phaphaphooey

Fonatana or anyone else: I am about to attempt this install and would be most appreciative for the instructions. Any help in that area would be most appreciated.

Thanks for the reply Loren. I have gotten it down to just p1119. I have replaced that O2 sensor and the code came back today after clearing it last night with my OBD software. The O2 monitoring on the software shows that all sensors are working wonderfully. Quite frustrating. Just replaced the o2 again and although I had only started the car for 10 seconds to get it up on the ramps and hadn't driven it in over 24 hours, the o2 was hot when I took it off so the heater is obviously working. Quite frustrating.

Thanks for the reply Loren. I have gotten it down to just p1119. I have replaced that O2 sensor and the code came back today after clearing it last night with my OBD software. The O2 monitoring on the software shows that all sensors are working wonderfully. Quite frustrating.

I have been dealing with this for over a year except mine is a 1119 now. Ordered a new O2 sensor and it didn't solve anything.

still dealing with this more than a year later. fun times in porsche land.

Chris: What I would do is to replace the the red plastic ball cups with the udpdated white ones and keep the reds as spares. You can buy the white ones without having to buy the entire pushrod, but not from Porsche. PM me and I'll give you the details on the guy in the Netherlands who sells them. Regards, Maurice. Today is the first day that I have had to work on my car in several weeks. I probably would have prioritized moreso if this had happened in the middle of summer, but with the weather turning cold I was ok driving top up, although a few afternoons were tempting. I undid the uclip on both sides of the top motor and pulled both drive cables out of the motor. Both had the correct amount of wire sticking out of the sheath. I gave the driver's side cable a firm tug and it seemed firm. The passenger side, however, was easily pulled out of the protective sheath. It was obviously broken. I have attached a camera phone pic of the broken cable. This is as Maurice predicted since it was the passenger side of the clamshell that would not raise. Several more questions at this juncture: I have left the control arm for the top with the red caps connected to the top since they seem intact and since I just needed to be able to raise the clamshell for access to the transmission and whatnot. Is this alright? Would the transmission cable breaking on the passenger side cause the top motor to make the terrible grinding noise I experienced? I was under the assumption that a new top motor would be needed. Since the both transmission cables are disconnected from the motor, would it be ok to test it by hitting the convertible top button inside the cab? Would this somehow change the position of the gears inside the motor, thus making it very difficult to reinsert the transmission cables? Finally, what is the name of the first cable that I posted that simply connects to the bottom of the convertible top and holds it down? I am not sure what name to reference when I order a new one. As always, I am eternally grateful. Chris

Thank you for the reply. I misspoke and meant to say the bottom of the convertible top as opposed to the clamshell but thanks for correcting me for future readers. Also, so far as I know the integrity of the foam liner has not been breached thus far from my examination although I will go back and have another look to make sure. I have had no issues with water entering the cabin to date. My car is a 2000 base and I am not the original owner, bought it in 2002 from the Miami area and now live in Tennessee. The Porsche dealership that did the top replacement is a dealer in Memphis that I have read many bad things about on various Porsche boards so I would not be surprised if they slapped old stock on my car. I will keep you and the board updated on what I find. Would it be advisable to premptively replace the red caps even though they have not broke yet? Chris

Update: so I was incorrect. I misread and assumed that there was only 1 connection to the top that needs to be undone. In reality there are 2, for a grand total of 3 connections that must be undone on each side so that the top and clamshell can operate manually. The cable broke on me only holds the bottom of the clamshell down apparently which begs the question: why did it snap? It doesn't seem that it is under any pressure. Although I assumed that this was the root of my problem it seems that I have not yet found it. Furthermore, as you can see from the pictures below, my car has the redcapped connections as opposed to the white, which is odd since I believed from my research that my 2000 would have the updated hardware. Furthermore, I had the top replaced under warranty in 2003 for a wear issue and assumed again that they would replace the hardware when replacing a top, but apparently they do not. Below are pictures of the snapped connection and my redcapped wonders.

Thanks again Maurice. I was able to get both undone. I am going to do my best to keep this thread updated for anyone who comes after me with the same problem. I could not for the life of me get the one ball joint undone by reaching backwards through my roll hoops and just applying pressure with my hands. After a lot of maneuvering I was able to work a large flat head back there and use it to pry the ball joint off. With that, I was able to pull the clamshell up enough that my wife could flip the bottom of the convertible top up (it is very nice to have a helper for this step. After that it was a piece of cake to get the clips off and push the pushrods off of their connection with the clamshell. As someone in another thread noted, one of the pushrods popped off immediately after removing the clip as it seemed as though it was under significant pressure. The other had to be pushed away from its connection but it is easy to do so with the movement available to you once the top is flipped up. After that I was finally able to move the clamshell manually and thus was able to lower it. The goal for today was not to fix the situation entirely but rather just to get my car back into drivable format. My clamshell might have a tiny tiny crease in it but if so it is only visible when light passes directly over it. It is not noticable otherwise. Maurice, Toolpants, or anyone else. I really gave the unbroken cable heck trying to get it off its contact point on the car. I am afraid that I may have stretched the cable or otherwise compromised its strength. Should I preemptively order one to replace that one as well in addition to replacing the broken cable?

I worked on the car on Weds and have not had time to do so again until today. Weds I found that the passenger side braided cable that connects to the top had snapped. I could not get the driver's side ball joint to snap off while reaching through the rollbars, even at one point putting all of my weight into trying to pry it away from the car. I then went through old threads and found a Toolpants suggestion to reach through the crack in the clamshell, take the clip off of the piston that holds it to the clamshell, and then pry the piston off of the clamshell. Since I could barely fit my arm through the crack in the clamshell, this was no fun as well. I tried prying to piston off with both my bare hands and a long flat head screwdriver but had no luck. I also read someone that had gently pulled the "stuck" side of the clamshell up to the same level of the clamshell side that worked for easier work access. I tried this but that clamshell side did not move up evenly but instead was tilting and was forcing the wing that wraps around towards the passenger side door to point downwards, which it never does in normal operation. I still feel that my best option at this point is to get the piston off of the raised side of the clamshell so that I can at least press the clamshell down into its normal resting position and drive the car without it looking like some type of horror movie reject. Wish me luck.

I am going through this same problem and this thread is an absolute Godsend, particularly the part about actually getting the top down so that you are able to get at the cables and transmissions. Thank you to all the contributors.

Thank you for your help. As I searched through the archive I noticed that you often post very helpful comments. Unfortunately, I know much more about 996/997 cars than I do 986 cars so that is the reason I am having difficulty with this. Dumb me forgot to include that my Boxster is a 2000 so it should have the updated cables/transmission. I attempted to at least get the clamshell down last night so that it could be drivable today but did not have time so am driving my wife's Acura today. The manual only tells how to get access to the cables and whatnot with the top already down (which I already knew since I have acessed my engine before. I am going to search more on here then tackle it when I get home today. Thank you for your help thus far.

Well crap. I went out and tried to pinpoint the issue. I hit the convertible top down button and stopped it almost as soon as I hit it. I stepped outside and noticed that only the driver's side of the clamshell raised so I assume that it is a transmission/cable/piston problem.

searched low and high but couldn't find any existing threads with symptoms similar to mine. Any help would be much appreciated.

Alright guys, I have searched and am still searching but here it goes. It began to rain on my way home so I slowed to put my top up. I performed the top-while-moving mod so I slowed down to somewhere in the teens mph wise and began raising it. After it came fully up and I latched it into place I noticed that the top open light was still illuminated on my dash. I unclipped the top and push the up button figuring that maybe it wasn't up all the way. Nothing happened so I pushed the down button to see if it would back up. It began to make a horrible grinding noise directly behind my head so I latched it back until I got home. Just had my wife hit the button while I stood outside the car and watched/listened. I would be darned if it didn't sound like the grinding was coming from the top motor. The top moved through its going down process but very slowly and with great labor. Same thing happened when she put it back up. It seems to function althought it protests mightly. The light on the dash remains on. Any ideas?