AzCoronaDog

2012 991 Cabriolet.

Driving home tonight, I started getting a 'check high mounted stop lamp' message. When I got home, I noticed the rear spoiler was not all the way down on the driver's side. I had been on the freeway so I expect the spoiler was up and down.

I put it up manually and it was fine, but it hung up again going down. I finally discovered that there is a large coil spring on each side, and the one on the drivers side was not behind the tab it is supposed to press against. I tried to put it back but it was not tight which leads me to believe the other end (which is not visible) is either broken or off of it's proper perch.

Anyone have a similar issue with their rear spoiler? Is the spoiler for the Cab different from the coupe?
I am coming up to 30k miles and I am planning to take off the rear bumper when I do spark plugs and check belts, hoses, etc., so hopefully it will be easier to get to then.

If the spring is broken, I can't wait to see what Porsche charges for this $5 part!

*991*

$11,899.87

AzCoronaDog

I took the spoiler off as part of taking the rear bumper off for a spark plug, air filter and belt change.

What I discovered is that much to my disappointment, not everything on this car is over engineered! One of the ends of the spoiler spring is supported by a plastic housing, which apparently is not as strong as it needs to be.

AzCoronaDog

Well, as I said about the spring, I can only imagine how much Porsche would charge for this complex plastic housing.
And BOTH sides were broken!
So, being the Porsche Pauper that I am, I decided to try and fix it myself.
I had a couple of stainless steel brackets left over from an IKEA coat hook thing, so I cut them as needed, drilled two holes in each, and riveted them in place. So far, seems to be holding fine.

AzCoronaDog

Here is a picture from further out to show the location:

Valvefloat991

Great repair. If my car were off warranty, I'd do the same thing.

Porsche_nuts

genuine ingenuity

controlled obsolescence so that you need to go to Porsche to fix or replace

but you fooled them

AzCoronaDog

After I made the repairs, I had put the spoiler on without bolting it down just to test that it worked.
It worked fine, and I left it in the down position and removed it again to finish the other work I was doing.
I put it back on today, hooked up the electrical connector, but when I tried the button, nothing.
What the heck!?! It worked fine yesterday!
Took it back off, looked everything over to be sure I did not disconnect anything, and tried again.
Nothing!
And it was in the down position, but it has to be raised to bolt it down and to get to the screws that hold the bumper on.
Checked all the fuses, they were fine. (Damn this car has a lot of fuses!)
Finally took the motor cover off the thing and ran it up manually.
Put it back on, still nothing...
Getting very depressed now, thinking I may have to pay Porsche to fix it after all.
Went in the house, got a cold beer, decided I should try Googling it.
Well, once again, my best friends Google and Rennlist came to the rescue.
I had run the battery down over the last couple of days of messing with the car, and apparently the spoiler gets confused because of it.
Held the button for a very long time, and low and behold it moved!
Also got the Limited Power Steering error, found the fix here on Rennlist was to move the wheel lock to lock a couple of times.
Lesson learned - this car gets a serious case of dementia if the battery gets low!

whiteducktail

This is the exact scenario that makes me prefer a fixed spoiler.

AzCoronaDog

I may go the fixed spoiler route in the future. I can barely afford to keep this thing in tires and brakes for now!
I am happy I was able to get it fixed without spending any money, just a few hours of cursing in the 108 degree temps here in the Phx. area.
Still love the car, but disappointed in the engineering on this part.

bkrantz

Nice work, and improvement on Porsche engineering. They had metal bearing (and wearing) on plastic--you have metal-on-metal. Just watch out for German antibodies rejecting your Swedish transplant.

AzCoronaDog

If it starts showing Volvo tendencies, like my wife suddenly wanting to drive it, I will have to trade it in!

AzCoronaDog

Follow up - my Swedish spring retainers are still holding up.
However, I have been consistently getting the check high mounted brake light message, so I decided to see what was going on. Long story short, the wire that runs through the spoiler brackets was broken where it has to bend. I will be fixing this myself too - pretty sure somebody already posted doing the same...

Jshgldstn

This is the right side spring which is OK for now


This is the left side spring with broken plastic housing.


This is the broken wiring harness going to the 3rd brake light in the spoiler
Hi - I'm brand new to the forum. I joined after Google searching for this exact same problem, which just occurred (same symptoms, same root cause) on my 2012 991 Carrera S Cabriolet. The dealer is quoting $3,500 for the repair (!) because the entire motorized rear spoiler assembly has to be replaced. They claim there's no way to just replace the sub-assembly with the spring mounts. It seems that when a spring fails, it somehow causes the brake light wires to start rubbing and eventually fail as well. I was getting the same brake light error message that the original poster mentioned.

I've attached a few pictures which look exactly like what the original poster published. I'm going to attempt the same DIY repair.

See U n RearView

Wow, thanks for posting this! I have a 2015 Cab and I should probably look into this to see if there are any stress cracks...

I have the CPO Warranty and wonder if this would be covered?