I just bought my car and it came with a 30 day warranty.
This morning on my way in the spoiler failed to extend and I got a warning light and a message indicating the failure.


This is the only time it's happened.


It was really cold this morning, but the car was inside.


Should I take it back to the dealer, or was this something I shouldn't worry about?






I'm new to the forum, and I'm definitely not an expert with Porsches...
Thanks for your time and your answers.


Dan

 

A little more information might help...


The car is a 2003 911 Turbo with 14,000 miles on it.


6 speed???


Anything else I should have added?

 

If it continues to malfunction take it back and have it repaired while the warranty is valid.

 

My 30 day warranty is about up. I was curious to know if this is an indication that the drive is about to go out, or if it's any kind of a warning sign.


Thanks for the reply,
Dan

 

30 day warranty? Lol well its leaking fluid so theres 3 ways to go.

Replace it will run you around 3k including labor.

Ebay fix mod will run you 300.00 including labor.

My way is take the 2 prongs out of the black plastic box on the right spoiler wrap them with black tape. If you want the wing up make sure the pins are pressed in then wrap it tight with tape. If you want the wing down make sure the pins are not pressed in and tape not so tight. You can order the 1 1/2 inch spacers to keep the wing up half way.

 

Take it in ASAP and get the spoiler fixed. If the fluid is leaking that's a new spoiler hydraulic system. Dealer parts/installing runs around $2K.

Get your money's worth from the warranty.

 

Buy a GT2 wing and install, problem solved forever and a great upgrade……

http://mashaw.biz/wingsandtailbases996.asp

 

If it is leaking fluid, should I be able to see the leak?
I ask, because the spoiler seems to be working fine now and I haven't noticed any leaks.
Thanks for the ideas on how to fix it reasonably. If there is a thread that illustrates this I would really appreciate any search suggestions.

 

Oh... And, the 30 day warranty kinda made me laugh too, but it may pay off on this one.

 

This is a common problem with these cars, if your warranty will cover it, get it done, as stated it can run $$$ to repair it properly.

The system does not hold a lot of fluid so if you are looking for puddles you'll never find them, instead take the caps off both rams and you should see and feel fluid inside them, if its there you have a leak, if its not leaking then it could be the switches on the right (passenger) side ram, if you take the cover off the switches inside are very delicate so be careful.

Mine failed, I repaired it for $20 using brake fluid and stop leak, but now it works intermittently because one of the switches no longer seats properly.....

Long story short, get it fixed if you can
Search the threads, lots of info on this subject

 

I'll call the local dealer tomorrow. The warranty covers the parts and 1/2 the labor, which is great because the car came from 4 hours away.

I'll see what they can do.

 

I've just been through this on my 03.

In your case you've probably lost some of the fluid. What worked for me was bleeding the system. I found some good instructions online (might have been one of the renn forums).

Here is what I did:
wing bleeding
(Get a stool to sit on and a friend to hold the pump and lines while you work. Took me about an hour to do this, but I didn't think to use a stool and my back was sore as hell from being bent over.)

Basically I took the intake/rad fan plastics off the 'hood'. Unbolt the banjos from the rams (if the wing is up it will leak fluid as it comes down....cover everything in towels below).

Get some Pentosin 11S and put it into a bowl. Submerge the banjos in oil.

Pull up another car next to you, get some jumper cables, hook them up to the other cars battery, and use the other ends of the cables on the wing motor leads. Switching polarity reverses the motor.

Move the pump in and out (I probably did this a dozen times) until you don't see any more air bubbles come up from the banjos in the bowl. Once you don't see any air, do a few more for good measure. The pump housing is a giant heat sink but I still let it sit after 2 or 3 pumps just to not over-heat it.

Hook up the first banjo while keeping the other submerged. Try to lose as little oil as possible (I put the bolt/washer into the banjo while it was submerged). Then do the second one. I flipped the copper seals around on the banjos so it would bend into place too.

Once you've got it buttoned up, use the battery to drive the wing up. Clean the outside of the rams and lubricate with something like a silicone spray, or even motor oil. Don't use WD-40.

If you're super-****, this is optional:
If you have the tool for the wing, remove it. Lower the rams!
Remove the spring clip from the top (if the rams are still up they will shoot back down).
Pull out the assembly from the top, clean out the junk, reassemble.

Wing Microswitches
In the process above I wasn't careful and let the weight of the motor pull the upper switch out of the holder. When replacing this if you push it in too hard or too far it will throw an error. It needs to just kinda sit there.

The switch holder assembly is ~$25. I need to replace mine because I broke whatever holds the upper switch in place and I don't want to use tape. My spoiler goes up and down smoothly with speed, but once the error light comes on the manual dash switch no longer responds.

I've read that in the 03+ cars you can have the dealer turn off the warning light (it just ignores the switches), but I think this also disables manual control via the dash switch.

You can also just remove the hydraulics and install a fixed wing kit off eBay.

Good luck.

 

ram re-bleed success story here too. 2.5 years nary a drip

 

I'll be taking the car in on Tuesday for a dealer assessment, alignment, and tire balance.

If I can get them to cover it under the warranty, I'm not going to mess with it. If the warranty doesn't cover it.... I'll try the bleeding process outlined above.

Thanks for all of the help and support.

Dan

 

Good luck!