993 Cabriolet hood problem

paulwalters · Oct 30, 2017

My 1996 993 C2 has a problem with the cabriolet hood. While away on a drive recently I had the top down, however on arrival at my destination the top would not close using the toggle switch in the cabin. The front of the hood would not lock on the top of windscreen frame leaving a 50mm gap. At this point I retracted the hood back to its fully open position and tried the switch again but the hood did not move at all. As I could not leave my car with the hood fully open, I loosened the 19mm bolt each side of the rear seats which enabled me to close the hood manually, although the front locking still did not work using the toggle switch. Eventually I managed to lock the hood to get me back home and have since had the fault investigated by an independent Porsche specialist. The problem appears to be the hood transmission gearbox x 2 due to overriding of the micro switches which is going to be a very expensive fix. I have seen on other forums that many 993 Cabriolet owners open and close the hood in the manual mode and just use the toggle switch for the front locking. Have any other members had similar problems ? Any suggestions on this matter would be much appreciated.

jdpef356 · Oct 31, 2017

I recall an American guy in our Region had this problem when we were touring in Europe.

Finding someone who had the expertise to deal with the problem was not easy.

You could try contacting Charles Marsland via pm,

Peter_Bull · Oct 31, 2017

jdpef356 said:
I recall an American guy in our Region had this problem when we were touring in Europe.

I was with you on that tour John and it really did spoil the couples holiday, with the sun blazing down they had to keep the hood up - once they found out how to.

Best of luck with getting that fixed, and I hope its not to expensive either. Charles should be able to help.

Hacki · Nov 8, 2017

MoC2S said:
The first thing that springs to my mind is whether the car has had the recall for convertible roof motors. If so, it should have been written up in the service book. Otherwise, your friendly OPC can advise ..

+1

I had that problem years ago, it was a loose connection at the ECU (that´s what they called it) that controls the opening / closing process. 10 min fix, no money.

Christopher I Ralph · Nov 26, 2017

Hacki said:
MoC2S said:

The first thing that springs to my mind is whether the car has had the recall for convertible roof motors. If so, it should have been written up in the service book. Otherwise, your friendly OPC can advise ..

Click to expand...

+1

I had that problem years ago, it was a loose connection at the ECU (that´s what they called it) that controls the opening / closing process. 10 min fix, no money.

Do you mean one of the plugs was loose in its socket or one of the components on the ECU board had a dry joint?
There are several posts, primarily on American boards, discussing the fact that the board develops dry joints that require re-soldering, particularly ones on the plug sockets.