Finally had it with OEM spoiler hydraulics
 

This is going to sound familiar to many of you, but I'm going to detail my journey with the 996 turbo oem spoiler hydraulics.

I bought my beautiful turbo Cab in Feb 2015 with 12,500 miles. Drove it happily for about a year before noticing a very slight pentosin leak from my drivers side ram. I decided to pre-empt the situation before any warnings, or worse, crooked deployment. So I got to work maintaining my system. Here's the timeline of my battle:

Jan 2016: Bought locally sourced copper crush washers, mixed in some Lucas PS Stop Leak, filled and bled the system. It was about $40 in parts and fluids. This lasted a year.

Mar 2017: Rams began to leak again slightly, but I was trying to be pro-active and keep my system in good working order. So I sent them out to be refreshed by some one-off specialist guys (NOT Cabriolet Hydraulics! Those guys are amazing! They had already quit messing with the 996 turbo spoilers by the time I contacted them - this should have been my first hint) The Other Guys cost me $742 for a double ram rebuild. This lasted a month.

Apr 2017: Rams leaked again and the Other Guys made it right by fixing under their one year warranty. They worked perfect for a while...

Nov 2018: Ram leaks reappeared outside of one year, so I had them rebuilt by another, more reputable guy, here in America. I thought about trying the Denmark (or wherever) guys, but decided to stay domestic. Again, I had both rams rebuilt, cost was $496

May 2019: Pump leaked, the head had blown slightly away from the body. So I had it rebuilt and beefed-up by the same guy who had just done my rams. This was $320 but I negotiated a deal since I had just bought some other stuff from him, I can't remember what the "normal" cost was.

I ran without a spoiler for a while after that.

Sept 2019: I purchased and installed new microswitches, so that I would have a better-than-new complete OEM hydraulic system. So, I re-installed and tested everything. Buttoned up the car and went for a drive. I got the Spoiler Control Failure literally within 10 miles. I cussed a whole lot and decided to save them for the next guy. So they're going into my Stock Parts Collection, like new and preserved. In a last-ditch effort, I decided to check the up & down relays, which tested out fine. I have a multimeter and 12v DC power supply.

Sept 2019: I reached out to Rennkit. I didn't want to spend that kind of money. Flat out didn't. But, he worked with me on the pricing and I pulled the trigger on some 4" superfast e-rams with the dust boots. I reached my breaking point on this. I love this car too much to get pissed off once (or more) per year dealing with the spoiler mechanism.

I now have 28,000 miles. I did the math, because I have all of my receipts for everything related to this car, ever. LOL. And in ~4.5 years / 15,500 miles I have spent $1,718.00 rebuilding the OEM hydraulics. Not to mention countless hours, of disassembly, reinstall, testing, shipping, PayPal, all of that. And they still don't work. There have been good times and bad with them, but I am moving on.

RennKit E-Ram install pics coming soon. They are mailing out to me today.

Skip to post 28 for install pics.

Good for you. These will put your mind at ease.

The stop leak mixed with a heavy oil has been working well for me. My original fill of ps fluid leaked out. I might try a very heavy gear oil next time.

Very cool Steve !
I'm guessing this is what I have to look forward to being that mine have started that slight little leak. Still working fine, but it is inevitable.
Looking forward to your opinion on product and install.

I bought my TT about 10 years ago with 17500 miles. After about a year the plastic block that the screw drive pushes inside the motor pump broke. Looking in my receipts from the previous owner, it was the second complete hydraulic assy the car has had. I took off the pump, hoses, and rams which I disassembled and made a fixed stock raised height strut to fit inside. I run it raised for a couple of years, then take off the upper wing for 2-3 years for a change, then back to fixed raised.

Nick, I hear ya! I SERIOUSLY considered going with the EBWerks fixed wing kit, but at the end of the day, I decided I had to have the active aero. Not sure why, but it feels right to me.

I got a piece of 1/8" in steel rod and cut a couple of pieces to fit into the rams to hold them in an extended position and a couple of short metric bolts to take the place of the banjo bolts. Reinstanded the extended rams. The fix took about 15 minutes and cost about $3. Plus the time to remove and replace the wing and rams.

When mine go out ill likely take the whole mechanism out with the wing and plug the holes and leave it as is.

I ran like that all this summer. I didn't care for it after a while. Call me crazy, but it felt like the rear end had a slight spiraling effect at 90+

Not sure how you're going to plug the holes... is anyone making a product for that??

I prefer the no wing look, just got tired of storing it my office so I put it back on for a change. I was going to make some plugs that had a rolled aluminum .060"- .090" top to match the body contour that could be painted with a push in silicone base. Never got very far with it.

Yah im gonna get a buddy to print me a set of plugs then ill hydro dip them in carbon.

My story is so much shorter... 2013 Rams started to leak a little. Built wing - problem fixed.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.6sp...8a5c1df0fe.jpghttps://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.6sp...085b575d2e.jpg

Possibly crazy. From another thread: "Porsche claims the rear spoiler generate 9 kg down force at top speed 190 mph".

That's a whole 20 lbs of downforce at 190 mph. Probably not very noticeable. At less than half that the effect is probably even less noticeable.

The stock wing really seems like an exercise in increased complexity and cost with no real benefit.

You are assuming that without the wing car has zero lift or downforce in the rear. That is a flawed assumption. Without the wing the car may have net "lift" in the rear as it has in the front. Could be 20, 30, 50 lbs of lift. Audi had a situation years ago where they had significant lift on the TT leading to instability at high speed. They fixed it with a small wing/spoiler in the rear. This may be a similar situation on these cars. No way to really know. Probably not much of a player in the US with the speed limits but definitely a consideration at autobahn speeds. Food for thought...

Exactly. Even if the wing produced no downforce, 0 lift, the engineers would be happy. Some tables of how various turbos have performed: https://rennkit.com/why-factory-set-fails/. (Earlier models not so good).