There is an early Tech service bulletin that seems to be helping some PDK with smoother down shifts. Its an early TSB but it seems to help some production date cars as well

TSB: "WM 373025 ELIMINATING TRANSMISSION SYMPTOMS--RE-PROGRAMMING DME CONTROL UNIT AND PDK CONTROL UNIT (VEHICLE JERKING WHEN CHANGING GEAR)."

 

The TSB is 3730 and it is from June '09.

There is no solid evidence or report that this update (new PDK software according to the TSB) changes anything about the shift behavior as the TSB does not directly address that, but rather a different problem altogether.

I still think a lot of confusion surrounds this "shifting to 1st" in Sport. Even with an MT car, shifting to 1st and fully letting out the clutch just before stopping is going to seem "abrupt" most times. And that is what PDK is doing. I don't hear any "clunk" or anything odd and there's really no lack of smoothness or rev matching problem, the car just engine brakes slightly ahead of my foot braking - not the way I'd normally come to a stop, but it is in Sport and I reckon it wants to be ready to go - and that it is.

So is this wrong or not working as intended? Does the PDK update actually smooth this out somehow while still providing a Sport shift program? I'm still working on how to approach my service guys about this without coming off like a dork.

At least I am fairly confident my car does not have the update because:

1 - I bought it before the TSB came out.
2 - even though I have had it in for mods which required some programming - Voice Control, MF PDK Wheel, there has been absolutely no change in the way my PDK shifts since day one.

I suspect it will be hard to get the TSB applied without having the serious issue it addresses - that would be warranty work, whereas just coming in and having it done out of curiosity will probably be on my dime - or harder for them to justify and charge off to PAG. Unless they lie and say I had a real problem, but there may be other documentation like error codes and other bits of info that PAG wants if that is the case, because they seem to want to know what's up when something doesn't work.

And say I insist on it and they capitulate and do it and possibly charge me for it and then there's no difference. Then I will be the dork that I was trying to avoid becoming.

The simple solution for any of this though - Manual mode - works like a champ.

 

I saw on rennlist forums - people were sharing pics of cracked clamp mounts on exhausts - apparently early 997.2 cars had some issues in that area. Not really PDK but I did not see it discussed on this forum ever, so, not even sure if it`s true or not, for what it`s worth...

 

There is an "active campaign", as they call it, on this. Last time I was in with the Voice Module add, "Clamp Kit Muffl" was done as well, gratis, on my invoice. If you go in for any service, they should check for these "campaigns" and do them under warranty.

 

I gotta say, it`s an October already and for a first year model 997.2 does pretty well as it seems. No major issues at all, not to count those questionable opinions about oil carbon deposits on valves due to direct injection design.