World's Best DCT. Porsche PDK. How it works.......Part 2........ 

Do I own a Porsche? No. Did I still watch and learn something cool? Yes, I did.

the valve body is like a integrated circuit of hydraulics and the solenoids are like transistors, pressure regulators are amplifiers ... i am truly amazed how complex it is and that it actually works.

Well done old chap! In my half century of driving Fords to Ferraris I try to keep an open mind about learning new things and though initially daunted by the length of these videos I’ve found them captivating from end to end and learned a whole new slew of insights, even on things I thought were simple and I fully understood. You have an excellent way of explaining and demonstrating through graphics and practicals that very few on RU-vid have been able to achieve, a true talent!😀👍🏎

My 981 is my daily driver. Passing 78,000 miles now. It's good to know the 'mystery' of these marvelous PDK's is finally being revealed. I'm chaning trans fluids every 40,000 miles. Shooting for 250,000 miles 🤣

What a fantastic video, I worked for Porsche as a technician for 10 years and still found this video very interesting and helpful. Absolute pleasure to watch thank you.

Man! I am lost for words. Just finished watching both parts of this. Videos like this are the ones that need a million subscribers and views. This is a master class Jeff. Truly appreciate it.

You deserve PhDs in mechanical engineering, video production and education for this. Well done! I can imagine the time you spent but I appreciate it.

dude - you deserve a price for that series. Hats off!

This is the best PDK description I have ever seen in RU-vid. Thank you so much for the content. Your video really helped me understand the way the PDK transmission works, and I now can really plan on how to maintain this transmission.

Glad I drive a manual 😂 I dont think I could work on one of these PDKs, but they are absolute marvels and fascinating to see how it all works.

Amazing tutorial!

Never seen such a well provided porsche content like the one in this channel. Much appretiation jeff:)

Thanks for all your hard work in producing all these wonderful videos. This is the best video i have ever seen on transmissions. Everything is explained clearly. Throughly a very enjoyable video.

My brain is full. What a great series!

Excellent follow-up to the first video, with first class explanation and visuals. This video goes to show why the electro-hydraulic control functions of the DCT/PDK box took so many decades to come to fruition. Kudos on the production of these videos. As a Porsche owner and automotive engineer, they were a pleasure to watch 👍

Fascinating, well presented description of this PDK transmission. Thanks.

This was the best video on RU-vid when it comes to dct transmissions

Excellent illustrative lesson on the excellent PDK. Chalk it up to the Italians for creating the modern Electro/Hydraulic actuated gearbox. Although my old F355 F1 box does not use a twin clutch (single), nor is wet (dry). Fortunately (for it wears faster) it is relatively easy to replace the clutch as it’s at the end of the gearbox. Fortunately too, it is otherwise a robust unit. It’s also much slower to shift, although still faster than the equivalent manual. Throttle blipping by one’s own foot, makes it all the more smoother experience. Oh and the F1 unit does not use a parking pawl, nor does the DCT in my Alfa 4c. I would also submit that the American Engineered Tremic DCT that has been supplied to ford (GT500) and C8 Covette is every bit as good as this PDK unit. Extremely robust unit. And of course let’s not forget Ferrari within multi iterations remains a leader in this field.

What a feat of reverse engineering! This is very impressive and helpful work. Thank you for taking the time to do the work and make the video.

Amazing set of videos... I've wondered how automatic transmissions work for years & with your help, it's beginning to make sense. Thank you!!

my brain melted!

Great Videos simplifying complexity! If my mind were a yoga position, I’ve gone from Child’s Pose, to Backbend, to Reverse Warrior, to King Dancer, to Triangle, to Cobra, to Downward Dog, to Happy Baby, and finally, to Corpse! But what a ride! 😊

Thanks for taking the time to put this together, Jeff! My dad and I have really enjoyed the technical but easy to follow information about this mysterious box living inside my new-to-me 991.1 C2. We're long time BMW DIYers and brand new to Porsche ownership. At this very moment I'm in the lobby of a renown indie after having dropped the car off for its first oil change under my ownership. It's a 2013 with 28k miles. I think I'm going to opt to wait to do the full PDK service (clutch/gear oil/pan/filter) until I hit 30k miles unless you suggest otherwise. No PDK symptoms aside from clunky shift into 1st gear which I'm told is normal. Otherwise shifts like a dream. Thanks again! Cheers from the US.

Great video, and part 1. The valve block strikes me as like a 2 layer printed circuit board with conducting through-holes. I imagine the layout could have been done on PCB layout CAD software and auto-routed. I think this routing would have been an easy job for a PCB engineer. Far more layers are used nowadays in PCBs.

This is such a terrific series. I can't imagine the time and dedication invested here but truly appreciate it!

I knew the basics, but after seeing this, I take my head off to the engineers who designed all this.

Been hyped for this video since part 1. Thanks again for ur awesome presentation in both parts

thank you so much for spending time on this Jeff, incredible work on both videos!! Fantastic way to explain it

Jeff you're the man, every car guy's buddy!

OMG! Hy head hurts so bad now! 😵 Don't think I would go the DIY route on my 981 PDK box...🤔 Great vid! 👍🏻

Hell Jeff, what you do is absolutely amazing. Thank you for that. As a suggestion (maybe you are already planning on it) to have a section for common failures and fixes. I see the valves and position sensor as the most possible issues. This can save people a lot of money.

This is a truly excellent production. Thank you for the effort!

Very well done and I’m really happy about finding your channel. I‘m a ZF employed student and this transmission has a special place in the museum in the ZF Headquarters, but until now, nobody had really explained to me how it worked. So thank you and keep it up!

Excellent video. As a mechanical engineer I can see how you did a lot of work to figure this out and create the content. Thank you for that. It’s amazing the GM created the first modern automatic transmission back in 1940! Of course it’s all mechanical but it’s quite the innovation given those times. Those crafty Germans have taken it to the next level with the dual clutch. It solves the race for quick shifting brilliantly.

Top nerdiness marks tonight Jeff😂😂😂

Fantastic work, you deserve a medal or two

感恩了解，謝謝分享！

A short word of appreciation for creating these 2 fascinating videos sir :) For sure am recommending this to some fellow automotive engineering geeks. Enjoyed watching it thoroughly, cheers!

thank you for the time you spent to make this video its awesome

Amazing

What a great pair of videos!! (Part 1 and Part 2.) Thank you Jeff for posting these two videos.

A really interesting, well explained video. Thanks very much for the hours of work involved.

Well done!

Amazing! God work explaining a PDK!

Brilliant set of videos Jeff - thanks 😄

Amazing content, thank you for taking time to explain and post 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

The explanation of fluid flow & solenoid position is like current flow and switch position in a 3 (or more)-way electric circuit ON STEROIDS. 😂

I hope you can get your hands on the 8 gear pdk2 from a 911 at some point. It has a lot of changes in the oil pressure system. Like injection cooling of the gears and also can lower and higher the pressure from the oil pump for fuel efficiency or speed. The 911 version, also of PDK1, can have a variable differential lock, unlike the boxter one where the locking mechanism is at a fixed rate. Only problem is it's much more difficult to take apart or rebuild it without a large amount of special equipment.

Madness, how many people did it take to figur this out, design and prototype, etc? Knowing the principle is one thing but if your prototype does what you want is another. The mechanical basis isn't that complex, but using springs, sync rings, valves, etc, etc & software. The whole choreography?

I have seen valves that take the limited power of a solenoid to open a valve that has flow/pressure requirements that the solenoid can't handle. Since the force needed for a solenoid to move the valve is proportional to the size of the piston it is pushing and or pulling, a small piston is used to allow a small flow of fluid that then pushes open a larger valve to get the flow required. That seems simpler than having a system that needs 2 different pressures.

This is awesome and I have a manual Cayman !

Pretty amazing engineering. I can't imagine what it takes to purge the air from the valve body on first fill.

+ this vid has made me Subscribe+ don’t think I’m a nerd tho lol just love knowing how mechanic things operate🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Might be worth adding that the "Split Ring" Synchromesh was patented in 1947 by a certain Dr. Ing. Ferdinand Porsche...

This reminds me, so much of a tipical farm tractor transmission. They also have a button or paddle to push or pull, to shift. Than again, ZF builds transmissions and front axles for farm tractors. The clutch and valve body parts are very similar. 🙄

Great content, thanks so much. I would just offer than the duty cycle at 13:46 is perhaps better described as DC = a/(a+b) x 100

The best part is if you get a seal or washer the wrong way around or a blockage due to debris it won't work. You won't have just that gear or area not working as its all pressure linked. You won't just have a rattle or noise that you would if say a 2nd gear syncro is worn in a manual gearbox. Triple the hp and the clutch basket explodes. You should ask Dodson Motorsport to send you a lunched one

Great analysis and explanation. I love my 981 and find the PDK to be superb. Hoping to get many more kms out of mine before having to delve into the guts of the beast for repairs. At least it looks like solenoids and electrics are the most likely failure points.

awesome Jeff- would be cool to see how it compares to BMW's getrag DCT. After driving both, both have pros and cons

Thank you for the amazing content, everything is well described and easy to understand for the layman. On the duty cycle I'm sorry to nitpick but the duty factor/cycle is a/(a+b) * 100 not a/b * 100 (because otherwise a 50/50 signal would be 100% which it's not)

Awesome videos, it's very interesting. What about Valve Body. It's like a two layer PCB, not that tricky as it looks. For example, a PC motherboard has up to 12 layers and is way more complicated.

Lord is that thing complicated!

My head hurts : )

Quick question: the PWM of the electrical signals to the valves, I’m assuming this is at a high frequency and the coil damps the effect to open the valve partially and in proportion to the mark space ratio? And not that the bale is flickering up and down in mechanical motion matching the mark space ratio? And many many thanks for these two amazing videos. I’m totally your target audience, not a true mechanic just interest to learn a bit more, and your detail diagrams complexity and pace was absolutely perfect for me.

Surely only spice consuming wizards from Germany aka mechanical engineers have the magic ability to create the metal labyrinth known as a valve body.

You're hired! Seriously, having seen the design I start to believe the transmission is actually quite cheap. :)

thx for this video Q: how hot can oil in PDK get ?

Great video! Many thanks for detailed explanation. I wonder how it bleed out air pockets during oil changes.

So does the gear set use the same fluid from the differential then?

That's quite a long way to say, "It's magic."

Germanic Technology 💪💪💪

I read an article by Paul Van Valkenburg on the origin of the automatic transmission. Still can't tell how they work without advanced education. Great job.

The Macan also has a 7 speed PDK.

Terrific content - thank you so much for doing this! Based on the design, how much stress do you think there is on the transmission using the paddles to up and down shift? On my BMW, my dealer says manual shifting stresses the transmission and for optimal longevity, it should be allowed to shift itself. What do you think?

Does the manual 718 transmission have this same type of fluid cooling system/transmission oil cooler?

The magic is to run 2-3 gears at the same RPM (by gear setting angle) and allow the gearbox within millisecods of the pre-syncronised gears to overtake the next gear. No synchro time, as the gears shafts are still running synchron - did i get it right?

I’m keen to learn, but I’m off to lie down in a darkened room.

I have a question, are you able to change a 981 gt4 Porsche into a pdk from manual ?

Why is it that in all transmissions solenoids dump the pressure outside of valve body when they are turned off why they can't just cut the flow of oil to the valves?

Question is my pdk in Panamera has 130k and don’t think ever serviced. Should I service now or don’t touch it? That is the wuestion

Just as I finish watching part 1, this gets published. Coincidence or aliens?

most sports cars? Perhaps in Europe and Australia, but the manual take rate was substantially higher in the United States

How can I contact you for a question?

It's my understanding that Porsche has an "Electronic Locking Differential". Can you show how that works? I've also heard the differential design is an improvement on the Torsen design, can you speak to how that works?

How reliable are these transmissions?

What tha hell did i just watch?? who came up with this stuff?? Damn

Nice work breaking it down. I'm not a fan of PDK as I'm a Driver and love control of manual that is so easy and cheap to service on your own.. ;-D

So using a low pressure fluid valve to contol the position of a second valve to distribute high pressure fluid is similar to an electrical relay or contactor?

Valve body looks complicated to design and machine too 🥲. i think the future trans is automated manual in terms of simplicity and also weight.