996/997 Turbo rear spoiler issue - Page 1 - Porsche General - PistonHeads UK

The issue of rear spoiler giving up appears to effect every car at some time. I am looking for advice on dealing with this. Either sending unit of for repaire, installing an electric version (all those expensive gets good reviews). Or getting a kit that is static where you can manually raise or lower the spoiler. However that comes at a cost, surely it can't be complicated to get the piston's in the up position and fixed, then code out the alarm. Has anyone any experience of this.

Having taken the system apart 3 times, it would not be difficult to fix the spoiler in the permanently up position, but don't ask me as I never gave it any thought. The external sleeve, the chrome bit you can see, must however still be free to rotate as that rotates together with the twist on / off lugs that retain the blade, when it becomes necessary to fit or remove the latter. Googling forums should find you a solution for the display error message too, OK'ing it makes it go away, you will get one when the spoiler should have risen and another when speed is reduced, but the red warning light goes out only when ignition is turned off (does not come back), if that bothers, just remove the bulb.

Cheers, as your discription, I need to get the tool to take blade off and have a proper look at the possibilities. The fixed system the chap in USA looks really well engineered, but if the blade can be fixed up at a lower cost all the better. I know a few have left the spoiler down and just coded out the warning.

The tool is nothing special, a c spanner. I actually use a modified bicycle one, tip ground a bit to fit. It's definitely best to remove the blade when the rams rise at least a little bit, as if all the oil goes, you must lift the blade manually, against the strong retraction springs,then place some padding beneath it, so as to keep it slightly extended and be able to access the hole for the c spanner to engage (must engage through the outer sleeve into the actual retaining lug, else the outer sleeve will rotate pointlessly. The holes generally won't align, so you must find the inner hole by rotating the sleeve). If it is the case that you have physically pulled the spoiler up, as soon as the lug releases the ram shoots downwards violently, and if not careful may pull the c spanner with it damaging the bootlid paintwork. Someone brave to help gripping the sleeve tightly to slow its descent, not a bad idea, else prepare rags to protect. I always did this solo, it's not impossible. Then remove the rams and see what needs to be done to lock in place. May even be quite simple, maybe even just a threaded rod in lieu of the internal cylinder/pushing rod assy, don't know. Look up info on ram dismantling, there's a whopper of a spring inside that needs respect. Again no biggie as long as you know what you are doing, always managed without drama.

Brilliant, cheers

I replaced the hydraulic one with one of the electronic kits myself. I can use a spanner etc, but would be no expert and found it very straight forward - most annoying part from memory was getting the screws our of the internal cover of the lid. Works perfectly now, and I had really considered just having it static, but things not working as the should really bugs me

Oh and got mine from a company in France - dh automotive - it was more reasonable than the others and very good after support via email

I am worried that the static option will get to my ocassional ocd

Lordglenmorangie said: I am worried that the static option will get to my ocassional ocd Honestly don't think they look very pretty with it in the up position. The aesthetics aren't there, it is evident that this position is supposed to be temporary, as required. Just thinking aloud, anyone giving this enough thought could easily engineer a simple system whereby the blade could be lifted manually, perhaps in anticipation of a run, and also dropped manually. Beats any fixed setup to be sure, and I have not read reports of cars doing forward loops because of occasional high speed manoeuvres with the spoiler down...

996 Turbo here. Replaced mine with the Rennkit system about 3 years ago. Bought direct from the manufacturer in the USA, which arrived in around 5 days. A doddle to fit, with no special tools needed. They have a number of Youtube vids to help with the installation along with the supplied instructions. Works faultlessly. If you go this route, buy yourself some liquid insulating rubber solution for the electrical connections. The instructions refer to it. Recommend.

I fixed my 996T with P-Speed. Leaking rams, broken pump, broken micro-switch ............ All done for a reasonable price in 3 weeks.