986 Tiptronic Error (Flashing between D/4)
 

I have a 2000 2.7 Boxster 986. I can't seem to keep up with fixing it recently as everything keep breaking on it and its such a shame as I really love the car. It was literally in the garage less than a week ago having a new oxygen sensor fitted as it was misfiring. I've also had a huge amount of work carried out on it recently at the dealer (RMS, Coilpacks, spark plugs, full service, engine and gearbox cleaned, gearbox seals changed, exhaust mounts, brakes, aircon pipes etc etc) so I just want the car working again! I only mention this work as I wonder if the gearbox work could be related to my issue and before I have to book my car in yet again, I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions.

Basically every so often the car gear selector chart on the instrument cluster flashes between P/R/N/D (depending on which is engaged) and 4th gear, even if you aren't in 4th gear. Researching this suggests that this is a warning for a fault with the tip gearbox.

The weird thing is though that the car seems to be shifting gears quite happily, doesn't feel like there is an issue. It doesn't seem to let me go into manual mode when this fault occurs but I think that's a precaution of the error light?

I tried resetting everything by disconnecting the battery, this seemed to solve it for a couple days, then it happened again tonight albeit only for about a minute, then it went back to normal.

Anyone got any ideas what could be causing this? Thanks for any suggestions.

Yes, stop disconnecting the battery as you lose all of the accumulated computer data that could tell you what is wrong, and the next time the car does it, get it scanned with a Porsche specific scan tool. That should kick out codes that will point you in the direction of what is needed.

Please add this and the solution to this thread so we have everything about Tips in one place. Thanks!
http://986forum.com/forums/performance-technical-chat/56542-official-unofficial-tiptronic-thread.html

Yes, listen to JP. You need to have the code that is thrown when this happens. In my case the code said it was the atf temperature sensor that was at fault. I replaced the electrical harness in the bottom of the transmission (not difficult, just a bit messy) fixed everything.