Your Porsche is a finely tuned piece of engineering, and to keep it running at its best, regular maintenance is key. One often overlooked aspect of this maintenance is changing the oil in your transmission. While many Porsche owners are diligent about changing the engine oil, the transmission often doesn’t receive the same level of attention.

Here we discuss why changing the transmission oil is so important, the different types of transmissions used in Porsches, and how this maintenance task can contribute to the long-term reliability of your car.

Transmission Oil Ages Over both time and mileage.

Just like the engine oil, transmission oil deteriorates with age and with mileage. Simply not using your Porsche brings different issues to using it. Irrespective, the oil becomes contaminated with particles and debris, loses its lubrication properties and the ani corrosion, rubber seal preservation and detergent additives that are part of the oil will diminish.

Changing the oil (and filter if fitted) often noticeably improves the smoothness of shifting on both manual and tiptronic /pdk transmissions.

Different Types of Porsche Transmissions:

Porsches come with various transmission options, such as tiptronic, PDK, and manual gearboxes. Each type has specific requirements for oil specification. Tiptronic and PDK transmissions typically require both an oil change and a filter replacement, while manual gearboxes only need the oil to be drained and refilled.

How often should it be changed?

As your Porsche ages, it’s important to note that the original service recommendations may no longer be entirely suitable for your usage today. Modern advances in lubrication technology and understanding of vehicle performance may dictate different approaches and maintenance intervals. Discuss your Porsche and your usage with our technicians and we can give you our recommendation.

The Impact of Inactivity on the fluids.

Even when your Porsche is not in use, moisture will accumulate inside the engine and transmission. This moisture can lead to corrosion and deterioration of the transmission components.

Additionally:

Brake fluid absorbs moisture from the outside air and this manifests into two problem areas. Corrosion in brake components (often in the ABS units), and the moisture in the fluid reduces the ability to withstand heat of hard use and can lead to ‘boiling’, and/or a ‘mushy’ brake pedal.

Coolant. For those of us with water cooled engines, the coolant should have anti-freeze mixture, however, the properties of anti-freeze in both withstanding low temperatures and preventing the corrosion of cylinder head gaskets also diminish over time. Therefore, testing and, if required, a change is wise.

If your Porsche is new to you, and you have no evidence of transmission oil change being carried out, then please do get in touch.