how to close hood? let it fall or press down?

Sorry for the rash of newbie questions, but after a lifetime being a bimmerphile, I'm a recent convert to Porsche. One more - the owner's manual which I tend to overly treat as the gospel says to close the hood to "Lower lid and let it fall into the lock. If neccessary, push the lid with the palm of your hand in the area of the lock." I've tried this over and over to the point where I'm afraid I'll damage my hood if I try let into fall and bang down from an even higher height. I've tried it from half height to just barely above the lock, and no matter what height, the hood just slams down but never locks. I have to always press down gently with my palm to engage the hood into the lock. Nothing weird I think in how I'm opening hood - I press the hood open button on door sill, then open hood by sliding little lever until I can raise the hood. Is this just a porsche 996 thing? Forget the "If necessary..." part, for me it's always required to lower all the way and then press down.

Mozhacker, This is how I do it (if I'm wrong, please correct me)... I let the hood drop from a point slightly above where the first click takes place (1 - 2 inches above). Then I place the palm of both my hands against the corner edge of the hood on either side of the hood and press down. Congrats on the C4S.

A 996 ain't your father's Oldsmobile, pushing down the hood to latch is normal. I've never seen one that would latch on its own so I don't know what the manual writer was smoking when they wrote that. Do not press on the crest to latch the hood. BTW, nice handle. I take it you like to tinker with the lizard?

Used to tinker with the lizard. Former #75 at the also former Mosaic Communications. Now, when I feel I can make my pathetically curled hands plink away, I'll tinker a bit through mozilla.org I make no claims to credit for the POS it became after v4.5 (due to the You've Got Mail idiots that somehow thought their MBA credentials and "synergy" would somehow magically make bloatware code efficient), which was the last version I worked on. I was more on the server side anyways - long live NAS 4.0, I was an ex-IPlanet geek too. Thanks for the tips - no more letting it fall from anything other than an inch or two. I've been doing what the manual says though regarding pressing - I put my palm right above the hood where it would be going into the lock. Not on the crest. You think it'd be better to do it this way, or from both ends? Not sure if it would be better to even out the downard pressure, or makes more sense to push down on the center above the lock to minimize any flexing if pushing down more on one edge versus the other.

The Porsche 996 owner video I received said to close the hood by hand (not let it drop) and then press down on either side of the Porsche crest with each hand until it latches. Roy

mozhacker: It's amazing how many folks, even dealers, think pressing the crest is the way to latch the hood. I think that goes back to the 356 when the crest was on the hood bow which was a nice structural support. I like the one hand over the latch approach with today's somewhat flimsy hood in case the latch decides to jam. I started doing Mac contract work for NSCP in early '96 and finally became an employee on 9/11/96 (nice karmic date that was) so my # is about 20x higher yours. It was still fun in those days but became much less so until I finally became a casualty of Dulles deciding to whack most all that was left of NSCP last year.

why is it bad to push down on the crest? i haven't heard that one before... the reason for the extra push is that the cars have a double pin locking system. the first pin you catch on is the safety latch, then when you press it again, it latches onto the second pin. if you have the opportunity to watch the latch when you're closing it (if the bumper of your 996 was off for instance) you'll see that when you just try and latch it all at once, the second pin never catches because the latch needs to be set to the correct position by the first part of the latching process. hard to explain in words, but it's a very simple sort of cocking mechanism!

teflon: As I said the pushing the crest to latch probably goes back to when the crest was on a structural reinforcment for the 356 hood. That isn't the case with current Porsches. Pressing the crest on a 986/996 will flex the crest and/or hood which can cause the mounting studs for the crest to break off and subsequent departure of the crest from the hood.

OK, stupid question: I've been pressing down on the latch (that's how the dealer showed me). Why is this bad?

FWIW, I don't let it drop at all. After the first click I spread my finger tips of both hands on either side of the crest and close. If you use your palms and are wearing a ring or an ID bracelet, etc. you can easily scratch the hood!

I press below the badge, near the edge. the rear I just drop the last couple of inches.

Nobody said pushing down on the latch is bad. The crest != the latch.

It's not "bad". In fact, it's how most people close it. It could be better, tho. If you accidently push down too hard, there is no stop on the latch and you can overshoot warp/dent the hood. OTOH, there are two rubber stops a bit further away from the center. You can either put your hands on the section of the hood that contacts these, or somewhere beteen the center and these stops. There is a definite stop to your pushing this way. Less chances of warping the hood. I think the original advice to push on the crest was so that your oily hands don't leave marks on the newly waxed and buffed hood surface. The crest can come off, however, and if it slips it will leave a nice scar .

Mine was really tough to latch - I felt like I was pushing way too hard. Warantee replaced the latch mechanism and now it is much easier to gently shut (via the approved 2 step process!). Ed

Shortly after I got my '99 cab I received a video from Porsche with Hurley Haywood and other well-known Porsche drivers talking about what to expect with the car. One of the things they specifically mentioned was NOT pressing down on the crest when closing the hood.

i've "pushed on the porsche" crest since 1976 in my first 912e without any problems in 5 different porsches. i like the fact i don't leave fingerprints that way. maybe i'm gentle, but this works for me regardless of the current party line.

I had an old 964 with a bowed crest. That's the ultimate result of "pushing on Porsche"

jesus, it's a hood, not a piece of jewelry I close it with the hand (not let it drop) and push down on the area in front of the crest. no biggie. it ain't rocket science. ;-)

You guys are killing me! 15 different opinions on how to CLOSE THE HOOD?

This may be the longest most ridiculous thread I've seen so far.

ridiculous but entertaining

hey, if the damn thing would just gently click closed with a small drop from a few inches above the lip or with a little push like every other trunk I've owned, then there wouldn't be as many different variations

The 16th way. My car from last year.