Thanks, pumptech. Answers a lot of questions.
Do you recommend anybody in the Houston area?

 

btw, 150 miles later, we are all good. the conductor plate fix is holding

 

nah i really don't know of anyone in particular. either porsche dealer should be able to do it but they dont have the part. they get it from MB. any MB dealer should be able to get it done as well. call MB dealer and if they dont want to do it who do they recommend for aftermarket repairs. ask roadsession how much porsche charged fro the plate replacement.

good to hear roadsession!! that could have been a bit more expensive had you not looked in to it some.

 

Porsche charged me $600 for the conductor plate - which they tried to source from MB but couldn't get confirmation on exact fit, so they sourced it from PCNA. (The valve body would have been $1500 at least). Then there was the transmission fluid, and then labor to diagnose and repair - all in came around $1600.

I was happy for the $1600 and the extra diagnosis time they spent because the default fix for this condition is to change both valve body and TCU - which alone costs over $2,000 in parts.

 

Holy cow!!! That's a lot!! Here is the part for $138

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00B6DBJPK/ref=redir_mdp_mobile?camp=1789&creative=390957&cre ativeASIN=B00B6DBJPK&linkCode=as2&redirect=true&re f_=as_li_ss_tl&tag=everybenz-20

Buy this urself and take it to who is gonna fix it. I don't know ur mechanical skills but its certainly something that can be done as DIY if you follow the fluid fill instructions carefully!

 

I am pretty mechanical. Had actually planned on replacing fluid and filter myself before this issue. I was hoping to be able to identify the correct part number before dropping the pan. Being all in for less than $200, is a lot of motivation.

 

there are some older and newer part numbers from MB. i personally would buy a newer one but the older ones will work and are likely what you have. the part numbers that i can find are 1402700761 0161, 0361. As cheap as these are and as common as the failure is I would recommend anyone who pulls their pan replace this plate as a routine maintenance item. Especially if being done as DIY and your only costs are parts.

 

What you decide to do??

 

Plan to attempt it this weekend. Received all of the parts this week, so I should be good to go.

 

Lets hear it!!! I know it was hot if nothing else.

 

Ended up only changing the filter and fluid. Could not access the electrical connector that has to be removed. It is located on the top side of tranny and above some coolant lines. I could only get one finger on it. Just the fluid change made a huge difference in the shifting. The old fluid was pretty torched. I hope this was all it needed, but if the problem reoccurs I will probably take it to a shop - unless I can figure out how to get to the electrical connector.

Yes, it was very hot. The instructions say to run the car until the fluid reaches 30-40C for the first level check, but the ambient temp was 38C so that did not take long.

 

The connector is a ***** to get off .. It can be done though.

 

Agree. I could reach the tab with one finger. Getting back on had me worried. I gave up after fighting it for a couple of hours. I think removing/disconnecting the coolant lines would have helped, but I did not know where that was going to take me.

 

Well hopefully that will solve ur issue.

 

Any updates?