Crack, Crunch...there goes my power roof!

So yesterday I was out on a club drive enjoying the weather and scenery.... getting a little sunburnt I decided to pull over and close the roof on my 2005 Boxster S. About 75% into the closing operation I heard a large 'crack/crunch' and the power roof stopped closing. On inspection I found two little white plastic caps on each side of the car where the roof is stored when opened. These seem to have broken off from two control arms that manage the power roof. I had to manually pull the roof closed since these little plastic parts were snapped off. A trip to the dealer today informed me that this is "normal wear and tear" and that the plastic caps on te end of these control rods are "designed to break off in the event of a malfunction to avoid more serious damage". Ok.....so I get that explanation. But I am 6 weeks out of warranty and they want $1200 to repair this so called design consideration - $200 for the replacement of these rods plus another $500 to fix the cracked tray (as a result of these rods breaking) that keeps the water out of my car's interior. Plus the crazy hourly labor charges. I feel pretty duped by this explanation......this does not seem like normal "wear and tear".....rather it seems like a design problem. I can understand if the motor for the roof died etc....but for the thing to break during what is 'normal' operation seems more like a flaw than a 'wear and tear' issue. When they showed me the crack in the water tray part I could see that it was about .5 inch long and wondered if I could use some method to cover and seal the crack rather than pay these vultures another cent. I wonder if filling the crack with an epoxy and then sanding and coating would fix the issue...and save me around $800 for something that seems so minimal? Anyone else had this issue?

I had this same problem happen http://www.planet-9.com/boxster-board/31905-boxster-soft-top-tip.html . My guess, is that I'd driven over a severe bump or something. At first they said it was my error and that I may have moved the top manually. I was like, "WTF?, why would I move it manually?" Then after some talk I said alright, make the warranty claim and I'll follow up with Porsche AG, the guy left for a while and came back to tell me the claim has been accepted!!! Now since your car is out of warranty, I'd guess you'd have to pay for that, unless its somehow covered under "good will" or something. Other than that, the guy is right when he said "They are designed to break off in the event of a malfunction to avoid more serious damage". That's exactly what they told me at my dealer (and it does make sense). Finally, about the tray, I dont know how this happened, but mine was ok. I'm sorry I cant help you more, but if you see a way I can, please feel free to ask!

Many components like this have a designed-in safety break. Particularly when involving large moving machinery (like your roof). They have a flaw built-in that'll give before anything else. Much like your clutch is designed to be destroyed (under missuse) rather than your gearbox blowing-up. Generally the fault isn't at the fail-safe, that is to say it's rare the part that broke was at fault. It's much more common that something else was faulty, didn't deploy correctly, and caused a load increase which in turn protected your car by breaking the fail-safe. $1200 may seem dear, but don't even bother thinking what it'd cost if the mechanism had not had a fail-safe in and did malfunction. Certainly it'd be more than $1200.

I went to buy something for the house yesterday. When I left I felt my tire was flat. Luckily, the store has a shop (Canadian Tire, a major chain here in Canada), so I just rolled in for a quick patch job. I left the car with them for 1.5 hours. Top was up. When I went to pick up the car, the top was down (no big deal, standard garage procedures for soft tops I was told) and drove my car home slowly. I went to close the top and it didn't budge. Couldn't figure it out. Brought it back to the shop and after a few minutes of looking around, noticed those 2 white arms had broken (the plastic pieces). So the exact same issue as your car. They are calling my dealership tomorrow to get a quote on the repair, and also the part as they might want to fix it themselves. Will keep you posted on this. Such a f*ckin' headache. 2005 Boxster.

OUCH!....maybe this is one reason why a Boxster is less than a Cayman, Porsche figures a couple of $1200 roof jobs and you'll be right up there with Cayman pricing! Seriously though,.....this seems to be a common problem then, and usually where good 3rd party shops excel. So check around if the dealer is unwilling to cover under warranty. I'm willing to bet there is a good 3rd party shop out there that will do the same job for half of what a dealer specs it for.

I am sorry to hear you had the same issue as me.... As I found out from the dealer, the plastic pieces cannot be replaced simply by themselves....you need to buy new arms (the steel part too). These are $185.00 for the pair from the porsche jewelry store. They will advise that you don't try to fit them yourself, with something to do with checking the 'timing' of the arms and roof system. This kinda makes sense to me as chances are that something didn't operate in sequence for the things to break. Your bill should be around $500 at this stage. HOWEVER, in the vast majority of cases, when these little plastic pieces break, it is usually accompanied by a puncture of the polypropelene tray that channels water from the roof into a drain system. This was the case in my car, and the dealer advised that "these can be surprisingly expensive for what they are"......I'm coming to find that everything from Porsche is inflated and overpriced. This will raise your bill by approximately another $700+. I am still awaiting the part (water tray) but will let you know how much. I would suggest that you wait until you replace the tray before asking them to fix the control arms as it will probably save you labor costs if you do all at once. Hope it works out for you. S~

I would suggest getting the parts (unfortunately I have not been able to find anywhere that sells genuine Porsche parts for anything that 'competes' with the dealer price when you add shipping - another stranglehold on the market) you need and then going to a good 3rd party that works with Porsche cars and having them quote you for doing the job. It seems my Porshche delaer here in WA charges around $200 per hour for labor.....

I decided to repair the small dime sized hole on my water tray. It's not rocket science, it's a LOT cheaper, and I am perfectly pleased and confident of the results. Materials: 1. Alcohol to clean the work area 2. Inner tube repair kit - $4 from Fred Meyers (I bought two separate kinds - Victor and Bell - I preferred the Bell "patch it" product as the patches are much more flexible and stick easier to the contours of the tray if your damage is in a tricky place) 3. Marine Amazing Goop Sealer and Adhesive - $8 from the Home Depot - I chose this as it has much more flexibility and strength than the stock rubber cement that comes with the inner tube repair kit. It;s designed for applications that are submersed in water, so a safer bet in my opinion. 4. Liquid Rubber - $10 from the Home Depot Directions: 1. Clean the Area throughly using alcohol 2. Cut the desired inner tube patch to size, allowing at least 0.5 inches beyond the damage 3. Apply Marine Goop Adhesive and Sealer according to instructions (wait 3-5 minutes before applying to damage - allows the goop to get tacky and stick instantly 4. Apply the patch and hold in place for several minutes to ensure full adhesion to the water tray - the hole in my tray was actually sticking outwards, so the light pressure on the patch allowed it to pop back to it's original place, flush with the car 5. Allow to cure completely - directions state around 12 hours 6. Check patch adhesion 7. Optional - paint over entire repair area with liquid rubber 8. Open and close your roof several times to ensure no abrasion with the repaired area 9. Enjoy the $100's of dollars you just saved! Disclaimer: Some members (and obviously the dealer) will disagree with this repair, citing that it's not worth the risk of having water get in to the car etc. If these patches are deisgned to create an air tight repair of a pressurized inner tube, then I am completely comfortable that my enhanced repair is air tight AND water tight, easily withstanding occasional running water over it's surface.

What the heck is the water tray? Man...I'm going to have Porsche (or the place that did the damage) look to see if this was ruined. I really really hope it was just the two arms. $185 is surprisingly not that expensive coming from Porsche. I was going to guess $300+ for each arm.

Globespy...would you be able to take a pic and post it on here of the water tray? I'm going to the garage tomorrow so I hope I can pick out what you're talking about

If you start to open the roof, allow the roof to move about 4 inches from the locked position (the metal part that lifts at the back of your car to allow the roof to fold away will be open). The water tray is basically the soft (almost rubbery) feeling thing that goes the entire way around under where the folded roof would stow away. You will see drains on both sides. If you can get access to the rods that will need replaced, then you can touch the water tray - it wraps all around basically. You can check with a flashlight to see if you can find any tears or holes here. Hope that helps.

Ok, cool...so that's the water tray. Mine looks good, so thank goodness. So, I brought it in to Porsche yesterday....and this might be the only time that I'll ever say this --- it was way better to get them to fix the issue, than to order the parts and do it myself! The arms were only around $80 ea, and installation was less than an hour...for a total cost of less than $200 (before tax). I thought this would be better than to purchase the parts and bring it in to the shop that screwed up and have them try this -- and so did they when I told them over the phone. Good thing is that they will pay for it ---- they had thought that Porsche was going to charge "thousands", but $200 is quite reasonable. My roof actually seems to work even better now. I don't know if they oiled any parts or what they did, but the whole mechanism seems to run even smoother. Overall...very happy. I was worried this was going to break the bank....

Hello, the same happende to my Boxster S yesterday! Terrible noise " crack !!!!". It seems that there is a system to protect the roof mechanism from very seriuos damages... the little wihte plasti pieces are made to crack before the rest of the car ;°). If it happens... don't panic and don't try to force anything... just simply close the roof manually and go to you dealer. They fixed everything in 30 minutes.....for 125,00 €.

Why does everything have to be electric powered? The soft top isn't that heavy to open or close by hand. The same goes w/electric windows, which I prefer not having. They do fail, and are expensive to replace. They, as well as anything electric powered, adds weight, as well as cost to the vehicle. .

I agree! I wish my car was wind powered!