2010 Boxster 2.9L - How bad did I mess up my convertible top?

Ugh! 2010 Boxster 2.9L - How bad did I mess up my convertible top? Yesterday, I hadn’t noticed that while opening my convertible top, I hadn’t noticed the “j” hook-lock didn’t entirely clear the locking plate. I went and opened the top and while opening I heard something “pop” because the “j” hook had gotten caught on the locking plate. The outcome and symptoms after the “pop”: 1) The top does not close (move) with the motor without my pushing it back approximately half way at which point the motor does pull it down into the clamshell. 2) the clamshell does close with its motor. 3) the roof once it goes down under the clamshell, and as the clamshell is closing the roof wants to start coming back up until the clamshell pushes it back down. 4) the clamshell does close entirely and alignment is visually fine. 5) the anchor cables for the top are still attached and intact. 6) not sure what actually caused the “pop” sound. My theory: After reading some past posts associated with convertible top issues, it seems like my top motors got out of sync. Hoping I didn’t break the top gears Seeking help on: 1) what can and should I safely do with the top to avoid more damage to troubleshoot this? 2) any advice on what to check and recommendations for me to fix this? Thank you for reading and any assistance in advance.

Sorry to hear it, @MBL - I'm guessing the loud 'pop' was the white plastic rod connector that may have snapped. It happens to all of us Boxster owners. The plastic part is essentially a fuse that's intended to break so the rest of the system made out of metal doesn't get warped or gear crunched; the motor has a ton of torque. Do a quick search on the forum here and you'll quickly see what I'm talking about; plenty of threads on this -- and that loud POP is a very scary sound to be sure! Thankfully very inexpensive to replace and easy to repair. Let us know how you get on with this. Cheers.

Thank you @foodbiker . I did a bunch of reading and watched a couple videos (search on this site wasn’t so helpful, better to search on Google and many of the links for 2010 Boxster convertible top issues listed here came up in Google). I’m into research, reading product reviews, and shopping for about 2-3 hours so far. I looked without moving or repositioning the top (currently down due fear of doing more damage) the passenger side push rod ball joint DID BREAK. I don’t think the driver side broke (it is in a lower less visible position). So, I ordered three different brands of push rod ball joints from Amazon to cover myself at between $7-11 per pair (one of them was previously purchased and reviewed by none other than @deilenberger himself!). I also read about the convertible top gear possibly shearing off as an outcome of this. Not as many choices as the ball joints to select from at a higher price point of course. So, once I receive the 3 sets of ball joints, move the top into inspection position to install the replacement (per the video guidance). I’ll test the top to see if it works smoothly. Otherwise, I’ll have to remove, disassemble and inspect the gear cartridge (ugh). Note, per the videos I saw there are 3 choices of replacement “top gears”. 1) least expensive (Amazon) purchase in right and left pairs, 2) $36-80 each for individual right and left gear-sprocket only (have to remove and reuse your OEM metal gear “axel” in the new sprocket) on Amazon or AutohausAZ, and 3) $78-85 each right and left steel or brass gear (which I’m not sure to use since the plastic ball joints and gears are meant to act like a “mechanism safety fuse” just for situations like mine). My one concern is after replacing the ball joints, will the side gears be out of sync as well as the clamshell. Anyhow more to follow. And as always thank you to this community!

From the One and Only... Not if you replace the ball sockets correctly. The arms they fit on are pretty easily removed from the bell-crank (the part that rotates outside the gearbox) - you'll need some 1/4" Torx bits in I think 10mm size - and a low profile 1/4" ratcheting wrench. I posted about a kit I found on-line that's ideal for this job.. and cheap. Made IIRC by Gearwrench. You'll remove the screw holding the end at the bell-crank. There should be some rubber washers on either side of it - the older ones used a stepped bushing - but starting around 2009 Porsche went to the rubber washers and called for them to be used when doing repairs on older cars. The rubber washers allow for some rotational movement of the rod assembly relative to the bell-crank. Remove the bolt retaining the one with a broken ball-socket. Mark the threads behind the locknut (if there is one, it really isn't needed..) before loosening it 1/4 turn. Once you've loosened it, thread the old broken part off. Then thread the nice new part back on until it reaches the nut or the tape (if you have no nut) - you want the socket to be the same depth on the threaded rod. Lots of ways to skin that cat - this was is pretty easy... Then reassemble. If you had other than rubber washers on either side of the arm where it fastens to the bell-crank, you may want to order the official Porsche parts. I've tried finding alternatives, but haven't succeeded in finding any that are as long-lasting as the Porsche ones. Then check the other side. The top usually will go up with only one arm connected. It goes up a bit crooked, but it can go up far enough to be fastened. If it doesn't go up at all - it's worth checking both sides. FWIW - as Foodbiker said - we've all BTDT by this time on these tops. I have a module that offers the convenience feature of one-touch up/down for the top. I had that enabled. Worked great until the day I didn't quite get the center hook fully unhooked and pressed the auto-down. It started by making an awful groaning noise, followed by two VERY loud snap noises - and I instantly knew what I'd done. I also knew that I had a spare set of sockets in the trunk ready and waiting to be installed.. so about 2 hours later I got to take my 5 minute drive to the gym, with the top down. This was a clear failure of Eilenberger's Law of Spare Parts "You'll never need the parts you have, and the chance of needing a part is inversely proportional to your distance from said part.." (link to all the laws in my SIG...) But I haven't given up - like you - it's way easy to order multiple items on Amazon (who'da thunk it?) so I have another set of spares in the trunk. BTW - smoosh a bit of blue-loctite on the threads of the bolt that holds the arm to the crank. It will be happier that way.. (DAMHIK, I just do...)

Hi Folks, Status….and for sharing steps taken ( 2010 Boxster 2.9L ): -Compared new ball joint to the original to make sure they are same length and height. -Placed tape on arm to mark where the end of the original ball joint was positioned on the arm. -Initially, tried to remove broken drivers side ball joint from bell-crank arm without removing arm. Got 2/3s of the way off and said not worth it. -So I removed the arm using a 40Torx ratchet bit and compact 1/2” driver -Using a vise and a large screwdriver, positioned the broken ball joint in the vise -Placed the screwdriver through a rigid part of the arm using it as a crank and just loosed it til the broke ball joint was off. -The rubber bushings on the bell-crank arm look good. -There is locking bolt on the arm for the ball socket. -Threaded the nice new ball joint back on until it reached the tape. Used the vise (careful to position new part so the ball joint portion is not in the vise. -Reassembled the crank arm leaving the new ball joint disconnected from the “ball”. Then repeated the steps above for the passenger side ball joint. Yes, it was also broken ☹. -Using a friend to hold top in position, I snapped the new ball joints onto the balls using a wood shim (to not scratch paint) and a small pry bar leveraged against an interior frame beam. A leverage thing not a strength thing. You will hear a nice healthy “snap sound”. -Reassembled the top cables, water shroud, etc. -Now time to test. -First down and into the clamshell. Successful! The top moved successfully (so the gears were not damaged from what I could tell). - Next top up. About half way up, heard a pop! Ugh. The passenger side new ball joint cracked! Just as @deilenberger previously experienced. Glad these parts aren’t expensive! My concern was the gears on each side were out of sync. -So, leaving the top in that position I compared the position, visually compared the position of the bell-crank and arms to one another. They seemed pretty equal. -Knowing my order of additional ball joints hadn’t arrived yet, I just wanted to get the top up. So I gingerly with help of a friend supported the top into the up position and locked it. All dashboard errors cleared confirming microswitches were okay. -A few minutes of digesting observations, I realized the now remaining portion of the passenger side ball joint was less than 1/2 cm from the “ball”. So, I’m thinking that when I threaded the new ball joint onto the bell-crank arm, did the tape used for marking, spin as I threaded it on? I’m thinking when I replaced that ball joint AGAIN, don’t thread as far down the arm as previously. -Waiting for my other order of ball joints from Amazon, same black ones @deilenberger used. Next status to come.

Awaiting next status.. I've never had the tape unscrew with the remnant of the old ball-joint, as you mention there is a lock-nut on the threaded portion that would have to also unscrew... I really don't see that happening. Just wondering about this adjustment: Could that have changed?

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Hi Don, Good thought. I kept an eye on that. It was tight. So, the possibilities are 1) I threaded the new ball joint a little to much or 2) the sides are out of sync. Thoughts?

A very rough description of the top alignment procedure: 1 - make sure the two gearsets are sync'd. There is an alignment mark on the gearset - but the bell-crank must be removed to see it. Reinstall bell-crank. 2 - make sure the back retaining metal cables are installed and adjusted 3 - move top to closed position, using the sliding part of the pushrod to achieve this as needed. I'm going to quote myself from another thread I commented on last night about convertible top adjustment/alignment. Here's what I said in that thread (almost identical to this thread BTW..): Really - if you're serious about DIY, or you just want to know what is involved in doing something so you know if service charges are reasonable - you own a friggin' Porsche for Dog's sake... in the old days you'd have bought a Clymer manual, a Mitchell Manual or any other source for tech info you could - well - those are no longer available, but AllDataDIY is - and for the money it's pretty much priceless.

Don, got it about the AllDataDIY. Do you think 1) above, I threaded the new ball joint a little to much that caused this? The space between the new broken ball joint and the ball is like 1/2 cm which I imagine could have caused the ball joint to break.

Possibly. The ball joint shouldn't have any real pressure on it when the top is fully open or fully closed. It should only have pressure on it during the transition from open to closed or reverse... On mine - the top motor stops just as the two big teeth on the forward edge of the top slide into their receivers on the top of the windshield frame. It's not quite to where the catch pulls it when it's closed, but it is very close to that position, and I think when moved to the locked position the pushrod is not under any pressure.