I had a leaky ram that finally leaked enough fluid to start throwing the dreaded spoiler failure warning. I used Lucas Oil power steering stop leak to remedy this, and it seems to be working perfectly so far. I made a few observations that make this job a little easier than the other methods I've read, so I thought I'd post my version of the directions. I did this without removing the wing which saves quite a bit of trouble, and I believe that this method gets nearly all of the air out of the lines without bleeding.

1. Remove the black paneling that covers the hydraulic pump and covers the whole bottom of the rear hood. It uses a number of 10mm bolts in different places. Remove the 10mm nuts that hold the hydraulic pump. Remove the intake snorkel. Remove the caps off of the bottom of the rams. Slide the cover down and out of the way and let the pump hang down.

2. Unbolt the 2 hydraulic lines from the hydraulic pump and set them to the side. They might leak out fluid but this is not a concern.

3. Now you must empty the remaining oil from the pump so put a catch pan, rag, bucket, under the two openings to catch the oil. Turn on your key and press the button to raise the wing. Listen closely and when you hear the ram start to struggle, press the button going the other way. Your pump should be fully forward. Now remove the 3 small torx screws that hold the micro switch on the passenger side ram and place the switch to the side. This will allow us to fully retract the pistons in the pump so that it will take maximum fluid. Now hold down the button to lower the wing and when you hear the motor slow at the end of the action get off of the button quickly. Your pump should be all the way down and you should be able to stick a screwdriver a few inches into the hole, as opposed to the spoiler up position which places the pump pistons close to the openings. Now disconnect your pump from the power lines so that is completely disconnected now. You can re install the micro switch now.

4. Now prepare your new fluid. I used a mix of 50/50 Prestone power steering fluid and Lucas Oil Power Steering Stop Leak. I couldn't find Pentosin locally so I used Prestone. Mix this up in one of the bottles and shake it up. This seems to form a suspension and not a solution, so it will separate on you. Let the bubbles settle for a few minutes and then slowly pour the fluid into the two openings on the pump while held in a vertical position obviously. Once it is full, hold it and thump it with your palm and try to work the rest of the air out. Put two fingers over the openings with the pump full and flip it upside down to try to work more air out. Let the pump sit upright against a wall for an hour or two to let any air settle. You need to get all of the air out or the wing won't raise level. Fill it so that it is overflowing.

5. Now this is where I did things differently than most. To prime the lines I cleaned the ends with the brass bolt and copper washers removed. Stick one of the hydraulic lines into the bottle of fluid/stopleak. Have someone hold the bottle for you with the fitting at the bottom of the bottle so that it can suck in fluid.. Now you manually grab the wing at the very end on the side you are filling and lift it on one far side with one hand on the wing and one hand under it on the hood. Now you pump it in and out several times to suck the fluid in and blow the air out. The rams are spring loaded to stay down, so you need to use some slight force. You only need to do this a few inches to accomplish this. The wing has some play in it so it will be fine if you just move it about half way. You may want to loosen the screws on the rams to give it more play. Once they are purged of air and full of fluid, prop the ends of the lines in the air. I tucked them up under the fittings on the rams so that they would not leak out. Do this to both sides and your lines should be air free.

6. Carefully connect the hydraulic lines back up with the pump. Try not to let the lines leak out, so you have to hold it up a little bit. Tighten them up, connect the power, and go ahead and give it a test. You might need to repeat the pump bleeding if you still have air.

7. Put it all back together.

Hope this helps someone.

EDIT: Mine leaked out again after a few years. I refilled it with 15w40 oil with 50% stop leak. This mixture is much thicker and does not seem to be leaking out.

 

I did something similar with the stop leak. Three years later and it still works.
I also used a battery charger to lower the pistons all the way to the bottom to fill it completely. Reversing the polarity by switch the battery chargers jumper cables around will make the pistons rise.
It's easy to control the amount of movement in the cylinder pistons as you can stop touching the battery chargers clamps to the pump wires to halt the movement.

 

Nice . This sounds like good method. I think the stop leek has some additives in it that swells the seals slightly.

 

Thanks. I got the wing warnig light (even though the wing goes up and down without any problem).

Do you have pictures of the procedure by any chance??

 

Sorry no pics. It's pretty simple. Remove cover, remove lines, retract pistons, fill with stopleak, fill lines with pumping the wing method, put it together. You might have a problem with your micro switch if you are not leaking oil.

 

I solved my spoiler problems once and for all. I removed the top wing, rams, hoses and pump. I actually like the sleeper look, goes well with the 911 script logo that replaced the chrome Turbo one that I removed as well. If Porsche can't make a wing that works, it shouldn't be on the car.

 

Mine worked well for 10 years without a miss, then a leak developed and I just replaced the unit looking forward to another 10 years of flawless operation

 

My car's first 17K miles destroyed 2 units, I guess it's the luck of the draw.

 

So was it covered under warrant as it was in the first 17 k?

 

great write up. i used a combo of pentosin and lucas. it might be a bit heavier than the oem pent fill. who knows. it works.

 

the wing works fine. this you know. but when it doesn't, we refill it with the magical missing fluid. fixed wings are great. but ours is supposed to move. just part of the joy. i still have my fixed wing kit in a box. nice couple of bolts for $150.00. i gotta say.

 

Success!
Finally found some time this morning to finish after dealing with the floods in Calgary. Followed the instructions to the letter and now I have a wing that functions perfectly....I definitely going to rearend someone as I can actually see it moving in the rear view.

The entire repair to fix the wing was $20 for the Leak Stop and the Prestone.

Great write up and thanks!

 

Ha, glad it's catching on!

 

+ rep points added for OP. I will bookmark this thread for reference. Thanks for posting!!

 

My sentiments exactly! It's a stupid articulating spoiler to begin with.
What harm would there be in designing and selling a simple fixed wing?
Who needs or wants a silly up/down toy spoiler?
On top of that, they make one that leaks, needing repairs costing thousands.

I'm in the process of bleeding mine now and particularly frustrated by the inconvenience.