996 Targa Sunshade Install

Hi there, I'm brand new to the site and joined because of a recent problem with my 02' Targa retractible sunshade. The plastic clips that are inserted at either end of the sunshade itself have snapped and subsequently the shade is disengaged from the rails. I finally was able to locate a 997 sunshade repair kit directly from Porsche which uses the same parts for the 996. My question is, how do you get the shade back into the track??? With the new clips inserted at either end, it looks as if you'd had to disassemble some of the roof to get it mounted without breaking the clips.. Has anyone shared this same problem??? I can't seem to find anything online.. Naturally the dealer has told me the entire roof would need to be taken out which doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense. Thanks so much in advance & happy to be a new member!!! Alan

[URL="http://http://workshop-manuals.com/porsche/911_targa_(996)/f6-3.6l/body_and_frame/roof_and_associated_components/sunroof/moonroof/sun_shade/component_information/service_and_repair/"[/URL]

Thanks! I have seen this breakdown for the removal.. The problem is it implies you can angle the sunshade any which way to either release or install. The reality is you can't because the side rail / guides that the sunshade fits into, are fixed. I'm not sure if you have to remove the motor therefore allowing the guides to move freely without the resistance of the gears. The dealer isn't much help - they didn't even know a repair kit was available.. I found that out through calling independent shops in the U.S. - I got the part number through them and only then could I order through the dealer. How does a dealer not even know these parts are available? Anyway, thanks again!

Sweet. TargaARH can you share the part number for the kit? It sounds like the same part I was looking for but gave up last year. I could find the entire sunshade for $400-500 but I was hoping to find just the clips. The part number for the sunshade itself is 99756240500 https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...ind-shade.html I'm pretty sure that the sunshade 'bow' can be installed by inserting one side first, and then positioning the bow on an angle so that the other side can be inserted closer to the front of the car. The guide will pick up the sunshade clips the next time the sunshade is opened. I haven't done it yet, but I think the trick will be getting the right amount of tension on the roller of the sunshade.

Hey Kevin, It's funny you should write me.. I actually saw your post from last summer and was going to send you the information regarding the replacement clips. Here's the part number for left and right side respectively: 97756291300 97756291400 If you need a picture or anything of the packaging let me know.. What you will receive in the kit is that plastic clip for the end of the sunshade (you posted a pic of) in addition to a new flexible guide that links to the motor. Even though I only need the passenger side for now, I ordered both sides as a precaution. Each package is $59.99. I ordered them form Downtown Porsche on King St. in Toronto [phone removed] What you will find is that the pieces from this repair kit are a beefed up version and less likely to snap. They do, however, fit with ease into the sunshade ends. I have them installed already. The problem again is how do you engage them into the guides? Is that why you get the new guides in the kit as well? I was thinking to somehow disengage the motor and move each side independently to install at the correct angle and then place square to the roof opening and attach the motor assembly again. I do not think the shade clips will pick up the guides once they cross as you suggested because all pieces involved are fixed and have zero give. The bow is different in that the side retaining clips slide up and down allowing for an easy angled install. Good luck and let me know if you need any additional info on the part numbers I provided. Again, the parts are specifically called "997 Sun Blind Repair Kit"

Nice. That just made my day. I didn't way to pay for the full blind mostly because it felt very wrong. I'll order both sides since I have it out already. Thanks Alan for the detailed response. I have a few other parts that I need to order from Porsche (replacement brake line since I stripped the heads on two of the lines when installing SS ones) so I'll add these into the order. I'll try to take a look at how the shade fits in the car again today. My recollection was that I just inserted the blind with the sunshade fully closed, and the guides picked up the bow clips once they passed. But it has been a while already so I'll have to check again. I haven't seen that many 996 targas in Ontario. Nice to know I'm not completely alone (I'm in Waterloo). What colour is your car?

Hey you're very welcome... I know first hand how frustrating this process can be and it still isn't over. I couldn't accept either buying an entire sunshade just for a $2 piece of plastic.. Didn't make any sense. Hopefully your theory works for the install! My Targa is silver.. The lightest version of the silver on black. Good luck again!

Be glad you don't need to replace the entire roof. I am told it's over $12k

Hi Alan, Did you ever get your sun blind installed? I'm about 3/4 of the way through mine and I plan on finishing it tomorrow night. I ordered the kit for both sides from London Porsche. Very happy that you found those for me! I have installed the 'gear tube' on both sides since the kit included replacements. It turns out that the 'gear tube' was my problem in the first place. The drivers side guide had broken from the gear tube which probably put too much pressure on the plastic piece on the other side of the shade. I didn't actually put the blind in yet since I have to figure how much to wind it before installing. The porsche service manual is pretty weak and doesn't describe that at all. But I'm pretty sure you are right that you'll need to remove the motor in order to install the blind. With the motor out (which is easy) it should be possible to line up the guides so the blind can be inserted on an angle. I'll hopefully confirm that tomorrow. But if you have completed this and have any tips I'd love to hear them. Kevin

I have an (at least so far) perfectly working targa top. Would any pix or video be helpful.

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Hey Kevin! Happy to hear it's underway! I actually haven't attempted mine yet, but was planning for this wknd perhaps. So what exactly did you have to remove to get this point by way of roof panels? I know there's the main one at the rear that pulls off easily to expose the motors and blind itself. How did you install the new tubes? Did any side panels need to be removed that run above the windows? Was your roof open or closed for this? I'm guess for the blind it's a matter of tightening the roll until there's no slack.. Meaning just past the verge of being tightly rolled. This has ignited my interest again to get going.. It's been bothering me for quite some time. I'm interested to know what steps exactly got you to this point. Thanks & I will keep you posted as well! Alan

Nice. So I get to be the first to apply the 997 sun blind repair kit to the 996 sunshade? I'll try to take some pictures tonight and document the DIY. It should help since it does take a few minutes to figure out how to do it and the service manuals are cryptic at best. But feel free to PM me and I can give you my phone number since describing it verbally may be a bit faster.

OMG I've had my Targa for a little over 3 years and thus far have had zero issues with the retracting roof. If I did have an issue I think I'd consider having the darkest tint available applied to the top and treat my Targa like it was a fixed roof coupe.

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You do realize that this discussion about about the sun blind only right? I've had my Targa for more than 8 years and haven't had any issues other than a little squeaking and now a broken sun shade. And this appears to be fairly easy to fix with ~$100 worth of parts from Porsche. Or ~$400 to completely replace the sun blind with a thicker one. Hardly worth writing-off the roof.

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Awesome! Good luck with it tonight. I'm going to revisit mine as well. I'll definitely shoot you a message if this comes to a standstill. Again I think the secret is to disengage the motor for the angular attachment of the shade. But didn't you have to do this already to get the gear tubes in?

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For sure. The motor has to come out in order to replace the gear tubes. And I think you are right that you need to remove the motor in order to attach the shade since the shade has to be inserted in an angle. I think my earlier attempt to insert the shade without removing the motor worked because the clips on the shade weren't actually in the guides. They were between the guides attached to the gear tube and the front of the car. The shade would still work in that case...

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Yes I was referring to the poster that said removal was $12k

Wait, are you saying you found a shade that completely blocks the sun and it's just a mesh? Can you post pictures of it if you have?

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Ah. That makes much more sense. At $12K to replace the roof I'm sure I would remove the motors and make it a permanent glass roof

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Not that I know of. I had a Porsche part number somewhere for a replacement blind that was apparently thicker than the original. But it still wasn't a complete block.

So for my install...success! It is a fairly time consuming job the first time, but I could probably do it again in less than an hour the next time. The main challenges I ran into were The new drive tubes were hard to insert. Apparently the plastic piece attached to the end of the drive tube is a bit bigger on the 997 than on the 996. The screw for the mounting bracket for the blind shaft was in the way. I had to apply a little force with a screwdriver to get it past the screw. I did get it to fit though without any modifications. Winding the blind to the right tension and inserting it into the bracket took a few attempts. Actually inserting the blind 'bow' into the two drive tube brackets was actually fairly easy. The motor definitely has to be out, but with a screwdriver I was able to position the passenger side bracket a little offset so the bow could be inserted on an angle. I'll try to post more detailed instructions later. But the main things I learned were There is more room to work with both seats pushed all the way forward. Removing the cover for the electric motor is a little tricky. It is held on by 6 clips and pulls straight down. I used a screwdriver to apply pressure near the base of each clip. Be very careful pulling out the "metal input shaft" piece. Mine started to bend in the middle when removing one of the sides. It isn't as sturdy as it looks I inserted the blind by moving the bracket on the passenger side a little closer to the front of the car. Then inserted the blind on an angle and slowly straightened out the blind while inserting the driver's side. Pretty simple. After inserting the blind I pushed the blind all the way to the rear of the car (retracted). I then rolled the blind and inserted the drivers side of the shaft. Using my smallest drill bit (the only thing I had that would fit in the bind shaft hole) I tightened the shaft about 8 rotations or so. Then I used needle-nosed pliers to hold the shaft, remove the drill bit from the shaft, and insert the shaft into the driver's side mount without letting it unwind. This step took a few tries... Everything was pretty straight forward to reconnect. Although 1 of the phillips screws used for the "metal input shaft" was shorter than the other two. I used the shorter ones in the holes near the blind motor but I forgot where they were originally Since I did this over two evening, I used my leftover time to do the following Clean the blind using 303 Aerospace protectant. Seemed to work well and might help a little with UV protectant Also cleaned the motor cover with the same. Easier when out. Greased the channels the blind travels in using some lithium grease and a cotton swab Oiled the blind motor Made sure every exposed screw/bolt was tight. Hopefully reduce any squeaks from the targa roof Hope this helps. Feel free to PM me with any questions that I can help answer. Pictures are of the cloth cover to access the blind parts, the metal input shaft with the motor removed, and the motor cover. Pulls straight down from the back, just need to watch the upside-down T connector Be careful not to let the metal tubs bend in the middle. Mine seemed pretty weak. How it would be in the car if you were looking from the rear towards the front.

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Hey congrats on the install!! I'm the middle of mine now I'm trying to pull off the fabric liner that hides the guides... I feel like it's going to break. I can see a few T connectors that have pulled off easily, but the area opposite the motor equipment at either ends feels uneasy. Does it need to come out from the far rear first? Thanks in advance & great write up by the way!!!

Thanks for the informational posts on installation of a replacement Targa shade. I just completed mine and took some photos documenting the process. As kgoertz said, slide the front seats all the way forward and tilt them forward as well. I did all of this work from the back seat on the passenger side. I fully closed the glass roof and opened the rear window to give myself headroom. Overview I bought a darker Targa shade, part number 997.562.405.00 from Suncoast Parts, for $400. It looks like a few dealers and parts stores sell it, for wildly varying prices. Here's a photo of the old shade on the right and the new shade on the left. The new one is much darker. Shade operation There is an electric motor under the back of the sliding Targa top. It has a gear on top. When this gear rotates, the teeth move two tight coils of wire in the drive system. These coils of wire slide within tubes that go to the left and right sides of the roof. At the ends of the two coils are slots into which the front rod of the shade fit. There are also "pushers" halfway along the drive coils that push on the middle rod. The shade is stored in a roll at the back of the Targa window. The drive system pulls the shade off of the roll when extending the shade. When retracting the shade, the drive system moves backward, but it is coil springs inside of the shade roll that roll it back up. Removing the old shade Remove the plastic cover over the shade motor by pulling straight down on the front side, tilting it free. This exposes the motor. Remove the two Torx screws and one nut holding the motor in. The motor will fall free straight down. Removing the motor enables moving the two drives on each side separately. Grasp the front "rod" and pull the right side back a few inches so that it is at a diagonal. Now the two ends can be pulled free of the left and right drives. The rod is hollow on the ends. There is a little plastic fitting on each end that fits into the drive. Remove these. One of mine was stuck and I had to break it out in pieces with needle-nose pliers. The middle rod can also be removed at this point. If it is still in too tight to remove, pull back on the right side a few more inches so that it is at more of a diagonal. Let the shade be rolled up by its internal spring. The shade is held in place left-to-right by a spring pushing along its axis. Grasp the rolled-up shade and push it to the right. This compresses the axial spring. Tilt the left side free and remove the whole shade. Installing the new shade. Pull out the pin and let the roll-up spring unwind. Clip a vise-grip onto the square end. Hold the shade in your left hand. Roll the vise-grip17 turns counter-clockwise. Push the pin in through the hole in the shade "frame" and into the hole in the square end of the shaft. This holds the shade rolled up. Remove the vise-grip. With the new shade in the car, position the roll with the shade coming off the top of the roll. Push the right side into place and compress the axial spring. Swing the left side into place, Using needle-nose pliers, remove the pin. This is tight, but you can squeeze the pliers in at an angle. Pull the front "rod" of the shade forward. It should travel smoothly to the front of the car. Insert the left and right sides of the rod into the drive diagonally, then force them straight. This is the trickiest part. I could just squeeze the side of my head against the top window and see the little slots in the drive in the left and right sides where the rod need to go. If needed, slide a flathead screwdriver into one side of the drive and force it forward or backward. Next, install the middle rod. The drive also pushes on it, but only backward. Thus, the ends don't fit into slots, but just fit in back of "pushers" in the drive. Also, the shade must be positioned withing the gaps at the ends of the middle rods. Finally, reinstall the motor and motor cover. One of the screws was very loose when I went to work on this, so I put Loctite on all of these fittings upon reassembly. The gear on my motor had threads in it that I cleaned out. I also put a little lithium grease on the teeth I also sprayed silicone lubricant into the slots along which the shade rods move.

BUMP This is a must read for any Targa owner this helped me out so much tonight. My motor was falling out and it misaligned the shade. I didn't touch it for the longest time fearing I would cause damage of difficult to find parts. Got my shade fixed in about 15 minutes. Thanks!

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Great! That's the beauty of Rennlist and the Internet.

Great thread! My sun shade hasn't been retracting correctly and this gave me enough confidence to diagnose it instead of paying a dealer. I removed the motor and it turns out that the issue is that the guide on the passenger side is broken. I know it's been a while but @kgoertz , do you remember how you went about removing the broken gear tube? Did you have to remove a bunch of trim? Any help is super appreciated. Thanks! Adrian

Hi @awisernig , I don't think I had to remove any other trim to remove the gear tubes. Just the big piece of trim covering the motor assembly and the side trim that covers the rails. While I don't remember the exact details I don't remember it being particularly challenging. I thought the gear tubes just pulled out when removing the motor assembly and the copper tubing. But be really careful with the copper tubing since mine was pretty fragile and bent easily.

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Thanks so much for the fast reply. I'l give it a shot.

I'm not sure if these parts changed numbers or if you made an error when typing initially but they now start with 997. Thanks for the tip I was able to locate the parts through my dealer but they wouldn't have found them had I not located the part numbers. They wanted to sell me a whole new shade at over $700.

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Here's the parts I ended up using: https://www.pelicanparts.com/More_In...=0&SVSVSI=997M for the repair kit and https://www.suncoastparts.com/product/99756240500.html for the shade itself.

2002 Targa, when the sunscreen is slid back it stops about 4 to 5" and then makes the gear grinding/slipping noise. Screen will fully close with no difficulty. Glass slides backwards and forwards with no issues. I'm getting ready to work on it and thought I would ask the collective for any insight(s).

I just finished replacing my targa sunshade, thanks in no small part to this thread. One thing I will add is that the rear edge of the sunshade cover (the first thing taken off) sits in a groove in a rubber piece. I was unable to reinstall the cover with the rear edge in that groove; I had to pop it straight up and on, then use some plastic interior tools to slip the back edge into the groove. See picture below. While reassembling everything I had a small disaster and the whole works fell back out. In the process one of the tabs for the center bow holders broke off. Here's how I fixed it, apologies for not taking pictures: found a small self tapping screw whose threads slide into the end of the hollow bow piece drilled a hole in the broken center bow holder, in line with the tab's former location installed screw to ensure fitment and freedom of movement of bow holder removed screw ground screw head down to match profile of hollow end of bow piece reinserted screw in bow holder finished reassembly Rear edge of cover in its groove. This is looking from the back of the car facing forward.

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How did you repair end up going? I have the same problem as you did; my passenger side guide is also broken. I can't figure out how to remove the broken guide. I got as far as removing the motor, and undoing most of the screws that hold the copper tubes in place but once I got to the corner I wasn't able to proceed because I didn't know how to get this mesh trim off and out of the way. I got it off the T-connector but pulling down felt risky as it felt pretty fixed in place. Even with that copper guide tubing completely unmounted, it also didn't seem clear how the guide would actually come out and how I would insert the new one. Any tips from your experience?

Hey @996TargaARH did you ever get the fabric liner off? I have the same problem as you. Got it off the T-connector but pulling anywhere feels really uneasy.

It's been a while but it ended up working out well. I removed the motor, and partly disconnected the copper tubes. Inside the tubes there were these worm gears i was then able to slide out. From what I remember, the most annoying part was getting things aligned again before putting the motor in: I put the new worm gear with guide, lined up the shade diagonally to get it to fit, straightened it out and resembled. Here's some photos I found from the experience:

Nice work! Do you have any recollection of how you detached the section I circled in red? Mounting points 3 and 4 probably just pull away from the window? But point 2 appears to require you to remove a fastener. Maybe that's why it seems so sketchy to try to pull down.

Its in the 90s here in Scottsdale, Az and the OEM sunshade is bad. I enjoyed in the winter time but the summer is going to be hell if I dont replace it. Thanks for the info

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IMG_2839.MOV If you haven't found the answer aleady.