Hatch catches - one more job done

sawood12 · Aug 20, 2007

Just installed my new hatch catches tonight. It cost me £57 for the two hatch catches and new hatch pins from the OPC but ran out of light to fit the hatch pins so will save that job for another day. First impressions are that when you close the hatch it closes with a much firmer and tighter 'feel' and a nice satisfying rifle-bolt 'chick-chick' noise to it. Definately feels much more secure. Only gave the car a quick test drive (i.e. quick in time terms not in speed terms) and couldn't detect any hatch rattle at all, seems worthwhile so far. Looking down at the catch mechanism it doesn't appear that there is much difference between the new ones and the 20yr old ones, however if you tilt the units and try to look at the catches side on you can clearly see the wear on the underside edge of the catch. I tried to take a photo of this to illustrate but they didn't really show it. In all probability I could have get away with not replacing the hatch pins, but at only £5 a pair you may as well change them. A nice cheap and easy job. I will report back on hatch rattle after a few more miles.

While I was in I dropped a hint about my mate getting a Cayman S for a day after only buying a pair of mats from the OPC for his Boxster that he bought privatly, adding a comment about the good few hundred pounds worth of parts I must have bought from them over the years, but the salesman looked at me as if i'd just passed wind so I didn't press the point. Arrogant ****!

wblackw9 · Aug 21, 2007

I remember driving along once in my 944 with my spoiler up in the air.... Hang on a min thats not the spoiler thats the tailgate!!! Worth every penny are those new pins. Found it took me a bit to adjust them nicely.

sawood12 · Aug 21, 2007

Was that the Maclaren-esque air brake mod? It might just catch on!
After a day with the car the hatch rattle has definately improved considerably. I still get a bit of rattle but it is much quieter no longer squeaks. I'm not sure it is possible to totally get rid of the rattle - even the Cayman suffers from it.

wblackw9 · Aug 22, 2007

If its comming from the catch i found to just pack it in a thick grease works. Or maybe tighten the pins a bit more? Sometimes you do get the squeaking from the seal so just coat it in some rubber care spray.

Diver944 · Aug 22, 2007

A new rubber seal made a huge difference to mine. It's amazing how squashed and ineffective the old seal looked in comparison to a new one [

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sawood12 · Aug 22, 2007

Might just have to do that. I've also thought about getting some high density foam pads and sticking 8 or so around the hatch opening so it compresses when you shut it and damps the hatch movement - it might also help in giving the hatch a little bit of spring when you operate the release switch. You'd have to judge it's thickness just right so it doesn't interfere with the seal.

Neil Haughey · Aug 23, 2007

Funny this since the only time my hatch has rattled was when one of the catches wore out and stopped working. My sunroof seal makes noise, one of my speaker grills is always in need of damping and of course those blasted Weltmeister torsion bar end cap bushes made a racket until I drove the car through a torrent the other week but then after sitting around for a while they must have dried up again because the blooming noise has come back!

idwoodvale · Aug 23, 2007

This all seems to be exactly what I need to do to stop the damp in the back of mine. Sorry if I'm being a bit slow, but are you talking about changing the mechanism into which the pins go as well as the pins? Think I need to do the same job as I get a lot of tailgate rattle and the pins are rusted. New seals might also be in order.

cococola · Aug 24, 2007

I replaced my pins and found they worked a treat ........until the tailgate struts got weak and although they hold the tailgate up,they dont have enough umph in them to lift up when releasing the tailgate from the inner release button.