BOXSTER KICK DOWN PROBLEM

[Guest]

Was in an accident a few months ago - hit the kick down a wee bit too soon when leaving a round about and car went into a spin. Engine revs went very high and wheels spun taking me into a 360 degree spin.

Engine revs remained high throughout spin. I now seem to have a problem with the kick down - when applying kick down and keeping foot to floor - drops gear ok but then sticks at high revs and does not go up through the gears (unless accelerator pedal is de pressed). Normal automatic gear change is ok and tiptronic also works ok - only have a problem when kick down is applied.

Trying to ascertain if original accident could be the cause of this problem ?

Would appreciate any advice.

Thanks
Stuart

 

[Rodney Naghar]

I think this is normal behaviour in kick down mode. The box goes to its most aggressive mapping, and won't change up until it almost hits the limiter....after a minute or so of 'lazy' driving it will revert to a more 'relaxed' mapping.

I often find the kickdown feature dangerous as it is far too aggressive and often takes me by surprise. I wouldn't be surprised at all if that was a contributing factor to your spin.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the reply.
The problem seems to be that when the revs hit the top limit - it sticks there until I ease off on the accelerator. Prior to the accident I am sure that I could keep the accelerator full down to the floor throughout the whole process and when the revs hit the top limit then it would autimatically drop into the next gear.

 

[solowill]

Had a similar accident in my first car about 18 months ago and never worked out what caused it. If the aggressive mode kicks in as described then that could have been what sent me in a 360 degree spin as well. I had been pelting it around the corners only minutes before, it was at night and at the time thought it was ice on the road. It was 6 degrees at the time though, just a shade too warm for ice so had to rule that out but was also thinking it could be localised icing on that particular bit of road.

As it's been bugging my mind ever since can anyone tell me where to find out more about these mappings? To avoid a repetition, I didn't go for a tip after that. Went for a manual replacement instead and now prefer it much more.

 

[Richard_Hamilton]

Here's the description from the 996 Service Information book.

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[Richard_Hamilton]

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[Guest]

Thanks for the feedback. Still not sure what is causing problem. Been reading the manual and wondering if it is the mapping for the kick down gear change. Going to try the tiptronic and see if car automatically shifts up gear when revs taken up 2 max - if this doesn't happen then I was thinking it may be related to whatever controls the systems gear change up when max revs are reached ??
Stu

 

[Dylan1]

i was having a similar prob with kickdown following recent track day-took it back to opc on friday and they reset the maps in 10 mins and its been fine since

 

[Guest]

Thanks Dylan - can you confirm if your rear wheels went into a spin (like mines did) during your day at the track and also was the problem you then had just with the kick down mapping ?
Thanks
Stu

 

[Dylan1]

stu
exactly.as you say
and the remap has sorted it....so far[]

 

[Guest]

Dylan,
Your feedback has been very helpful - I have been in touch with my local porsche repair centre - they have never heard of his problem and have asked if it would be possible for me to find out what porsche garage sorted your problem as they will give them a call prior to me taking my own car in for sorting.
Thanks again
Stu

 

[Steve Brookes]

Instead of using the normal kickdown try using the alternative method of full throttle and immediate let off. This will drop you into the appropriate gear and then you can apply throttle as necessary. I find this gives you a lot more control. It's very similar to dropping down a gear or two with a manual box.

If you use the normal kickdown and keep foot planted it can be very unpredictable on wet roads as you have found. I too once did a full kickdown while crusing at 80 on a wet motorway. Dropping from 5th to 3rd and spinning the wheels was a bit unerving.

 

[Dylan1]

stu
it was opc hatfield fri last week -sid was the helpful tech who sorted it
cheers

 

[Guest]

Thanks Dyllan - been on2 Porsche - Glasgow and they are going to have a look at car. Hopefully will be easily fixable.
Cheers

 

[Guest]

Thanks to everyone for there ideas and advice - Eventually managed to get to the bottom of the problem - the fault was traced to the Mass AirFlow Sensor which was faulty. Basically wasn't getting enough air in2 the engine at high revs and therefore was causing engine to 'hang'. Hope this is useful to anyone else who has a similar problem.
Cost £150 to replace.
Cheers
Stuart