gmolinari

I had a sub-optimal experience yesterday evening driving on the highway.

Doing about 90 or so, my front spoiler lip suddenly came detached and smashed into the side of the car. Fortunately, and quite miraculously, no damage appears to be done to the paint or body panels, but it was hella scary.

At first I thought i had blown a tire or something since it looked like a large black strip came up from under the car. When the car seemed to continue to be steady, I then realized it was probably the spoiler lip that had come loose and detached due to the aerodynamics.

In any case - check your spoiler lip!! I have scraped mine a few times out of the driveway and that must have caused it to come off eventually, although at a very bad time.

I have ordered a new lip from the dealer - a cool $309 ...

regards

gioel

Sloth

Same thing happened to me with my 996 Aerokit during a high speed run on an empty two lane. No damage, but obnoxious none the less. I too think it was the result of hitting the lip on to many driveway entrys and parking stops. It is certainly worthwhile to check the attachment of the lip from time to time... as it is worthwhile to shop around when looking for a replacement part. $309, sounds pretty high.

Karl S

I was washing my car a couple weekends ago and noticed that the spoiler lip had pulled away from the bumper cover. All of the plastic rivets were still holding but barely. At the peak of the nose there was at least a 1" gap. I'm sure that at Interstate speeds air could have gotten in there and ripped it off just as gioel describes. The lip popped right back in with some pressure on the plastic rivets.

Now I check the lip after any major scrapes to make sure it hasn't pulled away again. Sounds like I got lucky.

Karl

skl

Thanks for the heads up. I've already damaged one of the brake ducts hitting a dead possum. Didn't have time at night to avoid it and that car is definitely LOW! I barely scrapped the lip splitter the first time I drove the car out of the dealer parking lot- embarassing to say the least.

wet996

Lost mine too - looking for alternatives to dealers $300 option. Any suggestions?

goplay

Buy the motorsports version for the Cup car. Identical fit for about $100. Different part number. Check this forum for the MS port number.

(These come off regularly on the Cup Car. In a race car you might want that to happen instead of taking off the whole nose!)

PogueMoHone

Wheels can fall off if they are not properly torqued, as well.

Would you rather raise the car, have a fixed piece (even more potential damage) or take responsibility for checking the security of the spoiler, just like you do for tire pressures etc.?

Driving is a safety issue.

goplay

>> and liability.

And we wonder why we don't get the GT-3 seats, the GT-3RS and countless other products imported to the US.

PogueMoHone

It won't fall off at freeway speeds, if it wasn't previously loosened or damaged.

It's your responsibility to check the safety of the car before you drive, just as with tires.

It works the same way on the Gt2, it will only fall off if loosened or damaged.

bob_dallas

I'd recommend checking the rivets in that lip periodically. I had the one on my previous car come loose on the highway on the way back from the track. There's really no way to design it where it will pop off easily if it needs to but not pop off over time after it's been scraped and loosened a little at a time. If you don't like to have to do that then replace those plastic rivets with some screws.

Sloth

How long does it take to check the chin spoiler after a scrape? I scraped my chin this past weekend, I pulled off and checked for looseness... took all of 30 seconds. Had it been loose, I would have pulled it off and thrown it in the back to remount later. Better safe than sorry...

Madcaplaughs

I agree. The lip won't fall off by driving too fast. It may fall off if you scrape it first. So when you scrape it ( which will be often ) just have a look underneath and check its ok. No big deal and not a design fault!

bob_dallas

Congratulations Sloth - you've exhibited a true sense of personal responsibility. Seems somewhat lacking these days.

Steve N.

I'm with Colm on this one. I don't mind checking my chin spoiler - and have found it partially separated after encountering an unexpected pavement buckling at about 40 mph. The brake cooling ducts are also vulnerable to getting whacked loose from their mountings - it's a little harder to check these, as you have to jack the car up.