Michaelcoe1

I just returned from the dealer:

As much as $3k for repairs

2 cables must be replaced
New transmition (maybe, they arent sure)
New contol unit

They said they will do the repair in this order to determine the solution. Regardless the cables must be replaced.

Question:

What should I expect to pay to have the cables replace?

Thanks

grmnxtc

About $15 to buy for beer for the LRRPC (Local Rennlist Repair Party Crew) should cover it! (plus parts) and a look at the p-car.com DIY here:

http://p-car.com/diy/cabtop/



Clive.

burrow01

Hi,

I have just had my gearbox and cables replaced by an official Porsche centre in the UK (the most expensive place..) they charge £75 per hr

Costs were:

Two new Cab Roof Quadrants Left and Right- Part No's 993.561.045.00 70 026966/Transmission / 993.561.045.00 70 026966/Transmission. Cables were also included in these parts - £283 Each plus 2hrs labour - £157

Total Bill £718.25 - not sure what exchange rate you would use to convert this to USD$

If you do a search, you will find some details on re-soldering the joints in the Cab control box, which may be the fix, rather than replacement

What are the symtoms?

Pete

Michaelcoe1

works intermitently, occasionaly one side will close while the other stays in place.

I definately need to look at the control box. But I do think i have a cable problem as well.

great instruction at the following link:
https://rennlist.com/forums/993-forum/137428-convertible-top-problem-solved.html

grmnxtc

It also depends upon the year model, up to 95 had a cable, 96 and on had a cable with a gear attached.


Pelican doesn't show the parts available (strange?) but the DIY mentions $300 for cables (take that as a starting point).

Clive.

grmnxtc

slow reponse on my part... looks like a recent price point marker posted above.

vjd3

Unbolt the transmissions and put the top up and down by hand ... that's what I did with my former cab, takes about 5 seconds, you can be sure it's folding correctly so you don't wind up with holes in the top from those positioning pins and you're back there anyway to fasten the boot cover over it in any event. The whole design of that top is flawed -- unchanged since 1983 -- and you're just asking to break one of the arms on the top or even the frame if one of the transmissions jams on you and it twists, and then you're looking at some serious money in repairs. It will still latch with the power switch, assuming your control unit is good.

hn

Sounds like one of the cables get shortened (very typical). If you're gonna replace the cable, do both sides'.

Porsche changed the design making the gear and the cable as one part now. You have no choice but pay more to get this updated part.

Chuck W.

YES YES YES......I disconnected mine and I am now free. Do a search on the subject then disconnect it. You will only miss the repair bills!!

cabrio993

My right gear got jammed and stripped a couple of months ago. Costs $380 for the whole assembly that includes the cable with the PCA discount from my local dealer. I may fix it when it gets cool out again. Too hot to be cramped up back there messing with the cables and gears.

I disconected the mechanism as well and I am currently in manual mode. I still lock with the top motors.

The only nag is that I have that stupid Top light lit on the dash when the top is down. I have checked the micro-switches and they are all fine. Don't know what's triggering the light.

chet

As far as the intermittent part, if the motor is working intermittently, that sounds like the control unit which might be fixed with a touch up on the cold solder joints. If one side is turning and the other isn't, that is probably a cable problem.
My top was working fine until I started having random problems with the motor not working. I loosened up the bolts to operate it by hand until I could attempt the control unit fix. (I didn't see any problems, but just hit the big solder connections for good measure.) Whether I fixed it or not, the motor started operating again.
The problem was, I hadn't completely taken the bolts off and didn't really stop to think through the process of how the gears and transmission worked, so I just tightened the bolts up and tried to run it. It didn't work because once I got the control unit to work, the motor had turned the slot in the transmission so that it wasn't lined up with the bar on the back of the top arm (as I'm writing this, I realize I don't actually know the correct name for anything, but that's not going to stop me now). I had just been dealing with the control unit fix and hadn't read through the diy on alignment of the top. At that point though, I stopped, and I'm still not sure if I had damaged the cables yet.
I read through the alignment diy, loosened the bolts again, and removed the cables one at a time to run the motor and try to get the slots lined up where they needed to be. After pulling one of the cables out from the motor, I never could get it to consistently turn. It seemed to have shortened and wasn't quite setting far enough into the motor.
I bought two new cables (Sunset Imports had them for $182 each versus $231 on Pelican) and I now have it running again, but I may have been the one to screw up the cables in the first place by not knowing what I was doing when I tried to go back to remote mode after having operated it manually when the control unit wasn't working.
Something else to consider besides the cables that is pretty simple. If you had it in manual mode with the top arms disengaged from the transmission and you used the switch to run the motor, the transmission may have run past the end of the gear. Inside the transmission, there is a big gear which is only a semicircle. To move the top from up to down and back up again, the gear only moves back and forth within that range of a semicircle. When everything is engaged, the motor stops turning the gear when the top is fully down or fully up. When disengaged, the motor can run the gear past that semicircle. Then the worm gear on the cable is no longer in contact with the gear in the transmission, and consequently the gear would not turn. As complicated as I'm making this whole thing sound, that would be easy to deal with and wouldn't cost anything.
So to recap.
1. You may not want to let the dealer have it until you try the control unit diy.
2. If one side is turning and the other isn't, loosen the bolts so that you don't twist your top or snap a cable if the control unit diy gets the motor working.
3. If you want to trouble shoot the side that isn't turning, before pulling the cables out of the motor or removing the transmission (both of which are fairly easy), with the bolt removed so that the top arm isn't connected to the transmission try to turn the slot in the transmission yourself. If it turns half way around and then stops, you'll know that your transmission gear isn't meshed up with the worm gear.
4. Pulling the cables out of the motor and removing the transmission per the diy is fairly simple. You may want to do that just to get an idea of how everything works before you turn it over to someone else.

You can opt to just put the top up or down by hand. I kept noticing hand prints on my top. I also figured that at some point down the road I'm not going to want to sell it with the top not operating the way its supposed to. Why wait until then to fix it. Fix it now and use it yourself. I never used to do anything myself, but I'm getting caught up in the whole diy thing. Even if I am fixing stuff that I broke by doing stuff myself.

Michaelcoe1

I love this site!

Monique

Check out specialist convertible top companies.

In Belgium, a friend has a 993 cab and is a top repair specialist. He told me that at Euros 500, he makes 300% profit.

Buy beer and get a local Rennlist Repair Party. Fun Saturday made better if you organize a track day for the Sunday!!!