Another rear spoiler not working thread

Hello friends, new owner of an old 2001 996 cab. spoiler doesn�t go up or down. At first i checked the fuse and tested the relays which were fine. Then i took the cover plate off the engine cover and i found the positive and negative wires were off the motor. I had a split second of joy before i realized that it likely wasn�t going to be this easy. I connected them and hit the footwell switch to the up position the motors activates but the spoiler doesn�t lift. See video below: You Tube I�m guessing stripped gears on the inside? Has anyone seen this before? And does have a link to a removal thread? I found a nice removal and service thread on the interwebz a couple hours ago but for the life of me I can�t find it again.

Found it https://rennlist.com/forums/997-foru...y-rebuild.html

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yep, this is the thread I used. You�ll likely find that your teeth are stripped. I bought a used replacement mechanism for ~$200, and replaced the internals. Works great now!

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great thanks. You were correct

Where did you source your replacement parts? also, does anyone know if you can get a replacement micro switch? One of them is shot (the one with the green wire). Might as well replace both but it looks like they are built into this harness.

jjeeeeeez i couldn't find any parts for this thing. I did find a used motor that comes with the plastic track for a 98-04 boxster. The motor unit is the same as mine and the plastic track housing looks to be the exact same as the 996, just in white finish. https://www.ebay.com/itm/233138155286 For $80.00 shipped I'll give it a shot. Free returns on Ebay . hopefully the tracks on the inside aren't stripped. still trying to troubleshoot the microswitches if anyone has any input. I thought finding parts for the 996 would be easy.....I though wrong.

Does anyone know which part number goes to which microswitch? The broken one that I have has the 2 brown wires and 1 green wire. 99661317100 99661316700 Also, the stock microswitches in the spoiler have (3) wires. And they don't have a lever. When you pull up these replacement part numbers on Porsche Atlanta's website it show a microswitch WITH a lever, and it only has (2) wires (see picture below). Assuming this picture is correct, how am I supposed to make this microswitch work with the factory wiring? And, can that lever be removed off of the microswitch?

An old episode of wheeler dealers, when it was still in England, dealt with the spoiler gear. at times I wonder if it makes sense to have a donor car in a storage unit to salvage parts off of it..lol

cmon where are it microswitch nerds

I ended up saving the micro switch from the passenger side door lock that I just replaced. Lucky me. Turns out even though that�s a 2 wire microswitch and the spoiler has a (2) 3 wire microswitches, the caps with the plunger for both microswitches are identical. They are both burgess micro switches. So all I did was swap the good cap/plunger assembly on the busted spoiler microswitch and it�s fixed. while that�s great for me, it still doesn�t help a lot of other people out there with microswitch problems in their spoilers. Just like the door latches, the 996s are going to start having a lot of problems with these 20 year old microswitches all over the car. I was able to limp by with an old part but from what i understand burgess doesn�t make these anymore and old part inventory is finite. It would be nice if anyone on this forum had any decent knowledge about microswitches, and what replacement production units would work in each component of the 996. No one wants to buy a $700 spoiler wiring harness from Porsche to hack it apart for a microswitch. Not everyone wants to spend thousands on some of these fancy ones aftermarket spoiler kits, since this is money better saved in the engine rebuiId fund. would be nice to get some reliable sources for replacement parts on these systems that seem to need a refresh/service after 50k or so miles. I just don�t have the knowledge or expertise on the topic.

I purchased a boxster spoiler motor and track assembly. The housing is the exact same on the outside, just in a different finish, so I thought this would work. However, the inside is slightly different. Because the boxster spoiler from around these same years does not travel as far up/down in comparison to the 911, the inside of the track housing is modified to make it travel a shorter distance. Also, the tracks themselves are slightly different to activate the microswitches. So this will not work, unless modified, which I�m sure someone with more mechanical and electrical knowledge than me could figure out. Returning the part. I did buy a 2010 spoiler motor on eBay and track assembly that will hopefully this will fit. I did cross reference the track housing part number which is the same as the 2001 that i have, plus the �sub� model number that�s stamped next to it is the same. The �sub� model number on the boxster part was different than the one on my 2001 996, and I�m assuming the sub model number is used to dofferenciate the internal differences of the housings.

I see that Pelican Parts has several versions of the Porsche rear spoiler microswitch. Might check them out. https://www.pelicanparts.com/More_In...yABEgJh3PD_BwE

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I'm fairly certain the 996 rear spoiler microswitch is only available if you purchase the entire wiring loom. Which is outrageously expensive. I was able to fix the microswitch. In a previous post I explain how I used parts from the old microswitch from the defective passenger door panel I recently replaced.

Alrighty folks I wanted to follow up on this. I ended up sourcing a new motor and track housing unit from eBay from a 2010 911. The housing is nearly identical, with just one small update. All of the bolt holes and everything line up with the tray that it mounts to so I ended up using the new housing (and obviously the tracks inside of it were good - not stripped like the original one I had) and connected the original microswitches and wiring loom to it. I serviced and lubricated the entire assembly using instructions from the popular DIY thread. the spoiler now goes up and down with smooth and quiet operation. However it only works with the manual switch and I�m still getting the error message when the car hits 74 mph. I�m not sure why. The microswitches should be functioning properly since the unit goes up and down flawlessly with the manual switch operation. Does anyone know why this could be? I don�t think it would be the newer motor & assembly because the microswitches control the power going to unit and it functions properly with the manual switch. Do I have to clear a fault code before it starts to work again under normal driving conditions when I hit the target speed?

If the car is displaying a spoiler fault code, then I say yes, any spoiler fault code should be cleared. Remember, the DME controls the spoiler at speed. If the DME thinks something is wrong with the spoiler, it won't deploy. Clear any and all DME fault codes and see what happens.

Revive. Decided to take another stab at the spoiler and bought another lift assembly. This is a huge PITA. so I went to to test out the new motor on the wiring harness before putting everything back together. I could not get the motor to operate. I tried taping down one, or the other, or both microswitches but the motor is not working. I did this with the engine lid closed, assuming the DME would not allow it to operate with it open, and nothing. Confirmed microswitch works on engine lid. Confirmed motor works with direct 12v The footwell switch is operating the relays, I can here them click. Fuse is fine. I test both the older wiring harness (that I knew worked previously before I grenaded another set of tracks), and the new (used) wiring harness I got from ebay. Both the same outcome. I gotta be missing something here?

tested both relays. getting sufficient resistance and they are opening and closing properly. I'm getting no power to the motor. I had my wife hitting the button up and down in the car while I had the multimeter on the red and black wire, and I was also hitting the microswitches. Nothin. It's like the power is hitting the relays, they are clicking, but it's not going through the cable. I've tested 2 separate harnesses. I did confirm the engine fan and engine compartment light were working,,,so the cable is getting some power through it. It looks to be fully seating at the connection point. Also to note, this is with the key in the ON position. Car is not running. Engine compartment closed. Does the car need to be running? Any other advice besides throw the damn thing in the trash?

I can confirm that the car does not need to be running for the active spoiler to be raised/lowered. You just need to have the key ON in position 2. (actually I�m not even sure if the key is needed to be on. Maybe, maybe not.) But engine does not need to be running, for sure. I can also confirm that you can raise/lower the spoiler with the engine deck lid open. It�s not even necessary to trick the car by manually closing the latch. It sounds like you have an open circuit between the relay and the spoiler motor. I suspect a broken wire; if you don�t drive your car often, then it�s likely that mice may have chewed through a wire. Other possible causes are the connector(s) at the fuse/relay box, or possibly the fuse/relay box itself.

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thanks. Yea, I don�t see what else it could be. I�m just a DIY guy, and it�s entirely possible I�m overlooking something, but Im out of options, other than assuming I have a broken wire. the car stays in my home garage and we�ve never seen a mouse or mouse droppings in the car, nor have we caught or seen mice in the house. But that doesn�t mean that it hasn�t had something happened to it with its PO (located in Northern California). but i could see a wiring issue as last time i attempted to repair it i had the issue with the motor not stopping. I�m going to reassemble everything so the car is driveable. can anyone point me to a wiring diagram for that wiring loom from the relay panel that holds the spoiler relays?

I found a copy in a different thread, but the image quality isn�t so good. https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...ol-wiring.html I would start the process by checking pins 1 and 3 at the spoiler. Those are the inputs for the motor. I�d check for any continuity to ground and 12V+ for each of those wires while the the spoiler is raised and lower via the footwell switch. Then you�ll know which wire has the open circuit, and then it�s just a matter of finding the break. If finding it seems like too much of a pain, then you could always run a new wire from the relay box to the rear.

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thank you. 1 & 3 were the wires I�ve already tested. I�ll keep working my way back on the loom. thank you.

The hardest part about being a DIY guy is that the type of solution to the problem you are chasing is always so hard to come by. Even when they are so simple and often times right in front of your face, like this one. Kudos to 996love for calling it out.

Hooray! Now you�ll feel much more stability at speed! These wiring problems are very much of a headache, but you did most of the hard work by verifying the function of the micro switches.

The �lift at speed� command/voltage has to be triggered/generated by a combination of wheel speed sensors and the speedo/gauge cluster/dme� Perhaps PorscheTech3 (the UAOS UIDS guy) is familiar with the troubleshooting process. I�d direct message him� Good Luck