Cmcdaniel993

I have a problem with my 2010 C4S PDK, 42K miles and I’m trying to arm myself with as much info as possible while I wait for my dealership to bring back their service department to 100%. My CPO warranty ended last July, and of course I hesitated on a Fidelity warranty but I’m still hoping that doesn’t come back to bite me.

2 weeks ago I took the car out for its first drive after winter storage in my garage. It was serviced at the end of September last year before I parked it. Despite having a CTEK battery tender on the car all winter plugged into the cig lighter by the passenger footwell, the car wouldn’t turn over. It became clear that the green light that I was periodically looking at all winter was not an indicator that I had hooked it up properly and that it was doing its job. I hooked it up properly and waited for 5 hours. The car started fine and I left for an easy 30 minute drive to start out the year. I went on another drive that day which also lasted 35-40 min and I had a bit more fun pushing it hard without engaging sport mode. No problems.

Two days later I had my wife and kids in the car to run errands so barely over 5K rpms. After ~25 minutes and oil temp reaching 175-180, I drove off from a red light and heard a beep and the car went into Emergency Transmission Run. It remained in limp mode until I reached home ~10 minutes later. Turned the car off, then back on and there were no messages/warnings.

After fearing the worst and reading as many posts as I could to set a best case scenario vs. worst, I placed the charger back on the battery to see if it was possibly depleted. The CTEK took 5 hours to bring it back so I assumed I might need a new battery. I left for another drive (close to home) and ~15-20 minutes later of light driving, while driving 45mph, the car again went into Emergency Transmission Run. Noted oil temp again just over 175. Brought it home turned it off and error went away.

I called my dealer on Wednesday and he suggested that I try a new battery and stay close to home to try it again. He suggested that they were down to 3 service techs during the ‘stay at home’ order and that I wait to bring the car in if possible. New battery installed and this time 20-25 minute drive and I was feeling hopeful. Shifts sounded good, but it was a cool day and took longer to get the oil up to temp. When it did, I hit 7K rpms and during a shift I saw an engine problem light which quickly went away, and was replaced by Emergency Transmission Run again. I came home turned the car off and back on, and no messages or errors.

Today I took the car out determined not to exceed 3k rpms to see what would happen. ~25min, 18 miles, 45mph, oil temp hit ~180 and bam, Emergency Trans run.

Through old service records, I see the previous owner had the coil packs replaced at ~25K miles in 2015. They found a misfire in cylinder 1 and after replacing the battery, the error continued so they replaced all of the packs and the error went away.

I smell a slight bit of burnt coolant, but see no leaks in or under the engine. At this point, I can only recreate the problem once the oil temp hits ~180. Shifts sound good and I have no problems shifting manually or full auto before the car fully warms up.

I don't have access to a durametric to look at codes. Any thoughts on if this is likely PDK, vs. likely electrical, or other would be appreciated.

Balr14

I would like to suggest having the PDK 60k service done. Even though only 42k miles, it is 10 years old.

Cmcdaniel993

That's a good point, and while the dealer in TX that sold me the car mentioned that the PDK service had been done by the previous owner, I cant find records to verify that. I purchased the car with 30K miles. Ill follow up with my dealer to check to see if they have any records online.

Ironman88

Based on what I've gathered from the various posts on PDK failure, those failures seemed to have been tied to the electronics. Perhaps it's coincidental that your PDK error messages have occurred after the issue with the battery / charging. Maybe it could be tied to something as simple as the trans fluid - but that would be surprising I think under the circumstances.

Hopefully the cause is easily identified and corrected.

Doug H

I might not bring the lack of a pdk service up right out of the gate. I would first try and find out what is wrong with it and then try and get PCNA to goodwill it. If you concede no evidence of a pdk service, they may reject any goodwill help based on that alone.

BucketList

The error you are getting is because the controller didn't see the gear shift happen within the timing window that is allowed. The fact that it resets and the car behaves normally the next drive should encourage you in that it's not a mechanical fault. The oil temp by itself will not be the issue, but oil temp would be an indicator of overall engine temps. This could be a heat sensitive circuit or connection that doesn't fault until it gets warm. There isn't a way for you to troubleshoot it without a piwis. Durametric might tell you something but I don't know how much PDK diagnostic it can provide. Because the PDK is a dual clutch system, this could be the clutch trade or the gear pre-shift. You need diagnostics to go further.

There is only one thing you might do before more heavy diagnostics. The trans fluid (not the PDK oil) has a 12 year OR 120K mile service interval and the PDK oil is 6yr OR 60K. Your car is 10 years old. The PDK oil is overdue by 4 years unless it was done in 2016ish. You might consider changing that old oil to see if the new oil helps the shifting. Maybe do the trans fluid for good measure. If the maintenance has been done (not knowing means not done!), then I would let an indy who knows his stuff (or the dealer) troubleshoot it. Personally I don't think you're screwed, but you are going to be spending some money.

Cmcdaniel993

Thanks for the insight. Ill try to research and purchase a piwis tonight on Amazon, but shipping is now, understandably, about 3 weeks out.

sandwedge

The PDK is hungry for electricity but since you have a new battery and assuming your alternator is working as it should I tend to think it's PDK related. Part of the reason I say this and I know you don't want to hear it but what you describe has some similarities to the PDK failure on my -09 C4S. The difference is that the first time I got the Emergency Transmission Run it didn't go into limp mode but drove just fine. Once at my house I shut the car down, started it back up and the light was gone.

About a week or two later the light came on again as I was backing out of the garage but this time the car wouldn't move in either gear and the fault light wouldn't reset after 4 or 5 attempts. Flatbed to the dealer who later the next day told me the PDK had to be replaced. The codes they pulled indicated it was electronically related as opposed to mechanical. That's as far as they were able to get trouble shooting. Cost was $14,000 covered by extended warranty.

One more thing worth mentioning. I had the 60,000 mile PDK service done not long ago on my -11 GTS. The day after I picked the car up the Emergency Transmission Run light came on and the car went into limp mode. Light would not reset so flatbed again back to the dealer. Somehow they were able to fix this and the light has not come back on 5,000 miles later. So the dealerships are very limited as to what they can do to a faulty PDK but there are some things they can do. Hope your car falls into that category.

Fined

I saw this Transmission Emergency Run error on my 987.2 Cayman S. It was caused by misfires which were due to a coil packs/spark plugs needing replaced.

docdrs

interesting....... the op did see a CEL before the ETR , the coils are 10 yrs old , that may be a starting point as was in your case.

Ironman88

Makes the PDK look like a Patek Philippe...

https://carbuzz.com/news/2020-c8-cor...cCtQ7TT6xY1uz8

wjk_glynn

I had exactly the same experience, back to normal after replacing all the coils & plugs.

Karl.

Upscale Audio

Leaky seal. I wouldn't call that a repeatable failure. Question is this: Would GM allow out of warranty transmissions to be repaired if it could be done so simply or force replacements of the whole box?

Cmcdaniel993

Really hoping its the coils and plugs, but the coils were replaced 5 years ago, and plugs were replaced at the beginning of 2019 with a full 40K service. Thanks

Cmcdaniel993

Quick update... I ordered the iCarsoft POR II after reading a few reviews here and it arrived yesterday. Plugged it in today and received "Ignition Coil A Secondary Circuit", and "Ignition Coil A Primary/Secondary Circuit" DTC's. Funny that I plugged that into Rennlist and stumbled upon a post from the previous owner of my car that had the same ETR error and Ignition coil issue in 2015. I knew the coils were replaced in 2015, but didn't know that the ETR error was the first indication that they needed to be replaced. He replaced with 27K miles under warranty, and I now have 42K miles. My dealership has me on the books for May 1st to get this sorted out. I'm a bit impatient but hopeful that this is the same issue... again.