Since my last post the car came out of storage and has been driven a lot. I wiped off the pass. side ram and it hasnt been wet since. I have not gotten the malfunction light to date. If it does come on I'll look into the switches.

 

all this work is only necessary for 2001 cars. 2002 and up cars can have the warning light disabled by he dealer in a few minutes through the obd. No need for all the crazy work on 2002 on up.

 

The light and/or system disabled or the up/down function all together?

 

Very cool. Although the only turbos that have the problem are 2001's, as 2002's and later can just go to the dealer and have the dealer disable the failure light via obd. 2 minute job.

 

Can it be done with Durametrics?

 

no. But, the dealer will do it for a minimal charge. Probably a soda from their soda machine should do it. It literally takes 2 minutes.

 

My spoiler does not go up at all - from either the switch on the dash or from diving the recommended speed for it to rise. The repair shop says the whole thing is toast and around $2400 for repair. I do feel fluid on the diver side after i pulled off the cap. The passenger side wasnt as wet but was leaking....
I didn't repair it but is there a way I can still fix it by adding fluid and maybe repairing the microswitches or is it so far gone because it does not rise at all?
Does anyone think it can be brought back to life or is it just toast and I should see if I can disable the light and dash warning....

 

no, your system is leaking and you have to replace it. I had mine replaced under warranty luckily as it is expensive.

 

when I first got my car it had been sitting for a while and my spoiler did not work either, up or down. Being the guy I am I pulled the pump of the deck lid and jumped the two wires of the pump with a battery charger. It buzzed but didn't move, so i figured the pump worked its just stuck.
I took the top of the pump to see its a simple worm gear pushing too plungers either up or down which moved the fluid to the rams(one ram was leaking as well at the time.)
The plungers from sitting so long had gotten stuck in place I simply ran the pump to the bottom took a screw driver and forced the ram loose. Rehooked it back to the battery charger and it worked perfectly one way up, change the polarity (swapped the battery charger leads around) and it went down. Ok got that fixed, to fix the leaky ram I used lucas power steering stop leak, its about $10 from any autoparts store. I mixed it with hydralic fluid as the stop leak is a little thick(about 50/50 blend). Primed the system by dropping the pump all the way down filling it completely and using a syringe filled the lines to the rams.
I ran the spoiler a couple of times cracking the lines loose again and refilling the pump if it was low and until I felt I had purged all the air out as there is no seperate tank like in a normal hydraulic system. Reinstalled the pump and its been 2 years the rams don't leak anymore and the spoiler works perfectly.
Just proves you can fix just about anything if your willing to try.
Hope this helps

 

The fix on my 2001 was really simple if you dont mind the spoiler remaining down.

Simply unplug both micro-switches from the ram on the right side and tuck them away.

Spoiler disabled and no more light.

 

Gearheas=d - I wish you lived in San Dieo - I would of paid you to fix mine- sounds like you fixed your spoiler. I wish I was mechanical enough to fully understand your repair.

 

What part is confusing you? I will try to be more exact if you tell me what part makes you confused. If you take the plastic shroud of the deck lid to expose the pump I probably can walk you through the rest.

 

Lots of helpful info. A few questions, though. I have a 2004 and I just got the spoiler fault light. If I turn the key to the on position I can manually move the spoiler up and down fully once. Then it throws the fault and stops working. If I move the key to the off and on position again, the fault is reset and I can again move the spoiler up and down fully once. Then same thing happens and it stops working. How do I check the rams for leakage? Has anyone had this particular issue? Is thia the type of fault that people above said can be solved at the dealership by clearing the code or is it something more laborious? The car is still under warranty, but I would like some insight before taking it in.

Thanks in advance,
Ed

 

Open the engine cover and look at the bottom of the rams to check for leakage.

 

Thanks guys for walking through the troubleshooting steps to pin point our spoiler warning light issues with the 996 TT. My '01 TT required a T-8 to unscrew the microswitch housing. There are 4 T-8 screws and the 4th is located in the channel of the switch housing. The switches can be removed without removing the housing, but I took it off to get an understanding of how it all works. I had a weak upper switch (probably will need to be replaced) and used the WD-40 fix and made sure I got the switch to "click" on and off. Reinstalled and now she's working like the day I bought her. kenny