996 Hardtop problems

When I picked the car up a couple of weeks ago from the dealers, there was a really bad rattle coming from the rear, which wasn't there when I went for a test drive. I thought it may have been the rear seat belts or rear seat backs rattling, but after taking the hardtop off for the first time at the weekend, I have identified the problem to be linked with the roof. However, I noticed that because the hardtop has obviously been rattling, especially when going over bumps in the road, it has marked the soft top that was stowed underneath. Around the rear bolts there were two plastic fittings, that have been rubbing on the fabric of the roof. RichardH kindly sent me a PDF document about the hardtop, but these two plastic pieces are not mentioned. Has anyone else had experience of this and is there a solution? My immediate thought was to put some felt tape on the bottom of these plastic fittings, but I am not sure that these are the only source of the rattle. I also wondered if there is a part missing at the rear? I am still waiting for a replacement locking mechanism cover from the dealer, which was missing when I collected the car. Secondly, is there anything I can do to improve the look of the soft top? There are the usual crease marks behind the drivers window and now these wear marks above the windscreen frame. But there are also three mystery circles, which are as if someone has rubbed the top clean with a detergent cleaner. However, they are perfectly circular and all three are perfectly in line. One is above the drivers window, another is in the same position on the passenger side and one is in the dead centre of the roof. Cheers Lee

Afraid I cannot help really, but can confirm my 997 also has 2 perfect circles, as does a friend's.

Ours has them too.....top circles! :lol: I tried the usual renovation stuff (Renovo), but, despite the claims made, it hardly made any difference. We're saving up for a new top! :roll: Pete

I wondered if the circles were because the top had been pretreated with something, because they were identified by Porsche as areas that were prone to getting dirty when the top is stowed. Anyhow, they look crap in my opinion and I would like to sort them out. I thought about using the Renovo stuff, but I am sceptical about the claims made about most of these 'wonder' products. (Apart from Cillit Bang, but I wont be using that on the top!)

Some people report good results with the stuff....including on here....but TBH I wasn't impressed with it. Perhaps our top had gone too far for it to do any good. :dont know: Pete

Seems to be a general Porsche issue, as mine has the two circles, as did my Boxster. The two circles are not from the hardtop, they are from the rising panel (don't know its technical name) that lifts/lowers each time you raise/lower the soft top. About half of the soft top is stored beneath it and there are locating points under it. If you raise your soft top and stop it halfway you will see where it all sits. This time of year, if you are putting the hard top back on for the whole winter, always stop the soft top roof half-way down and make sure sure its not sitting creased. I've used the soft top renovation stuff to completely refurbish what was a blue hood into a black hood. Result was ok considering I did it myself, but don't be tempted to use on large areas on sunny days as drying 'tide-marks' are almost impossible to remove.

did you find the rattle? if not does your hardtop have bayonet fittings? if so this was one of the main causes and they were replaced by screw type fittings

soft top HI EAZITH Dont know about the rings but i used AG soft top cleaner and water proofer twin pack on my black soft top works realy well, deepened the black and the water beads on the roof the same as the body. You can get it from hailfords. regards Steve

I took the car to my local OPC on the way home, which is not the one that I collected it from last week. They agree that something is not quite right with the hard top. It's not currently on the car, but they saw the result of it rubbing on top of the soft top. It is going in next week with the hardtop on for them to identify where the rattle is coming from. They claim that the circles are present on all of the soft tops - some more noticeable than others, but couldn't explain why they were there. My soft top is blue and they really stand out. I would say that the hardtop has bayonet type fittings, but I am not entirely sure. I had to use an allen key to remove the hardtop, turning it approximately half a turn on each of the fittings (one each side). However, the bottom of each bolt does have little lugs on them like on a bayonet light bulb if thats what you mean. It is an 04 plate, so not exactly an early car, is it likely that these would have been revised before now? I think when it has been into the dealers and they have sorted the rattle, I will buy a ragtop cleaning kit and have a go. What do you think is a reasonable solution to the problem on the dealers part? Hopefully they will stop the rattle and prevent any further damage, but what can I expect regarding the damage already done? In an ideal situation I would like a new soft top, but I know that isn't going to happen. Except for the marks on the soft top the car is absolutely mint. It has pissed me off, because the soft top now looks worse than the top on my 6 year old Z4 which I have just sold.

Solution? Did you sort out the rattling hard top? I have the same problem on mine - picked up just earlier this week.

Yes the same on my C4S Cab. 3 perfect circles on the material of my soft top. very annoying. not alot to do i think. as a warning though the hard top does move a little due to rigid suspension. this will give u a nice load of scratches on the paint work were the hard top sits. top fix use some silicone oil on the seals to subtle them up a little.

Yes - I took it to my local OPC, who made some adjustments at the rear. Personally, I think the hardtop just hadn't been installed correctly. I think the bayonet fittings needed turning another quarter turn. The hardtop was literally bouncing at the rear. It is now a different car. Although, now the loud banging from the rear has gone, I have identified more creaks and rattles in the front. These are not too bad and I suppose are to be expected with a car that has had the roof chopped off :lol: The one thing that I didn't get sorted was the marks to the soft top. The OPC said that they couldn't be repaired, and if they had tried, they would look worse than they currently do. I was very pissed off because I think it was an avoidable problem that has caused damage to an otherwise mint car.

Adjustments to hardtop fixings - cost at OPC? I understand that you didn't buy the car from the OPC so did they charge you for the adjustment, and if so how much? I have exactly the same problem (beyonet fixing, rattle, creak, bounce & bang!) And I don't know whether to presurise the garage where I bought it (only last week) or just bite the bullet and take it to my OPC.

Sorry for the confusion, but i DID buy it from an OPC, so it was covered under the warranty. It's just that I didn't take it back to the same OPC as I bought it from to have the adjustment done. I'm therefore not sure how much they would charge. I do know though that Nottingham OPC charge £104+VAT per hour for labour, so it's not likely to be cheap!

Just a thought, but when you look through the rear window is the lug on the bayonet turned as far as it will go? It takes quite a lot of force to get it fully locked.