I conferred with some friends who have taken the tune route for their Porsches and all agreed that the only way the clutch would slip with only a tune is if the clutch is somehow damaged or faulty. I am having the car checked soon. One reply from Switzer to me was that this is the first time they've seen this happen with their tune, so as a precautionary measure I'll have my clutch checked and will report back. Even member zzzspeed told me that he ran the car for over 1k miles with his tune until the clutch started giving out. My car, once again, has only 4k miles on it. Let's not forget that its a Porsche and the clutch shouldn't give out this easily.

Another obstacle for me is that the only people who can work on my car are the dealer, and they do not install aftermarket parts as a rule. Literally, I can't upgrade the clutch so this kills my pursuit.

 

No good independent mechanics just the dealership? You would figure that there has to be someone who in your area that is capable of upgrading your clutch.

 

Thats how small this place is

 

Hi MC321,

Yes, you are right - this a Porsche. Just a comparison - in my GT3 with 35000Km the clutch went..but with some track driving..so 4000miles is nothing.

Coming to your dealer, well, yes, official dealers do not like aftermarket/tuning parts - but they will install them - as long as you pay them their hours....for money Porsche dealers will do a lot of things

Of course, when they install tuning parts/aftermarket parts - they will inform you that any sub-part related warranty has gone ..and if Im not mistaken they will note that in the electronic maintenance file related to the chassis no..again not very good either I would say..

Wishing you good luck over there..

 

Try SMS performance Garage...
they can get this job done for you. They have very good experience with porsche. Couple of their mechanics use to work in RUF bahrain previously.

I tried them before. they know what they are doing.

 

Thanks for the advice. What exactly did they do for you? I've heard mixed reviews.

 

A clutch is a wearable part, like brake pads and oil. Just have it replaced with a known uprated unit and put the tune back in. We will all be more happy knowing that you have a solid driveline and more power.

 

That's the plan once I find a shop.. still surprised that a relatively new Porsche clutch will slip from a tune.. it's kind of disappointing from a GT2

 

why is it disappointing?

IMHO Porsche would have designed that clutch for the power of the car, plus a reasonable excess margin for durability.

let's say you're getting 600hp after mods, that's 13% over what the engineers designed the clutch for. and the old days are over where manufacturers had to overbuild components because sophisticated computer modelling didn't yet exist.

it would be disappointing if you had premature clutch failures on a stock car (which is why people were rightly up in arms over the ridiculous failures on gen1 PCCB's). if the clutch holds up fine on a stock GT2 despite repeated heavy track use-- something the car was intended for after all-- then you did get what you paid for, I think.

peace man! good luck with sorting it out. i think you really just need to decide whether you're willing to put up with the hassle of having to upgrade some things, once you go the modding route, or say feck it all and just stay stock, with the peace of mind that brings.

EITHER is perfectly valid, and many of us have had that ongoing debate in our heads for some time i'm sure.

 

Thanks for your input.

Just to shed some light and repeat some of the facts mentioned earlier:

When I installed the tune, my car had approx. 6,000 kms (roughly 3,800 miles) only. Before the tune, the car has NEVER been tracked or driven hard. Before the tune, the car has 512whp, and after it had 544whp. This gives 6.25% increase in whp, which is not a major jump. I could possibly get close power gains with bolt-ons. The problem occured on my way to my first ever track day in this car.

What I did not check when I dyno'd the car is torque, so that increase may be significant over stock, but still, I am disappointed. There could be mitigating factors (ie. previous owner did not drive it properly, or drove it hard without disclosing this to me), but still, can't help but feel let down. I had a tuned EVO with close to 30%+ gains over stock and I could still manage to drive it hard a few thousands km's before upgrading the clutch.