Help - car completely dead - can't get into neutral for towing

[Henke]

I had something similar happen to me a year ago, it ended up needing a new "electronics control unit" which is some sort of controller that sits between the 12V battery and everything else I guess.
Here's my post: https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/threads/taycan-immobilized-after-entering-privacy-mode.16547/

They are thinking one of the possible culprits could be the control unit. The Taycan tech couldn’t communicate with the car at all as the pcm and dash will not turn on at all. So they are going to take the dashboard apart next week and access it that way - apparently.

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[hifi239]

The usual tow problem is where a car is stuck in park and/or the steering wheel won't unlock. An automatic ICE car will roll in drive. At least my Taycan will also roll in drive. I know this because it rolls backwards on a hill if I don't brake or activate the hold mode. I wonder why the subject Taycan could not have been pulled onto the flatbed in drive with the power off? It is possible it did go into park when it powered off, but didn't display that (dash was dead).

 

[Henke]

The usual tow problem is where a car is stuck in park and/or the steering wheel won't unlock. An automatic ICE car will roll in drive. At least my Taycan will also roll in drive. I know this because it rolls backwards on a hill if I don't brake or activate the hold mode. I wonder why the subject Taycan could not have been pulled onto the flatbed in drive with the power off? It is possible it did go into park when it powered off, but didn't display that (dash was dead).

The car did go into Park when I powered off even though there was a warning that it may not be able to Park (& in fact at some point was rolling unless i activated the foot brake). That is pretty much the last thing I remember seeing was the P symbol illuminated.

He only had to put skates on the rear wheels, the front wheels rolled.

 

[f1eng]

Surely "neutral" is meaningless in an EV - ?

The literal word will be meaningless, yes, but there seems to be an equivalent free-wheel mode which they presumably gave the same name to to avoid confusing non-technically minded folk.

The front motor is direct drive, so no clutch and if the wheels rotate so will the motor and whilst the rear is 2-speed one of them is engaged at all times so the same is true.

I imagine they just call whatever electrical and transmission lock they have in park "neutral" when disabled even though there is indeed no neutral in a Taycan transmission.

 

[Dee]

I think "neutral" means it's not going to charge the battery when towed.
In other words: the motors, which are connected directly to the wheels, work as a generator and produce electricity.
To get rid of the resistance of the generators it'll "short circuit" the several pole pairs in the stator so it doesn't generate electricity but uses it to create an magnetic field, like the rotor has so it doesn't have resistance anymore.
Something like that.

 

[tchavei]

At least my Taycan will also roll in drive. I know this because it rolls backwards on a hill if I don't brake or activate the hold mode.

Really?

Mine won't. It will immediately switch to hold and stop the car if it detects rolling backwards (tried multiple times, many unwanted too. It actually plasters you to the ground). Only way to let it roll is to put it into N (neutral or whatever it is).

 

[Henke]

Really?

Mine won't. It will immediately switch to hold and stop the car if it detects rolling backwards (tried multiple times, many unwanted too. It actually plasters you to the ground). Only way to let it roll is to put it into N (neutral or whatever it is).

yes but is it only stopping the rear wheels? Mine does that too when it rolls back. My car was completely off but probably in P

 

[hifi239]

Really?

Mine won't. It will immediately switch to hold and stop the car if it detects rolling backwards (tried multiple times, many unwanted too. It actually plasters you to the ground). Only way to let it roll is to put it into N (neutral or whatever it is).

Ok, I’m trying that. Thanks. Maybe I didn’t roll back far enough for hold to kick in.

 

[Henke]

Well no good update after one full week in the dealer. They could not access the car and after communicating with Porsche, they have been told to run a battery test as the next step. They cannot begin that until Tuesday/Wednesday and it will take a couple of days to remove the battery and run the test. So if I am lucky we MAY have some diagnosis at the end of next week, 2 weeks after they got the car. I cannot see myself getting the car back any sooner than December at this rate.

 

[catpupu]

Well no good update after one full week in the dealer. They could not access the car and after communicating with Porsche, they have been told to run a battery test as the next step. They cannot begin that until Tuesday/Wednesday and it will take a couple of days to remove the battery and run the test. So if I am lucky we MAY have some diagnosis at the end of next week, 2 weeks after they got the car. I cannot see myself getting the car back any sooner than December at this rate.

It's been a month, how did it go?

 

[Henke]

It's been a month, how did it go?

I eventually got the car back after 5 weeks. The AC drip pan leaked onto a central control unit and fried it. Most of the time spent was because they could not access the car and had to keep going back and forward to Porsche to get approvals. This even delayed the control unit as that needs central Porsche approval apparently. Once the control unit was replaced, they had to also replace the carpet but it solved the issue, thankfully.

 

[Wakesurfer]

I eventually got the car back after 5 weeks. The AC drip pan leaked onto a central control unit and fried it. Most of the time spent was because they could not access the car and had to keep going back and forward to Porsche to get approvals. This even delayed the control unit as that needs central Porsche approval apparently. Once the control unit was replaced, they had to also replace the carpet but it solved the issue, thankfully.

So I will highjack this thread just a bit. I am assuming that this was covered under warranty, but did the dealer give you the cost of this repair? So, here is where I am going.............I would guess that the cost is in the thousands of $$$$. I cannot imagine owning this car without an extended warranty - the repair costs make the car not worth keeping past any (new car or extended) warranty.

 

[Henke]

So I will highjack this thread just a bit. I am assuming that this was covered under warranty, but did the dealer give you the cost of this repair? So, here is where I am going.............I would guess that the cost is in the thousands of $$$$. I cannot imagine owning this car without an extended warranty - the repair costs make the car not worth keeping past any (new car or extended) warranty.

The car is under three years old, I didn't pay a dime. I also got the brake recall done which took care of a brake flush which was due on the car at no cost. When I purchased the car, I also bought the extended 10 year warranty.

They did not tell me how much the cost would be, it said N/C on the invoice.

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