DaveW

Nicole, I seem to have hijacked your thread, sorry! How's your seal situation, are you going to go for new ones?

Cheers
DaveW

Nicole

I'm not in a rush, as the car is in California, never gets to see rain, and the seals are still at the beginning of disintegration.

I was just looking at them the other day, and wondered how hard it would be to replace them. I did not realize that they only go behind the door stop and electrical thingie - I had thought they go behind the door hinges also...

So I guess I'll put them on my list after the alignment, ride height adjustment, check of pressure plate, and some other little things. Maybe I'll combine it with the 2003 spring cleaning and detailing...

Hope Wally can enlighten us about possible differences between OEM and Porsche (not that I expect there to be any, but it would be nice to get that confirmed). The price quoted by Wally sounds sensational!

DR

[quote]Hope Wally can enlighten us about possible differences between OEM and Porsche (not that I expect there to be any, but it would be nice to get that confirmed). The price quoted by Wally sounds sensational! <hr></blockquote>

Hi Nicole,
I am not Wally, but I play one on TV :-)

The OEM version is the same door seal as used originally on 78-90.5 928s. Starting in mid production of 90 they added an extra rubber flap to the top section of the door seal. This flap "squeegees" the water towards the outside when you open the door so the water that collects on the top of the seal does not go inside when you open it. Unfortunately this seal is only available at this time thru our Porsche accounts , hence the higher price. I hope that will change soon and will double check to be sure.

BTW, the comment about simply disconnecting the electric connector at the door jam and installing the seal in one part ONLY applies to 88 and earlier. 89-90 and later have a more complex door connector harness and the connection is INSIDE the door panel which makes it not so easy to get to.

On my late model 928s I have always found it acceptable to carefully cut the seal at the center of the bottom section , once installed you can use some RTV sealant to glue the section back together if you like. Since this is at the lowest point and the water drains out here anyway I have never seen a problem with doing it this way.

Hope that makes sense,

Nicole

Thanks, David!

My car is an early '91 (VIN 102, built in 7/1990), and it still has the old style door seals. I owned a '91 GT before, which was built later in 1990 and already had the newer seals. It seems those newer seals are great, but have a high tendency to rip around the ends of that extra lip.

I love the tip about cutting the seal. Sounds sooo much easier than taking everything apart. But then, I'm a perfectionist. Hmmm... If all it takes is removing the door panels and disconnecting some wires, I might go for the "hard" way. We'll see when the time comes.

Maybe by then we'll be able to get the new seals as OEM products...

pilotshark

Anyone have or seen pictures to describe the process on this? I cannot seem to find it in the manuals.


[quote] Hi Nicole,
I am not Wally, but I play one on TV :-) <hr></blockquote>

<img src="graemlins/roflmao.gif" border="0" alt="[hiha]" />

DaveW

Pilotshark, I will take some pics while I am doing it. I didn't get the time I intended to have a go at the seal replacement yesterday - It's difficult getting round to doing this kind of job as when the weather's good you don't need to do it and when it's raining it's too wet to do it!

I have a fairly clear outline of the procedure for the doors but what about the rear hatch as the edge of the seal is quite hidden along the hinge line? Again there is an electrical bridge needing disconnected and if I removed the trim from inside the hatch and perhaps disconnected the gas struts to allow the hatch to be opened wider I think there should be enough access. Whadyathink?

Cheers
DaveW

pilotshark

Dave,

As long as your hatch shocks are in good shape, I would think that simply laying on your back in the luggage compartment would be good enough. I dunno I never replaced my seals before. That is why I asked first. I would very much appreciate some pics though, no rush. Thanks a million!

DaveW

Well that's the seals done. It's been a beautiful autumn day here and what better way to spend it than working outside on the car!

Overall the job was really easy as the old seals were easy to pull off and the new ones in turn pushed easily into place.

The only complication on the doors was releasing the door-stop bar and disconnecting the door electrics to allow the seal past. The door electrics are routed through one large and very stiff block connector (I spent as much time trying to persuade these connectors to release their grip as on the rest of the job!).

At the rear the issue is getting enough access for your fingers along the hinge edge of the hatch. The options are either to disconnect the struts to allow the hatch to open wider or to remove the hatch trim as I did (a good opportunity for detail cleaning and fitting shiny new screws and clips). At the lock edge of the hatch you need to remove the thin trim strip that secures the top edge of the rear bumper cover and then replacing it to trap the lower edge of the seal in place.

There's some photo's at:

<a href="http://homepage.mac.com/potw/DaveW928/PhotoAlbum37.html" target="_blank">fitting door seals</a>

There are two other things I need to do to finish off. Firstly the door seals could probably do with a bit of glue to make sure they stay put in their channels (there is a little glue residue from their origional fit). the second thing is that now I have had a close look, I think the leak in the hatch area was not due to a failing seal but through screw holes used to secure the S rear spoiler. It's due to rain tonight so i have put a bit of talc around the seals and the screws to see if and where water's still coming in.

Cheers
DaveW

Nicole

Thanks, Dave, for the documentation! To my big surprise, the lip on your new seals does not look like I remember the lip on my former '91 GT that had the new factory seals. I'm surprised they make multiple versions. Unless, of course, these are aftermarket by a different manufacturer than OEM.

pilotshark

Thanks a lot for the pics! Very very handy and well organized. The captions were great as well. Thanks again. Saving this for later when I can afford the seals. (I need to do my brakes and other mechanical stuff first.

DaveW

Yes, the rear hatch leak seems to be leaking through the S spoiler mounting holes. So I've removed the spoiler and all the edge trim around the hatch glass. Yeuch! you wouldn't beleive how much dirt and crap had built up in this hidden crevice - you could grow plants in there! Anyway I cleaned all of that out and the paint underneath was still in great condition.

The hatch is due for replacement anyway due to damage caused by the PO but as a short term temp fix I ran a bead of silicone sealant along the channel, covering the holes, not very pretty but functional.

(postscript) That seems to be that sorted then. It was raining hard last night but no new water inside. I'm looking forward to my first winter with a dry 928.

Cheers
DaveW