[JFP in PA]

By far, the largest problem with the Tiptronic is that their total numbers in Porsche’s are relatively low, so most dealers and many independents’ know little if anything about them. Another issue has been poor maintenance of the Tip, again because they are misunderstood more than anything else. When you tell someone that the trans has no dipstick, and both the drain and fill plugs are on the bottom of the transmission, people start looking cross-eyed at you.

The transmission is well designed and quite sturdy, but because they require a plethora of special tools and fixtures to work on them, the internet is rife with stories of cars being tied up for months at shops, and even then result in often shoddy repairs. This has resulted in dealers and indy’s going to replacements rather than working on them. What makes this even stranger is the fact that Mercedes, Audi and VW (where the Tips outnumber the other transmissions) also use this exact same transmission and do not suffer from the same problems; dealers and independents’ both rebuild them without issues, simply because they are more understood.