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My wife and I recently picked up a base 981 Cayman, and unfortunately made contact with a curb. Front right rim is bent and bumper scratched and radiator damaged, all this I can repair in my garage no problem. However upon further inspection this mounting point on the strut tower seems to have pulled free (pics below). We did have a PPI done before buying it and there was mention of some previous front end repair though it was listed as minor/cosmetic. There is no other suspension damage and the car drove onto the trailer and off into the garage without issue. So we are curious if any one has seen this before. It seems crazy to us that the impact with the curb didn't damage any suspension pieces or fail the strut tower yet possibly pulled this mount out. All the other mounting points look for the strut tower look fine. While I am a mechanical engineer by trade and have designed car parts, I am not the most familiar with this area and would like some help to understand what might have happened and how likely repair is. I am talking with insurance about it but wanted to get an idea of what we might be in for in the meantime. I included some pics of the rim damage to help give an idea of impact scale. We bought this car just to have a fun daily and road-trip car with no intention of resell which is why we bought it with previous incident damage, so we really just want to get repaired and hopefully not have it totaled out.
There is a thread on the GT4 section several car have had the tower cracked open and required replacement. $25K done right. Yours.... I am afraid the parts need to be removed, reglued and new rivets if the shop is willing to do that, I hit a curb at the track last September and dented a rim, but a fraction of yours. I had a shop check things out, but seeing your photos, I need to look again.
You also need the power steering rack checked out as they are more fragile than the previous hydraullic racks as electronics can be shook up and become loose, requiring replacement.
Thanks Voyager. I head skimmed through that strut top failure thread. I was hoping I'd find pictures of those lower mounts on towers that failed to get an idea of how they handle the load.
I was kinda hoping a repair could be done without replacing all the parts, but it would probably be near impossible to verify that everything is fine and it just needs that mount re-bonded and riveted. I'm just still baffled that this seemingly small impact could have resulted in that mount pulling off without other signs of damage, though I need to take a measuring tape to some parts tonight to double check what visually looks undamaged. The hard part though is not having any before measurements I'll never now if this happened during our unfortunate curb hit or during an accident with the previous owner.
It's hard to tell from the pics but it looks like the strut mount is fine but the lower mounting point has separated a bit from the chassis? If so, I would have a body shop take a look and maybe replacement isn't necessary. I'm not sure about the 981 but I think these are often bonded (adhesive)and welded so maybe this just needs to be reattached...
I think that's a good idea. I'll try to contact some repair shops that know more and be able to say what the likelihood is that it can be repaired as it sits and not need the front tub completely rebuilt. A new rebuilt tub scares me because I don't want this car to be totaled out.
Anybody know of Porsche repair shops in the Atlanta area that can do repairs to the aluminum chassis of the 981?
I think that's a good idea. I'll try to contact some repair shops that know more and be able to say what the likelihood is that it can be repaired as it sits and not need the front tub completely rebuilt. A new rebuilt tub scares me because I don't want this car to be totaled out.
Anybody know of Porsche repair shops in the Atlanta area that can do repairs to the aluminum chassis of the 981?
Honestly I would look for a race shop opinion VS a regular auto body repair shop. You have some good ones in the Atlanta area.
Sorry to see this, as a 981 owner it is worrisome to see what kind of damage a potentially small incident can cause (if it was in fact caused by this incident). Post #373 in the below thread has some pics of the area and what the potential repair might look like:
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Help - Strut Tower Mount Repair Possible?
