944S2 rear hatch mechanism

Guest · Apr 28, 2008

The little lever that is attached to the electric motor that operates the rear hatch mechanism has broken (again). It seems to be made of poor quality metal casting. I last replaced this part in 2003 at a cost of £3.70 + VAT from my local Porsche dealer. I am now being quoted £60.00 + VAT for the same part!!

I have also spoken to Chris at Exeter Porsche Centre who was very helpfull and told me that Porsche in Germany are aware of this pricing 'error' but it is not clear if they are going to 'correct' it.

I understand that mant 944 S2 owners are having the same problem.

The part number is 94462481400

Any comments or advice would be appreciated.

[8|]

elvis · Apr 28, 2008

I know it doesn't help you but I can't see how that arm is under any stress at all, it doesn't take that much tension in the cable to operate the latches. Are your latches free to move and have you adjusted the cable (ie it's not running out of travel as the motor operates or anything?).

As to the replacement, for £60+VAT I'd probably be mucking around with araldite trying to repair the old one or going on ebay looking for bits (£15 seems to be about the 'buy it now' going rate). With the spline on it it's not going to be particularly easy to bodge..fabricate a replacement.

Tim

sawood12 · Apr 28, 2008

Sounds like you have a problem in the system somewhere - i've never heard of this being a problem before so it is certainly unusual - especially if you've had two failures. Might be worth lubricating the cable.

peanut · Apr 28, 2008

is the rotating arm hitting one of the motor fixing bolt heads ? there should be some washers on the spindle below the arm to set the arm high enough to miss the bolt heads

stev580 · Apr 28, 2008

I had the same problem with mine a couple of months ago. Didnt realise i could get a new one from porsche so I ended up making a new bracket myself at my work [

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Guest · Apr 29, 2008

Thanks for all the comments. I have thought of aralditing the broken lever, or even fabricating one from scratch but I don't have the facilities to form a knurled hole.

I looked on some USA web sites and they all wanted huge dollers ( equivalent to GB price).

It seems from reading other threads that Porsche pricing policy with these massive increases for parts for older vehicles is not a mistake on their part but a deliberate policy. Do they want to price the older vehicles off the road I wonder?

Anyway, I will try to fix the old part and if that does not work I will have to buy a new lever from Porsche.

Thanks

[8|]

Paul Fraser · Apr 29, 2008

Ebay if I were you, there are a number of breakers and I doubt a secondhand one would cost you more than £15 to 20.

pauljmcnulty · Apr 29, 2008

It seems from reading other threads that Porsche pricing policy with these massive increases for parts for older vehicles is not a mistake on their part but a deliberate policy. Do they want to price the older vehicles off the road I wonder?

I think the contrary is true, Porsche are very keen to promote the fact that so many of the older cars are still on the road. Porsche keep selling parts far past the time most companies would have stopped, and many parts are surprisingly cheap and available. I've not heard of any big price jumps in 944 parts. That's not to say that there aren't the odd surprise silly prices for small parts, and I'd suspect that this might be that supplies are gone and they are being made in very small numbers.

At least we can get the parts new if we want, so often used parts are as bad as the ones you are replacing!

sawood12 · Apr 29, 2008

Sometimes their stocks run dry and they have to commission another production run which, due to China and India pushing up raw material costs means you can get a significant price increase, especially if they only commission a small batch size. I was amazed to find out that a single Big Black caliper is about £350 brand new (coincidentally about the same as a new S2/220 turbo caliper) and a Big Red (identical caliper but different colour) is significantly more expensive - something like £500+ if I recall correctly. The reason was that Porche ran out of BR stocks and had some more made up whereas BB's are still running from the original production stocks.

So if you want Big Reds - buy Big Blacks! I usually chuckle to myself when I see a pair of tatty and scratched big reds go for silly money on ebay - often more than a pair of brand new Big Blacks. There should be a facility on ebay where you can politely and in good spirits point out to people that they havn't quite got as good a deal as they thought they have!!

morris944s2john · Apr 30, 2008

ORIGINAL: sc0tty

-snip-

Just last week I ordered a new micro switch and clamp for my S2 tailgate key release, from my local OPC in Reading, and the price was about £17 incl vat which I thought was pretty good.
-snip-

Is this to cure the problem of the tailgate opening via the interior switch but not via the key release?

peanut · Apr 30, 2008

ORIGINAL: morris944s2john

ORIGINAL: sc0tty

-snip-

Just last week I ordered a new micro switch and clamp for my S2 tailgate key release, from my local OPC in Reading, and the price was about £17 incl vat which I thought was pretty good.
-snip-

Click to expand...

Is this to cure the problem of the tailgate opening via the interior switch but not via the key release?

sounds like it.

i need one too . It would be useful to have the part code.

peanut · Apr 30, 2008

ORIGINAL: actionman

[FONT=arial"]The little lever that is attached to the electric motor that operates the rear hatch mechanism has broken (again). It seems to be made of poor quality metal casting. I last replaced this part in 2003 at a cost of £3.70 + VAT from my local Porsche dealer. I am now being quoted £60.00 + VAT for the same part!!
[FONT=arial"]
[FONT=arial"]I have also spoken to Chris at Exeter Porsche Centre who was very helpfull and told me that Porsche in Germany are aware of this pricing 'error' but it is not clear if they are going to 'correct' it.

[FONT=arial"]I understand that mant 944 S2 owners are having the same problem.
[FONT=arial"]
[FONT=arial"]The part number is 94462481400

[FONT=arial"]Any comments or advice would be appreciated.

[8|]

why don't you make one ? its hardly rocket science. You just need a piece of scrap aluminium. Cut and file it roughly to shape .drill a suitable diameter hole in both ends. Refit the old cable link one end and file and shape the hole the other end so that it will fit over the spindle and can be locked by the locknut .!
Any half competant engineer could knock one up in half an hour. It doesn't have to be a loving crafted sculpted show piece !...[8|][

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graham.webb · May 2, 2008

Mine broke too, not long ago. The crank on the motor is just a crummy casting and had just. Fortunately I found someone with old stock and got one for less than a tenner. Then overtightened it on the spindle, and that one broke in half too. D'oh!

You're right.....a new part is about £60, so the best chance is a call to the scrappers and hope that it really isn't a common problem (otherwise noone will have them!)

Can't help thinking that some of us would be happy to convert to the 968CS's manual cable release if the bits were available.

Has anybody done this?

random hero · May 2, 2008

Im just about to look into this myself,i believe the CS parts were avalible a few years back,the only down side is that its designed to be fitted on the lh side of the car,i think fen converted his using a bike brake cable !!. I might have a complete hatch motor with arm avalible if i can find it .