mick

My rear spoiler ( 95 993) is not working. Worked fine until this weekend. Noticed that it stayed up after turning off car after about an hour and a half drive at 75-80 mph. I put it down via the switch on the console thinking it was a one time occurence. When I restarted the car I notice the warning (!) light was on. It stayed on for about 30 minutes then went off. I never reached speeds that would have allowed the spoiler to go up. Drove several times after that and the light did not come on. Before heading home light came back on and wing would not go up after reaching 50 mph without use of switch again. Warning light stayed on for trip home. Once home wing stayed in upright position until I put it down manually. Have driven a few more times with same result. Any suggestions before I take into my Porsche dealer. thanks. mick

Robin 993DX

Mick,

Try the following diagnostic and see if you can fix the problem youself.

(1). Check the connection of the microswitch connector on the decklid. That's the plug with 4 wires that leads to it.



(2). Check the main wire connection from the decklip to the engine bay area, make sure the plug is pluged in nice and tight.



(3). Remove the two philips screw on the cover of the motorized tail cover.



There are two micro switches under there which tells the tail control module the positions of the tail. From what you have described it sounds like the "down" micro swtch is not working. Check for the condition of the microswitch making sure that when the tail is down it is activating the switch (pushed open). If the switch is pushed opened physically check it with a voltmeter in continuality test mode and see if the switch have gone bad.




(4). Another possibility is that the tail control module went bad. It is under the dash board under the passenger's side, let me know if you need to borrow mine to test it out.



Sorry about the long procedures, it is not as complicate if your car were here.....

Good luck

Robin

Mike in Chi

Mick

My spoiler was not operating either at one point.

the dealer said before you bring it in try tripping the microswitch (it's a little metal strip) shown in Robin's picture, which reset the function. The spoiler worked fine after that. Yours may be as simple as that too.

Robin, you are truly amazing -- do you have the entire car photographed piece by piece?

Mike in Chi

Robin 993DX

Mike,

That's a great idea! I think I will start that project tonight.... :P

I happen to have the decklid inside the house (since I installed the turbo tail on my car), so it took me no time to capture some pictures with captions. My wife mumbled something (what are you doing with that? you stupid....) in the background while I was doing that



Robin

mick

Robin and Mike
Thanks for the quick response. I will see if I can DIY after work tomorrow. I will let you know. thanks again. mick

DoubleNutz

WOW!!! Great descriptive. Step by Step with with pictures and all. Robin, I hope you answer my questions too when I have problems that you help me with.

Martin S.

What great opportunity to ditch the stock spoiler and replace it with something from Gert, such as the 993 RS package, or something from Better Bodies Motorsports in San Diego. They (BBM) have every spoiler imaginable, and most of it is paint and bolt on. I just visited their shop last week and the quality of their products looks excellent.

I know you want your OEM spoiler fixed, but in every calamity (broken OEM spoiler) there is opportunity, IMHO, of course.

McCulla

OK, here's a weird example of spoiler malfunction-a couple of years ago my C4S spoiler wouldn't go down. I ran it with the interior switch and when it got close to it's down position, it would reverse to all the way up. If it was left to it's own devices (as in going up on the fly) it would not return to down when coming to a stop. Well what happened was that when I was washing the car and had the spoiler up to clean underneath I knocked off one of the little rubber boots that cover the nuts under the spoiler on the deck lid. The boot had lodged in the mechanism of the spoiler and the detent safety set up would not let it close on that little rubber deal!! Took the rubber cap out and fixed the problem.

john.rogers

Mick:
Recently had a problem with my spoiler (97 Cab). The problem was that is stayed up all the time, so it may not be the same problem. FWIW the fix was to replace a part called the "rear spoiler wall" (p/n 993 512 121 00). The porsche garage said this was a common problem.
I have also heard of the plastic nut cover causing the problem that someone else mentioned. When my spoiler was malfunctioning I found one of those loose rascals in the vicinity, but it was not the cause of the problem. Replacing the part mentioned above fixed it.

Good luck.

P.S. Robin: Love those pix of the car with the annotations. Please, keep up the good work! Question: how do you dub the photos with the text?

Regards,

Robin 993DX

Adobe Photoshop

Thanks

Robin

mick

An update to my original post. Robin was correct. The micro sensor was bad. Getting fixed tomorrow morning. Thanks to all of you who responded with suggestions. mick