Curtis - '97 Targa

My driver's side door recently started making a popping noise on open/close. Upon inspection, it happens when the door moves over the indent on the metal strap that limits door range. There is a body colored piece of metal that this strap is pinned to with a clevis pin type of thing. The body colored piece is moving laterally and snapping against the opening in the door mount/pillar.

Looks like there is no way to get to the back of this thing as it is welded to the body.

I looked in my shop manuals but this piece is in one of the phantom "prior year" manuals that I don't have.

Anyone have any experience/guidance here?

Thanks

E. J. - 993 Alumni

Curtis,

I just had to have my drivers door check re welded in the door a couple of months ago. I had the good body shop in the area do the work and they said it was a royal pain. The Check had come completely off inside the door and they had to completely remove the door and trim to re weld it. The problem (and it sounds like mine was worse then yours) is that now there was nothing keeping the door from springing all the way open and actually denting the front fender. As it was, the broken strap had already made a dent and actually wore off the paint on the door skin from hitting the inside of the door skin. You can still see the mark through the touch up.

After my experience, I would recommend that you have a competent body shop look at it soon so you don't damage your car.

Curtis - '97 Targa

EJ,
Thanks for your response. I'll definitely find a competant shop to look at it.

What did your job end up costing?

All,
Can anyone recommend a good body shop in the Tampa area?

thanks

E. J. - 993 Alumni

Mine cost $300. I have a feeling he gave me a deal since I know him. He said it was a real bear. They had to completely remove the door and get it down to its bear minumum. then cut out the liner just to get to the inside of the door. Your best bet to finding a body shop is to call the local high line dealers (p-car, M-B etc...) and ask what body shop they use. I would ask the service managers since they interact with the shops the most. One or two will start being named more often then the others.

Good Luck.

Irish Frank

Curtis
I have a '95 993, the backing plate onto which the door stop strap is welded was not designed sufficiently well to deal with any real opening forces. The metal top and below the backing plate area gradually fatigues and then fractures, I believe Porsche have produced a recommended repair method, ask at your Porsche dealer, its a well known flaw. The cost over here to repair by their body shop would have been the equivalent of $750! Good luck.

Francesco

I had a similar thing happen on my '97 993 S, where the check strap mounting on the A-pillar had partially broken it's weld. It's a common problem, hence Porsche body shops know the fix pretty well. To be done properly requires taking the door off, cutting through from the front of the A-pillar (they cut a flap by cutting three sides of a square and then peeling this open) and re-welding the check-strap mount. Some (mine inc.)also put a TIG weld under the mount on the front side of the a-pillar(the side that you can see) which is a Porsche recommended modification and paint to finish etc. It's a pain in the **** but i got mine done for £250 sterling but kicked up such a fuss that porsche paid £150 towards it. If I managed to get this, then anyone should be able to, as my car was imported from Germany, hence Porsche Cars GB have no interest in it and it has never been serviced by a main dealer in this country, only by independant garages (who are much better anyway (I speak for GB)). Irrelevant in my eyes as it's a manufacturing problem. Oh, and the car was out of warranty.When the warranty people reject your claim, get on the phone to customer services and tell them that you wouldn't expect this of a YUGO let alone a Porsche. Good luck!

Robert Henriksen

Funny, I used exactly the same language, and my dealer covered the whole cost out of their 'goodwill' funds pool. :-)

Curtis - '97 Targa

Given that I didn't buy the car from the dealer and don't have it serviced there, do I really have a snowball's chance of getting them to pay for it?

I agree that it is an engineering or manufacturing defect and am prepared to be as persistent as I need to be, but don't want to waste the time and energy if I don't have any chance.....

Hap

I bought my '96 C4 privately two years ago from the original owner. Recently, at 50K miles, with the car out of warranty I took the car to the dealer that sold it new to the original owner. When I advised about the door strap noise it was obvious that the dealer knew about the problem and the Porsche suggested fix. When advised that the car was a 993, the service manager immediately agreed to fix it at no charge to me. Door strap was welded in the door jamb and painted. Not sure if was submitted to Porsche or absorbed by the dealer.

Don't know what other dealers are doing, but you should give it a try and suggest that you learned on the web that Porshce is fixing this problem without charge to owners.

Good luck.

GeoT3

its really up to your local P dealer service mgr. and what kind of "good well" they have. Its the luck of the draw. My local P dealer was not so much interested in fixing my 96 993 with 39K miles on it when I brought it in for the problem. Called the PNA and got absolutely No Where. Think Porsche would stand behind there product. NO! They left it up to the dealers. The dealer I went to was Schneider and Nelson of NJ. Have several experiences with their service dept. and it left me with much more to be desired. Hell, I get better service from my local Toyota dealer. Porsche decided to leave their customers holding the bag once the car is out of warrenty. This is a clear design flaw.

Irish Frank

On advice from a previous poster F Berni ( see on list above ), I took my car to my local dealer, also got an offer of 50% rebate on cost of repair, good luck with your efforts, but it does indeed seem to be pot luck, Frank

porschekiddyuk

the checkstrap pivot on the 'A' post can have the welds break on the inside.the post has to be cut open from under the front wing and rewelded into position

Curtis - '97 Targa

Does anyone have a Technical Service Bulletin on this fix?

Irish Frank

I believe Porsche did issue a recommended repair method, not sure if this constituted a Technical Bulletin.

Ran

Any pictures to understand what this is all about a bit more clearly? Thanks in advance.