Carlo_Carrera

How long is the warranty?

Sarah P-Speed

Dear Carlo,

we are so confident in our upgraded product, that we offer for customers outside Germany a lifetime warranty for leaks of the hydraulic units and a 2 year warranty on parts like an upgraded pump for b2c customers.

Happy holidays.

Michaelniwot

My spoiler system on the 996 TT does not l work. I need to raise the spoiler to gain access to use the special tool to remove the wing, and then everything else in order to see what's wrong. I have tried pulling up on the wing but it will not budge and I don't want to use brute force and risk damaging the wing. Is there another way?.

Thanks.

T10Chris

If the hydraulic pump/motor works, the problem is probably no fluid in the system. You can add fluid and bleed the rams without removing the wing, you have to bleed the rams one side at a time. It makes life easier to have an assistant to help push the wing up and down from the corner you are working on in order to get the air out of that ram.

If you want to take the system out, try lifting the wing up one side at a time, its way easier to fight against one ram than trying to lift both at same time. Lift one side, slide a pillow in there, lift other side, slide pillow, repeat until you can get it off.

Michaelniwot

There doesn't appear to be anything going on with the motor so I need to take the system out to investigate. My concern with physically pulling the wing up is doing damage to the fitment on the wing that clamps onto the ram or to the wing itself. It doesn't look like it could stand too much force.Thanks

DaveCarrera4

pull it up in one side about an inch, shove a rolled up towel in. Repeat on the other side. Pull up the first side another inch (2" total now), shove a bigger rolled up towel in. Repeat on the other side. You can now use the special tool to disconnect the wing. BE CAREFUL, there is a great deal of force pulling the wing back down, once disconnected the ram will snap back down. This might be a two person job, to hold the other end of the wing steady.

fbgh2o

Just refilled my system as the driver side was only deploying about 45%. This approach worked very well. Total time was about 90 mins. Did not have to remove the wing.

996TT02

Consider also that if the problem lies with the motor, you may not need to remove the wing at all.

Any more detail re the issue? Do you hear the motor running at all (someone to press the button needed so you can stick your ear to it)

Do you have error messages (failure spoiler control)? Do they go away and return when you try to raise via the dash button?

Common failure as you describe, is for the plastic "pusher" block to break. The motor would still work but nothing happens, although generally one side breaks not both so one side of the wing lifts but not the other.

Perhaps the motor has seized, perhaps for some reason there is no power to it (connection came loose? although unlikely). Test for power to the motor, if there is power but no "action" at all, motor faulty, no need to remove wing.

If there is noise but no action, plastic block likely disintegrated.

Have you not used the wing for a long time? Other possibilities arise, perhaps both the ram pistons have seized.

Lots of possibilities, but from what you describe, actually removing the wing is not the first thing I'd bother with.

With any luck you won't have difficulty removing the black plastic under-hood cover due to seized bolts. If that's the case, I have resolved, can advise. If not, a tip is to remove one engine cover gas support strut to be able to remove the plastic cover. And to grease the bolts before refitting, as a preventative.

T10Chris

The car that I fixed had zero wing movement, but the motor worked; I couldn't tell it was working without touching the motor and felt a slight vibration. I took it apart and refilled the motor/pump system and bled the rams and it fixed it. Didn't remove the wing as it was stuck in the down position. I did have to pull up on the wing to bleed the air from the rams (one side up and down at a time), but it never came off.

Michaelniwot

Thanks for the advice. The fact is that in two of my cars, a 2005 Turbo S and a 2004 TT, both spoilers have packed up. They haven't worked since I owned the cars. Both dealers promised to make good on the spoilers but neither did. Every time I reach the appropriate speed I get the "failed spoiler" warning light. So something works.

Accordingly, I have now made the decision to replace both systems with Dave's electric ram solution. As the wretched wing on the S was stuck in the up position, I managed to take all the hydraulic stuff off and will keep it for re-installation in the event any new owner wants a stock car. On the TT, where the wing is in the down position, I need to take everything off. Hence the problem of how to get the wing up and start the process. I have not tried the towels yet but it seems the way to go. Once the system is off I can then check where the actual fault might be and fix it ready for re-installation as necessary.

The electric ram solution is for me the best way to go as the OEM solution is too fussy.

996TT02

Gotcha. So yes removing the wing will involve some lifting one side at a time. Not very hard. There's just the spring pressure to contend with, the piston, even if seized, just stays put.

You need a c spanner to actually remove the wing. I actually ended up using an adjustable one from my bike tool box...

You need to ensure that the tab does not just engage on the outer, chrome cover, that will just spin. The spanner's tab needs to engage the slot in the actual inner lug that retains the wing (via the chrome cover's hole). You may deduce from this that they may not necessarily be lined up, you may or may not need to spin the chrome cover until you can see the inner slot.

I learnt this the hard way, after a session of swearing trying to figure out why the spoiler was not releasing :/

I also had to grind the tool slightly so the tab could go deep enough.

Furthermore if there is no hydraulic in the system it could be that the strut will shoot downwards rapidly upon release. I did not get this, but then I still had oil in the system. The problem with this is if it takes your tool with it, damaging the engine cover when retracting into it. So best surround the strut with lots of rags.

Another thing to watch out for, if you take the ram units apart, when you remove the circlips - IIRC the small one at they hydro inlet - the spring pressure is released, so you need to be pressing down on a work bench before you do this, using a suitable socket for the internals to seat on at the other end. The spring is VERY LONG so be careful as you also need to keep everything straight as you release the pressure otherwise the spring may fly out sideways and possibly kink.

Despite the spring pressure, the inner ram may be slightly seized inside the black outer housing, be very very wary as a result of this you may not realise the fact that everything is now cocked and loaded and only seizure friction is holding everything together. So you may need a wooden mallet to give the inlet end a slight tap to release the ram and the spring pressure while obviously doing everything outlined in the previous paragraph.

If you don't fix the 996 system and your plastic pusher block is still intact I could be interested, I made one myself but lots of ??? re durability, nice to have a spare even though I may decide to cast one out of metal.

Michaelniwot

Thank you so much for taking the trouble to let me have your thoughts. There is some very useful advice in there which I shall heed. I have taken the system off one of the cars and was greatly surprised when that spring seemed to appear from nowhere and shoot bits all over the garage. Eventually I found them all. Fortunately, the ram was already off that car.

I am looking forward to fitting the new electronic system as it seems to be able to do the job pretty well.

DaveCarrera4

Michael, you are my first order for two eRam kits! You are right, just not worth it to fuss around with the stock hydraulic system.

T10Chris

Dave, I've had an idea that could be an interesting addition to your eRams, but I have no idea if it's technologically possible... Would it be possible to design an additional range of motion into the kit that would allow the wing to flip up into an airbrake a la McLaren 12C, Veyron, etc etc? Could be an interesting way to generate some extra sales/even greater added benefit.

Would certainly take some additional sensors/activation switch to make sure the wing wasn't flipping up while in down position, maybe a brake pedal sensor that would deploy it when pedal was depressed beyond a certain point and the additional system was activated.... I'm not even sure what the packaging constraints would be, but for guys that track I wonder how much difference it could make.

DaveCarrera4

I've had a couple suggestions in that direction. Possible? Yes of course. Cost? Outrageous. The mechanism would be pretty far from what the simple eRam approach involves. Still, I would enjoy figuring this one out!