Top Partially Failed Today; Could Fix Be This Easy - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

First Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all. May Ferry bring you all nice gifts. I have a 2000 986 with right at 100K miles, have owned it for about 2 years now (also have other Porsches: '73 911, '73 914 project, '83 948 project, '86 928S, '88 924S). Top has made some noise from the passenger side since I got it. Today (80+ degrees in Austin), decided to put top down and it failed part way in the retraction process. With help of a friend I managed to get the top down fully, got it home, opened it up part way (as if you were doing top engine work -- with the additional complexity that I have a glass rear window on a 3 rib top) and discovered one of the top guy cables (passenger side) had sheared, replaced it, and the top appears to be functional again. However, it still makes noise so I decided to poke around a bit and understand the mechanics/geometry of how this top works. On my inspection, I found that the motor arm-to-tonneau cover arm pivot has what looks like a plastic or rubber bushing/washer that has all but failed. See attached picture. Could this be the source of my noise (making that passenger side top motor work hard), and if so, is the fix really as easy as it appears: simply replace that washer/bushing? Is this as easy as it looks? Or once I get that pivot bolt out, will I be in a world of hurt, e.g., not be able to get it back in again? Does anyone know where I can get that washer/bushing?

You can try the stealerships but I doubt if you could just get the rubber bushings. They will sell you the whole arm with the bushings. Best bet is to ask around in the classified on this forum. While back I was able to get the whole arm with the bushings from Itsnotanova for cheap. The second time it happened I was able to get both arms from a gentleman here at the forum for $20. Just be patient and hopefully someone might have it. Good Luck and Happy Holidays!

It looks like you need the "bush" 999 924 039 00 bush 986 561 779 00 spacer sleeve 900 249 054 09 countersunk-head screw Probably very reasonable from Porsche, or try Pelican.

Here's that rubber piece at Pelican. I like to keep a few on hand. https://www.pelicanparts.com/cgi-bin/smart/more_info.cgi?pn=986-561-881-00-M1253

Thanks everyone for the info. Really helps, hope I can pay it back to the forum sometime (though at only 2 years into ownership, I am more likely to be a knowledge sink rather than a source for some time still). Based on your comments, sounds like these things fail a lot. So a couple of questions. I get the bushing and the head screw, but what's the spacer sleeve, and do I need a new one of those as well as the bushing (if it's metal, then probably not?). In terms of actually replacing the bushing, is it as easy as it looks, i..e., I can replace it in-place without having to fight too much tension in the arm, or or is is more involved, e.g., do I need to remove the arm at either what looks like that pinch bolt in the middle of the arm (slide adjustment of the arm?) or the plastic screw adjustment at the end in order to press the bushing into the arm. (As one of you mentioned replacing the whole arm, it sounds like perhaps the bushing doesn't go into the arm that easily?) Finally, maybe it's time for me to download the official maintenance manual -- as to date all I've needed to do is put gas in it, check tire pressure, replace a couple of bulbs and change the oil (and that pesky fuel filler sensor). Is there a pdf online somewhere?

Most likely all of the metal pieces are still good and you just need to replace the rubber part. The pinch bolt should probably be left alone, pop the ball socket off of the top frame while the top is in the 'service position'. If your top is making bad noises it may be a cracked gear in the transmission for the top. Here's a tech article about how to replace the gear: https://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticles/Boxster_Tech/BODY_Convertible_Top_Gear_Replacement/BODY_Convertible_Top_Gear_Replacement.htm For a PDF manual, there are eBay sellers that have it online/CD for about $5. For most owner maintenance, the Bentley Manual https://www.amazon.com/Porsche-Boxster-Service-Manual-1997-2004/dp/083761645X is as good as the PDF version of the service manual.

Thanks. I'll start with the bushing to get the tonneau to fully close properly, then see if I still have the noise, in which case I'll move on to the gear inside the motor. I looked at the Pelican article, but nothing about the plastic gear part itself. Do you have a part number or link to it at Pelican?

78F350, can you point me to an online manual? I checked eBay and elsewhere, but couldn't find one. Bushing came in, but it's been cold here (for Texas), going to replace it today. Also going to read the comprehensive Pelican article on convertible top repairs to see what else I should check/inspect (like the tonneau top/clamshell dampers). Also I have a glass window on a 3 rib top, so getting into some semblance of a service position is a little trickier.

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There used to be plenty on eBay, but Porsche may have gone after eBay for allowing it. Here's what I see now: https://www.ebay.com/itm/402910695521? I am not recommending it, just saying it's the closest listing to what used to be available. If you search the internet for "Porsche 986 Workshop Manual PDF download" there are plenty of results, but I'm not sure I trust any of them. How good is your antivirus software? I may still have an extra Bentley Manual that I could sell for less than the Amazon listing. You may also find some good info looking through here: https://bentleypubs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/tech/pages/437453615/Porsche+Boxster+MY+1997-2005+986

Lots of good information about tops on these pages: https://sites.google.com/site/mikefocke2/thetop-itsmaintaincereplacement

Thanks all. Been a little quiet: I've had a Land Rover Discovery II, 924S and a Fiat X1/9 of mine all requiring priority interrupts ahead of my top/clamshell troubleshooting. Replaced the bushing today -- bought the OEM Porsche one from Pelican -- and top is operating much better/smoother and without issues, though the tonneau/clamshell is sitting about an 1/8" higher on both the front and rear on the side I just fixed (passenger) compared to the contiguous fixed body panels (the driver side of the clamshell aligns perfectly). (correction: the misalignment is less than 1/8" but more than 1/16", noticeable both visually and by feel.) Upon removal and inspection, it appears that the old bushing had been "repaired" with some glue/silicon seal rather than replaced: the thin copper(?) flanged bushing insert on that pivot point was all gummed up with black goo from that repair. Perhaps the previous owner did the quickie repair on the rubber bushing rather than replace it, then adjusted the clamshell pushrod to compensate? Or maybe the tonneau cover was always a bit off on one side, and I just never noticed. In reading the link sent by BFeller, it appears that the clamshell can get tweaked/bent if something jams up in the top mechanism, which might well be the case as the pivot arm linkage plastic ball cup on the side in question is white. Were the original ball cups red plastic, which would indicate that this arm has been replaced in the past, maybe because the original cup sheared from some failure? In any case, now that I've seen the modest misalignment, my OCD compels me that I get it right, which presumably means I need to make a minor adjustment (shortening) to that linkage arm on the passenger side to get the tonneau to pull down snugly. It appears to me that there are two (correction, three) ways to effect such an adjustment: 1) by loosening the pinch bolt on the arm and shortening it a bit (maybe one magic marker mark width to start?); or 2) by disconnecting the linkage arm from the "boomerang" and turning it one or two more times into white plastic ball joint connector the metal push rod is screwed into to shorten the overall arm length (I am guessing that 1 turn would be a 1/16 of an inch and two turns an eighth. 3) (correction) by raising or lowering that rubber bumper (adjusted by a 32mm nut) at each rear corner of the clamshell (this from the link from BFeller). Does this make sense? Is there yet a different way to adjust the tonneau/clamshell fit when closed? I know someone on this thread recommended to NOT loosen that pinch bolt on the linkage arm, in which case I should go with option 2 then? And 78F350, thanks for the Bentley offer, going try to download a pdf version first if I can as like having an electronic version I can annotate (my OCD kicking in again: I have 15+ cars and 5 motorcycles, and have the manuals electronically for most of them; the Boxster has been so trouble-free, I haven't really had to think about it 'til now).

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If you are not already on The GRM forums, you should probably go there. It's like a support group/gathering of enablers for people with 15+ cars and 5 motorcycles. https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/latest-topics/

Lol, you're not the first to suggest an intervention. Unfortunately, I hang around with other like-minded folks, so it becomes a bit of a bubble (all have at least 4 cars beyond the daily driver). I put the top in service mode again, took off those plastic hinge covers, poked around (I now understand that it is the hydraulic pivot arm that moves the clamshell and not the other pivot arm) and played around with jiggling the clamshell on both sides. My problem side (passenger side), clearly has more play in it than the other side. Problem appears to be that I have some "slack" in the transmission on one side that is not present on the other. I am pretty sure that this "play" (about 5 degrees of free rotational movement in the passenger transmission, zero play at all in the driver side transmission) is keeping that side of the clamshell from pulling down as snugly as I would like. FYI, I checked the V/boomerang arm bolt to be sure it was tight in case that's where the play was and it was tight. Looks like I am either going to have to rebuild that transmission with a new plastic gear or find a good used one. Thoughts?

Replacing the plastic gears is pretty straight forward and Pelican has a good tech article on the procedure. There's probably a dozen YouTubes too. Tip: I bought the cheapest gears I could find on eBay thinking that they were all the same. Bad decision. The left and right side gears are supposed to be angled in opposite directions. The ones I received were marked Left and Right, but both angled the same. I didn't find out it was wrong until after I had the top all back together. Buy from a place like Pelican, ECS, or FCP Euro (I don't think actual dealerships sell them).