05-997Cab

I stopped by my dealer today to look at the lighted door sills he installed. There is a gap between the car and the sills about the size of my little finger at the back end of the sills. Has anyone else experienced this fit problem? I am wondering if the parts could be for a 996 or something? At least after three tries (literally) they shipped the correct part that says Carerra but now I am not pleased with the fit.

1080iAddict

I will let you know Saturday when mine get installed. Can you post a picture.... it will help.

05-997Cab

I will when I get it. I just stopped by this morning but when I inspected the car I found that the the detailers had broken my wind screen and damaged the backs of both of my seats by reclining the seats too far. I am waiting to hear from the dealer this morning.....

1080iAddict

yep. Ask me how I know that can happen.

05-997Cab

I thought you would enjoy that. I remember you saying you did the same thing very early on! I have leather on the seats so it does not looks like an easy operation to me to replace the plastic that underlies the leather. They pushed it so hard the plastic under the leather was deformed. The Service Manager was very nice about it and said that it would be perfect when I picked it up.

jfraser

If you are talking about the gap between the painted sill and the ss sill (that I have marked with an arrow in the photo), that gap should be about the thickness of a quarter.....If it's higher than that, I'm afraid whoever installed them has been lazy.....When you remove the old sill, the double sided tape tends to stay attached to the painted sill...it's a PITA to get off, I used heat, 3M adhesive remover etc to get rid of it & it took me ages to thoroughly clean....Had I been lazy, I could of just stuck the new sill on top of the remains of the old double sided tape, but the SS sill would have stood very tall off the painted sill.

FYI...The thickness of the double sided tape is @ 2mm....with the compression of sticking it, I'd say it would ne about 1.5mm

DJ23

Mine are exactly like JFraser's. May be the thickness of a quarter, but no more.

Jay

1080iAddict

I had my sills installed today. I am thrilled, but like 05-997Cab I also have a fit problem on one of the sills.

The problem is not in the installation but the manufacture of the sill. I saw the problem as they were installed. It is out of tolerance.

Look at the picture below (I copied and modified jfraser's pix). Basically, if you look closely at the sill, where I marked it with a yellow line, it bends downwards, i.e., the lighted sill sits flush on the door sill and then at the bottom it bends downward. The problem is that a wide gap exists where I marked it in yellow. In other words, it should bend down sooner but it does not. Everywhere else on the same sill, including the other door sill, fits snug and perfect.

Without a doubt this is a manufacturing defect and its out of tolerance. My parts guy is e-mailing germany Monday to request a new sill and we will try that door again.

Mind you.... you cant see it by looking at it. If you run your finger along the bottom edge of the sill you can feel the gap widen significantly. As my tech said...."it may not bother you, but it bothers me cause I know it's there". I said "yeah... trust me it bothers me cause i am **** like that also".

So... no biggie and we'll see if the replacement fits better. But for now you really can't tell unless you are me or the tech. They look real slick nonetheless.

adam

drbf

Adam, What was the cost for your install. Thanks

1080iAddict

parts and labor around 7 or 8 hundred I think.

MHC2S

My dealer did in 4 hours at $95/hr. I wasn't going to attempt this and it didn't cost all that much to install.

Sharptt

Has anyone posted a DIY on the illuminated door sills? I hate having my dealer install stuff because of my experience in the past where something else is damaged in the process. Where is the power drawn for the illumination and how do you remove the old sill? Do you start with a heat gun or is there a way to get the adhesive remover under the old sill to facilitate removal?

AP997S

I just put regular SS entry sills in on my 2005 997S. As previously mentioned removing the old foam tape and residue was a real chore. I too used 3M Adhesive Remover but it was plain and simple elbow (plus finger and thumb) grease that did the job. I was afraid to use something more agressive; didn't want to harm the painted surface.

It took a better part of the day to do both sides. I removed every last piece of residue; hence the SS sills sit flat (no noticeable gap) on the surface.

I agree that your gaps are due to leftover tape or adhesive residue.

I don't think it can be remedied w/o messing up the SS sills during removal.

Good Luck

NJtarga4

Simple Solution for removing tape-Use lighter fluid. Learned it from retail stores. Cheap and easy

AP997S

Are you positive it has no affect on painted surfaces. I was going to use acetone or lacquer thinner but decided against it.

I wish I had known this before. It would have saved me a lot of time and finger soreness.

Thanks for the tip!