - X

The Tip is supposed to have about 128 "driving maps" that it can select from. As I understand it, it chooses these from the past driving habits of the car. There was a nice article on this about three issues ago in the PCA magazine. Good stuff!

Hi all, I have a 2001 Box-car with Triptronic Trans, I think I can ans your question. In automatic mode (D) the car will start out in 2nd gear as per the dash indicator light but will auotmaticly defer to 1st gear and then shift to 2nd depending on how hard you are excel, will determine at what RPM the trans will shift at (ie) slow excel the trans will shift around 2k under hard excel the trans could shift at 3k or 3.5k it just depends how hard your standing on it!!!

I have a '99 Box w/Tip, and I would have to agree with RandallNeighbour; there is something fishy here. There are circumstances where the Tip will stay in a lower gear, but there should be no hesitation in the power delivery. If that is what is truly happening, have it checked out when you take it in for the 30k maint. The Tippers are pretty reliable, but I don't think you want to have to fix one on your own nickel if you can help it.

" but I don't think you want to have to fix one on your own nickel if you can help it." Indeed! That would definitely leave a mark!

I have a 2003 with tip and I have the same slight hesitation when accelerating to 3000 rpms. I was told by the dealer that what I am feeling is the vario-cam in the engine kicking in not the transmission. When I accelerate hard you don't feel the vario-cam kicking in. I bought the car new and it has always done this. This might be what you are feeling although I am not sure if your year model has vario-cam or not. Just a thought.

I have personally never noticed the 3000 rpm hesitation you mention, but I'll pay more attention to that in the future. Maybe it's there and I just never noticed it. Is it a very obvious thing, or is it pretty subtle? If it was the vario-cam, I would think the manual trans cars would experience the same thing. I don't think the engines are any different between the Tip and the manual.

Ronzi you make a good point. There shouldn't be any difference between a manual and automatic engine. When I called the dealer and asked about this hesitation I was told this was normal with the vario-cam. I was told the cam is changing positions and going into performance mode. Now I wonder if it is normal or not. It is very noticable and it occurs just like clockwork at around 2400 rpms and again at around 2800 rpms but it is less noticeable at 2800 rpms. Does anyone else besides me and Xavier405 notice this? I've always felt this was not right.

For me the hesitation is very noticeable, and is only at about 2500 rpm (but maybe its 2400 and I am approximating). Also its only hesitating in second gear. In 1, 3, 4, and 5, it pulls right through 2500 without missing a beat. If its an engine cam issue I would think it happens in every gear. Also, I thought all Boxsters had vario-cam. At least I would guess all 2000-2004 would have it after the new engine size increase in y2k. I'll take mine in in the next few weeks and let you know.

Xavier405 mine acts the same way. It only occurs in 2nd gear. All other gears pull smoothly with no hesitation. I am calling a different dealer tomorrow to get a second opinion. I will let you know what they say. It's very strange that it only happens in second gear in both our cars. I agree with you that it should happen in other gears if it is a engine issue.

By gadfry, you guys are right. Mine does it, too. On mine it's more like maybe 2700 rpm, but the hesitation is there. I would say it is most noticeable when the engine and trans are cold. When fully warm it pretty much disappears. It is as though the computer can't quite decide whether to upshift out of 2nd or not. The tach just hangs at 2700 for a split second, then goes on up. The first couple of times I tried it with a cold engine today, it actually dropped about 100 rpm, then buzzed on up. I don't have any reason to doubt the vario-cam theory, but I would think if that were the cause, it would be reproduceable in other gears and in manual mode, whenever the vario-cam was doing it's business. As has been said, this does not appear to be the case. Weird. But if that's the worst thing it ever does, I guess I can handle it.

Hey guys I stopped by the dealer today and talked to the service director and he said that what I am feeling is the vario-cam. He said this issue comes up all the time. He said the reason I only feel the change in 2nd gear is because the torque load on the engine is totally different than 3rd,4th,etc. He also said that for some reason it is more noticeable in tips than in manuals. He said the cam is moving to a much higher lift to gain extra HP. I have had two dealers tell me the same thing.

i was wondering why my "new" used car was starting out in 2nd gear! thanks for posting this :-)

Two suggestions - maybe have the Tiptronic module flashed or reset. Also, you might find improvement in having the ATF changed. Whenever our Passat's Tip gets "grumpy", a fluid change works wonders. It has just about 60k miles on it and it's probably on it's 4th fill. We drive the ol' w8 kinda hard :-)