jhasti

My 2005 997 S door handle made a snapping sound one day, and form then on it wouldn't automatically return to the closed position. It stayed loose, and when I would shut the door from the inside it would swing around and usually activate the micro-switch that lowers the window. It does appear that once you get over a certain speed the window will raise to the normal closed position automatically.

I searched the forums for comments and found some on 996 and on 986s, and some of people telling others to search for the problem (I tried their searches and didn't get anything but their original post).

In any case, PAULSPEED has an excellent tutorial on removing both the inner and outer door panels in the 997-1 DIY tutorial forum.

I removed the interior door panel, and the return spring (tensioner spring?) is a heavy duty spring wrapped around a post that is on the interior door panel. My spring was intact, but the plastic bracket that the post and spring attach too is cracked and the end of the spring had slipped out of its position. This bracket is hold in place by three small torx screws and appears to be reversible so that it would fit either the right or left hand door.

The part appears to be

997.555.381 z0

Pelican parts says that 997.555.381 has superseded to 997.555.38102 "door hinge" for $12.75 but there are no pictures. There is also a 997.555.38103 but I don't know the difference.

I put the end of the spring back in place and so far seems to be holding, but I will order a replacement part for when I need it.

It only took about 20-30 minutes to get the interior door panel off. (I had to do it twice because after getting it together the first time, none of the electrical switches in the door would work - so I removed it again and reseated the main electrical connector and everything works fine)

I had something similar with a horrible rattling noise that seemed to come from the rear glass. It was a little random, sometimes at rest and sometimes while driving.

Turns out an acorn had fallen in the little gap between the glass and the body (above the spoiler) and was rattling around.

Seems silly, but it took me a few days to figure it out and had me pretty worried all the while..

Excellent tutorial, thanks for the great pictures.

I had to take off the interior door panel on my car to fix the interior door handle return spring. The only other issue was figuring out how to get the electrical connector for the door off the distribution box.

Mine had a little purple hinge on the connector that, once flipped backwards, let the connector easily come off. I also had to disconnect a speaker connector. Those were the only two electrical lines for my door panel.

quick question for someone, I just got 6 plugs from Zims in Dallas to replace on my 2005 997 C2S.

They sent me Bosch FGR 8 KQE, but I think the car should use FGR 5 KQE (per the Bosch catalog)

Does anyone know if the Bosch catalog is right?

Anyway, I'm planning on taking pictures as I change them to post. Seems similar to the 996 procedure, except that there are star bolt on the cover plates and star head screws instead of hex head on the coils.

Thanks for your help!