dyerhaus

The corner trim on the right headlight of my 2001 996 won't seem to stay down. I've removed the headlight and inspected it and the trim, but I don't see anything wrong. It doesn't appear to have any broken clips, or anything of that nature. Sliding it back in seems to make it pop out. I can push it down, but it pops back up later.

My left side corner trim sits fine, but it has a chip in it. These things are $65 to $70 a pop. I'm wondering if I need to replace both? The chipped one, for sure. But the other one… I don't see anything wrong with it, nor the headlight assembly. I don't want to spend the money if the same thing is going to happen with a replacement. Has anyone had this problem before? Thoughts?

KoB

Without a look at the other side, it's hard to say what the problem is ... you may need to pull the headlight out and take some pics of the underside. That said, IIRC there's a peg-and-hole arrangement on the underside of that corner piece and the corresponding area of the headlight; my only guess would be that it's not aligned quite right.

If you've never removed the headlights, it's not difficult. My suggestion would be to pull the headlight, take a look at how the trim fits onto the headlight, and post more pics if you can't get it to line up properly. I'd be surprised if you have to replace it, unless the mounting tabs on the back are trashed. Even then, they tend to stay in place pretty well -- one of mine was missing most of its mounting tabs and still sat flush to the headlight.

dyerhaus

At first glance, there appears to be nothing wrong with corner piece. All the clips are there, they seem normal, they look complete.

So, I looked at the same piece on the other light and discovered a huge chip in it:



While the other corner piece sits correctly, it's still damaged. So I ordered both from the Porsche dealer and when I picked them up I compared the two side by side. I still couldn't see any difference.

I replaced the chipped one, and paid very close attention as to how it fits. I then tried putting my original back in on the other side and found that one of the clips just wouldn't catch on what it's supposed to catch.



I put it the new one and it fits perfect. Turns out, that tiny clip is just ever so slightly bent down. This causes it not to catch and easily pops out when barely nudged.

These things are a bit overpriced at $45 a pop, but at least they're both staying seated and look like they should now.