Is there a light rear hatch for Caymans?
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Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 5
From: San Francisco Bay Area
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I just test-drove a 2011 Non-PASM 18" wheels Cayman and, very disappointingly, the "subsonic boom"/"buffeting"/"cabin pressure modulation" problem was unbearable to me, even in the short test drive. Otherwise, the car was superb! I have read everything I could find on the net about this, and I could not find any definitive solutions. The old clunking problem seems licked, but, apparently, at the cost of, possibly, exacerbating the subsonic boom issue.
Is there anyone out there with a 2009+ Cayman who used to have this problem and actually fixed it (rather than got used to it)? Please speak up!
I am down to basically 2 ideas -- hatch tightening, and aftermarket hatch replacement. The latter, obviously, is very risky, as it is sure to be very costly, and not at all sure to work. The former is cheap and easy, but I am not holding my breath on its success probability -- I guess Porsche engineers would have done it already, if it was that easy...
Any help and suggestions would be very much appreciated!
Is there anyone out there with a 2009+ Cayman who used to have this problem and actually fixed it (rather than got used to it)? Please speak up!
I am down to basically 2 ideas -- hatch tightening, and aftermarket hatch replacement. The latter, obviously, is very risky, as it is sure to be very costly, and not at all sure to work. The former is cheap and easy, but I am not holding my breath on its success probability -- I guess Porsche engineers would have done it already, if it was that easy...
Any help and suggestions would be very much appreciated!
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Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 5
From: San Francisco Bay Area
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I ended up buying a used 2009 Cayman S, and after lots of different experiments ended up completely curing the "buffeting" problem by buying the thick felt padding self-adhesive sheets at Home Depot and attaching them in:
a) round openings where the rubber "teeth" or "legs" of the hatch go when you close the hatch -- the top of the felt tips therefore became almost exactly level with the surrounding metal. (Home Depot sells the felt in different shapes and sizes, and one of their circular sizes is just slightly larger than these 2 openings, so they can be shoved in there with a bit of effort).
b) Side grooves of the body (felt strips here need to be about 1/3 inch wide and about 1.5 inches long) where the rubber round legs on the sides (about 1/2 way up) of the hatch contact the body when the hatch is closed (on my car, there are protective film strips on the body just at those points).
In addition to this, I also bought the thickets and most expensive (it was like $15) self adhesive weather stripping at Home Depot and attached it all the way around the perimeter of the hatch, but in retrospect that really most likely was not necessary.
That's all there was to it. No more buffeting/cabin pressure modulation -- the feeling of being inside the cabin is night and day different.
a) round openings where the rubber "teeth" or "legs" of the hatch go when you close the hatch -- the top of the felt tips therefore became almost exactly level with the surrounding metal. (Home Depot sells the felt in different shapes and sizes, and one of their circular sizes is just slightly larger than these 2 openings, so they can be shoved in there with a bit of effort).
b) Side grooves of the body (felt strips here need to be about 1/3 inch wide and about 1.5 inches long) where the rubber round legs on the sides (about 1/2 way up) of the hatch contact the body when the hatch is closed (on my car, there are protective film strips on the body just at those points).
In addition to this, I also bought the thickets and most expensive (it was like $15) self adhesive weather stripping at Home Depot and attached it all the way around the perimeter of the hatch, but in retrospect that really most likely was not necessary.
That's all there was to it. No more buffeting/cabin pressure modulation -- the feeling of being inside the cabin is night and day different.
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Below is something I typed up for someone, their questions, and my comments back. Hopefully it is understandable. If not post and I will reply.
NOTE: Porsche has a spacing tool for all of this as it is shown in the Porsche service manual.
1. Remove gas struts and remove bump stop screws
I assume you should leave the middle bumpers on (the ones that are halfway down the hatch rails)?
Correct, middle bumpers stay and should be pushed up against the hatch.
2. Remove the latch hook (hatch)
3. Break loose the 2 bolts on each side of the hatch, not here the hatch attaches to the body (those are recessed behind the plastic weather guard).
If I am happy with the alignment forward/back, left/right, should I still loosen these to adjust the hatch closer to the body (tighter)? If so - are you referring to the two bolts attaching the hatch to the hatch hinge (2 per side)? One screw has the head facing the outside of the car, the 2nd has the head facing the inside of the car, and is concealed by the hatch trim panel? Break these 2 loose (4 total on hatch)?
The forward/back will move when you loosen the pivot bolt to move the hatch closer to the body.
Correct, the 2 bolts on each side attaching hinge to hatch, 2 per side, one on outside and one on inside.
4. Adjust the hatch front to back to correct spacing.
5. tighten 1 of the bolts on each side - If I remember one bolt is a "slider" and one is a "pivoter"
*****BE CAREFUL HERE******
Very slowly open the hatch once you tighten the slider bolt to be sure the hatch does not scrape the roof of the car - as it did mine.Good point - noted
6. Once you are happy with front to back, simply rest the hatch on the car and then tighten the pivoter bolts.
When do you adjust the height, to make it tighter? Is this when the spacer tool would be used? Any suggestions on how tight, or size of a gap?
The weight of the hatch plus the middle bump stops resting on the body seems to be the correct "tightness" - so just tighten the pivot bolt (I think this is the inside bolt). Perimeter gaps seem to only need to be adjusted with the tool.
7. replace hatch hook and ensure the latch side on the body of the car is pushed fully down, just loosen the 2 bolts that hold it in place and push it down and re-tighten.
8. place masking tape in the holes where the screw bump stops fit into. Put the screw bumps back on and apply some type of ink, lip stick etc to the stops and continue to adjust the screw stops until they leave an imprint on the tape.
I assume you're referring to a lip stick imprint when you close the hatch as you normally would, not resting it but rather slamming (to a point)?
Securely close the hatch and then re-open to see if there is an imprint. I have mine set to just leave a mild imprint.
Enjoy the silence.
NOTE: Porsche has a spacing tool for all of this as it is shown in the Porsche service manual.
1. Remove gas struts and remove bump stop screws
I assume you should leave the middle bumpers on (the ones that are halfway down the hatch rails)?
Correct, middle bumpers stay and should be pushed up against the hatch.
2. Remove the latch hook (hatch)
3. Break loose the 2 bolts on each side of the hatch, not here the hatch attaches to the body (those are recessed behind the plastic weather guard).
If I am happy with the alignment forward/back, left/right, should I still loosen these to adjust the hatch closer to the body (tighter)? If so - are you referring to the two bolts attaching the hatch to the hatch hinge (2 per side)? One screw has the head facing the outside of the car, the 2nd has the head facing the inside of the car, and is concealed by the hatch trim panel? Break these 2 loose (4 total on hatch)?
The forward/back will move when you loosen the pivot bolt to move the hatch closer to the body.
Correct, the 2 bolts on each side attaching hinge to hatch, 2 per side, one on outside and one on inside.
4. Adjust the hatch front to back to correct spacing.
5. tighten 1 of the bolts on each side - If I remember one bolt is a "slider" and one is a "pivoter"
*****BE CAREFUL HERE******
Very slowly open the hatch once you tighten the slider bolt to be sure the hatch does not scrape the roof of the car - as it did mine.Good point - noted
6. Once you are happy with front to back, simply rest the hatch on the car and then tighten the pivoter bolts.
When do you adjust the height, to make it tighter? Is this when the spacer tool would be used? Any suggestions on how tight, or size of a gap?
The weight of the hatch plus the middle bump stops resting on the body seems to be the correct "tightness" - so just tighten the pivot bolt (I think this is the inside bolt). Perimeter gaps seem to only need to be adjusted with the tool.
7. replace hatch hook and ensure the latch side on the body of the car is pushed fully down, just loosen the 2 bolts that hold it in place and push it down and re-tighten.
8. place masking tape in the holes where the screw bump stops fit into. Put the screw bumps back on and apply some type of ink, lip stick etc to the stops and continue to adjust the screw stops until they leave an imprint on the tape.
I assume you're referring to a lip stick imprint when you close the hatch as you normally would, not resting it but rather slamming (to a point)?
Securely close the hatch and then re-open to see if there is an imprint. I have mine set to just leave a mild imprint.
Enjoy the silence.
many thanks for this Wanderer. I have tried padding the weight, adjusting the bottom latch lower, and adjusting the bump stops with no luck at all. The clunk is gone, but the booming on certain bumps in the road is terrible.
I will attempt this tonight.
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2009, assembly, back, cabin, cayman, glass, hatch, light, lightweight, plexiglass, porsche, pressure, rear, replacement, weight
