Another electric dodad gizmo failure.

We probably all take for granted that little sensor that raises and lowers the window when we open and close the door. Well they can and do fail...or at least start acting up. Not sure what caused it. The dealer wrench was just giving me back my car and when he closed the door it wouldn't close because the window didn't go down first. After turning the lock with the key and turning the ignition key on and off and screwing around in general it suddenly worked again. None the less I ordered a new one and will replace it in the next couple of days. However the temp fix, if it happens to you and you don't want to screw around with it is this. When you get in the car, lower the window before closing the door...and raise the window back up after closing the door. When getting out of the car, if the window doesn't lower that slight amount, lower it manually and then close the door. If the window doesn't raise up and complete the seal, don't leave the car out in the rain. Once again a modern piece of electronic technology that adds nothing to the car and can only end up failing and costing money to repair. It is time that Porsche unplug and go off the high tech grid. It is time to start building basic cars again.

Thank you for bringing this potential issue issue to the attention of the forum. May there be a resistance issue with the piece in question? Is there a way to bench test the part and ensure that the electrical connections are all soldered correctly? Regarding Porsche building basic cars, that will never happen. The majority of Porsche ownership want the latest and greatest and will not bother keeping their cars past lease. I have had my 996 for less then a week now and I love it, but it has already given me some issues, that, if I were not interested in diagnosing and fixing, would have caused another, less experienced or interested owner to sell the car or pay for unnecessary shop bills or parts. I will own another 944 turbo one day, regarding mechanical simplicity, I don't think there is another platform that gives the performance and driving pleasure. Regards, DC Josh

Was the battery disconnected during service? Sounds like a window relearn issue?

There are 7 microswitches in the door handle, door latch and locking mechanism...for each door. Each has the potential for failure, especially after 10-15 years of operation. I think it is minor. However, I think Ahsai is correct...try to re-teach the window the upper and lower limits. This is a requirement when the battery has been disconnected or electrical power to door has been interrupted.

"Once again a modern piece of electronic technology that adds nothing to the car and can only end up failing and costing money to repair." Actually, the "window drop/lift" was engineered due to the fact that the 996 lost the frame around the window on the doors. So, it does "add something to the car" (an airtight and aerodynamic seal, without a window frame).

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And it has been around on frameless doors since the 80's. It's hardly 'modern' / 'new tech'. John, you can cry for car manufacturers to go back "building basic cars" with no electronics but that's never going to happen. For the most part I find that modern advances in automobile technology has made our cars better. I may miss some of the more basic features of the cars I drove in the early 80's for nostalgia reasons but as a daily driver and as far as safety goes, I much prefer modern vehicles.

Which part(s) did you order? If during the tech's screwing around he reset the window limit, what are you replacing? In other cars I've owned with frameless windows that didn't have the auto-drop functionality, the seals got torn up, the windows didn't seal well enough to prevent drips during rainstorms and car washes, and on one vehicle the windows would pull away from the frame at high speeds and wind would whistle through the cabin...so I'm less likely to accuse Porsche of gratuitous technology use to solve a non-existent problem in this case...

Of course the could have kept the window frame. 7 microswitches in just the door handle? That is madness. I think door handle already retaught itself as it is working now. The battery was not disconnected, I just thing the artificial intelligence got a little stupid. I think DCJosh is right we he describes Porsche counting on the lease to keep the product moving. It is the same as the subprime loans that the auto industry has been using to keep dealerships open for business. But I still say that the obesity of electrical systems and dependency in modern cars is a communist plot.

Geeez...window regulators on the 996 need to be replaced about as often as your tires.

While I don't have an issue with this specific 996 gadget, I understand where you're coming from. There are definitely some "improvements" - like the electronic emergency brake - with which I have conceptual trouble. I suppose BMW doesn't imagine that anyone actually uses the parking brake in an emergency, and thus operating it with a push-button instead of a lever or pedal makes it more likely that it will get used, but I was really bothered by that specific feature on my X5, since it eliminated what used to be a very straightforward and reliable manual safety system. Plus, how are you supposed to do handbrake turns with no handbrake? Lunacy!

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Heh - it's funny that many RL 996 owners say the same thing about the 996 in comparison to the newer - and much more complicated - generation of Porsches.

The German marques have a reputation for stodgy iterative development rather than wholesale chucking of designs between model years (consider the 911's shape and Porsche's insistence on building air-cooled engines, for example); seeing Porsche get called out for recklessly adopting unnecessary tech strikes me as funny...

I have to agree with the other posts John. While it may be true that the days of pulling a carb off your car , and putting it in a bucket of gas to clean it are long gone . I'll also admit , that the days of walking outside , and having my eyes burn due to smog are also long gone Welcome to the computer age. Alan

My car did this when it got back from the body shop where they apparently drain batteries... A couple roll up and down functions and it's been normal since

Mt bet is it will heal itself, thanks to modern technology.

John, my 996 cab has acted the same way a couple of times. Each time it was intermittent (wouldn't do it every time the door was opened), and the malfunction lasted about 3-4 days. It hasn't acted up in about 9 months. As others stated, it is probably a microswitch problem. Modern electronics can actually make a car lighter as electrical design and circuits can perform functions that previously required switches, relays, or mechanical systems to accomplish.