Piccia

My '02 Targa's roof didn't close properly last night. Heard a crack when it was cycling closed and the driver's side is 1 cm down vs. the passenger side. I'm not much of a DIY'er but am hoping I might be able to re-align it. Searched the forum but didn't see this exact situation.

Any help/thoughts appreciated!

nazhat

Try Loren at Renntech.org

Piccia

All my research says I may have a very expensive fix on my hands for my misaligned Targa roof. I was thinking on asking my independent service shop to help me shut and secure it for the winter. Anyone ever do this manually?

Barn996

Is there a way to manually open or shut your Targa like there is for a sunroof in the owners manual?

Piccia

Doh! Good point. I'll check.

Piccia

Found a 997 manual online and saw the emergency closing procedure. So when I get to my car I'm sure there'll be something similar. I'll post an update....

Optical TDI

How does it get misaligned? How much is the repair?

georgiadis

The owner's manual contains the instructions to shut the roof manually. It is quite easy.
However if one side sits lower than the other side, then this probably has to do with the lifting mechanism - not the alignment, so even manually you (probably) won't be able to close it completely.

Piccia

Optical - I'm not sure what happened. The roof was in need of lubrication (closing was slowing down) and something may have just broken. But I've looked at posts around the world for Targa's and full repair replacement seems like a $2K in parts plus 10+ hrs of labor deal. Admittedly, that's from a small 'n' (our cars are rare) and 1.5 days of searching. A couple of people have thought the worse and been able to get fixed with lubrication. But their's weren't misaligned..... We'll see tonight whether I can get it closed.

Optical TDI

We are both seal gray and black. You have a great car. Love the winter with the top open. Good thing it's not the 15k repair some talk about.

hamilton

Anyone have any tips on lubricating to help prevent this? I tried lubricating the tracks once but that did nothing. I must be missing the right spots.

Piccia

Well, I wasn't able to force the roof closed using the process and tools outlined in the owners manual. Fri. its going to my independent for an oil change and to see if they can get it done. Luckily, no rain in the near forecast in Nashville!

My amateur analysis from feeling/listening while trying the manual shutting is that the motor for the driver's side of the roof (there's one for each side) broke a gear of some type.

Barn996

Were you able to move the roof in both directions, but just not far enough to close it with the tools?

Piccia

Barn996 - the roof was all the way closed on one side and dropped on the other. So there wasn't much movement. I could turn the manual cranks and get about a 1/2 inch drop on the flush closed side, but much less on the dropped/misaligned side. So really not much movement either way. Looks bad - $$$

Michael Gibney

The final bit of lift is because of the uplift in the track -- no magic there -- if the gear drive has failed you will not get complete forward movement wich at the last moment is converted into upwards movement by the change in track direction.
You mention slowness etc before the failure, so it seems the motor was working hard against resistance or there was no resistance and it was failing for other reasons.
My suggestion is to have someone inside push the window in the right direction (using their feet) and at the same time you turing the motors with the T handles.
Hopefully this will do the trick.
As for a permanent fix, the hard part about the roof is getting at the parts, they are all so dammed hard to get at, even the side curtain is hard to remove, so that probable means a dealer or a porsche bodyshop where they have experience at getting the assemblies on and off.