981 Spyder Door Panel Warp?
 

I know the issue of door panel warping has been discussed extensively with regard to earlier year Boxsters but I haven't seen talk about any later Spyders with the issue. My car has both panels starting to lift up right in the middle of the top trim and I'm wondering if anyone else sees the same. It's not egregious, like in the image below, but about 4-5mm or so and probably only going to get worse.

Any other Spyder owners seeing the same? My car has a leather top trim, unlike the rubberized leather-looking piece in the pic below.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...ff1a025a02.jpg

Mine is not.

My '13 built Cayman S is just starting. The bottom of the inner door panel is about even with the door panel. I never even noticed it until a '13 Box owner approached me at a C&C. If it continues, it will become a bad dream, and if it looks like your picture, It's a nightmare. So far, it looks like Porsche's only answer is, "Not our problem, man", but you can spend a lot of your money to fix it with a new panel and Porsche labor rates for the replacement." I talked to a well known local interior repair shop thinking they might have seen it, but they never even heard of it. Mine isn't bad enough to have them pull the panel to see if there might be an 'after market' fix.

Thankfully that image I posted is NOT my car. And I'm even more thankful that I'm still under factory warranty and will bring the issue up with my dealer before the warranty expires. Hopefully I'll get taken care of.

I had that exact door panel issue on my 2014 Cayman S. Mine is a CPO car. At first they acted like it might not be covered, but in the end and 1 week of waiting for the panels, they replaced them. Too bad they didn’t replace the door handles as mine are pebble grey and now they are mismatched with new and old pebble grey leather.

Not on mine either. Weird.

That looks terrible. Hopefully, the problem isn't widespread. If it happens outside the warranty period, we got no prayer! They wouldn't cover it.

What's causing this warping?

i'd bet humidity is playing a large role in that warping. i'd also want to check that door against the opposite side for any prior repair to the door. Often times, when a door is resprayed, vapor barriers are not placed correctly and can cause water ingress.

This symptom seems to be relatively rare on cars with leather. Please consider posting a photo!

Does anyone know what the backing material of construction is? I wonder if it’s heat related damage? Maybe keeping the car out of the heat (shade) would help?

Years ago the 928 rear parcel shelf’s had a similar issue but it was limited to the leather wrapped trim only, vinyl didn’t have the issue. For the 928 the leather actually shrunk which caused the trim to warp. One the 981 is has to be the foundation material that’s changing assuming it’s being seen on leather and vinyl trim cars.

Can any of you guys check your 981's and report back? My panels are not excessively warping as of yet but I can get about 5mm of travel when pushing down on the middle section of the top of the door panel as compared to the zero mm of travel at the forward and rearward edges. Wondering how mine compare.

HEre's mine from a '14 Cayman S.. I have an appt with the dealer on Wed to get replaced.. I've got 2 months of warranty left :crying:

Also getting the frunk carpet replaced as it's not quite fitting under the rubber trim at the back.. SA at dealer said this is very common on 991/981 cars..



https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...3f87547cb4.jpg

No issues with my Spyder.

Is the (warranty) fix to just replace the old panel with the same but new?