993 Targa Roof Blind Operation ( video )

[deMort]

Started to mess about with a video cam so my first Porsche video !

Amature at best but it gives you an idea ...

Ok so the trims have been removed here so that you can see the operation .. normally most of this is hidden ..

Car came in with a jammed blind and roof not working .. for safety reasons the roof won't operate unless the blind is full closed .. it was jammed , couldn,t close so roof didn't work .

I reassembled the blind to get it working to see what was broken .. both plastic guides needed replacing as insecure ..

I did this then went about finding the actual cause of the blind failure ..

The center seal had come detached and was catching the bow spring and knocking it off .. these seals are often very low on these and can catch .

I replaced the seal .. hell of a nasty job and ended up with 3 mm of clearance .. thats huge !! .. no more catching on the bow spring now .


https://youtu.be/ZyDWy9yWEpo

 

[thegecko]

Once again, thanks for this video it was really useful!

The seal looks like it should come off and be replaceable in situ, I assume that isn't the case!

 

[A993LAD]

Top job deMort well done.

I love the idea of the targa but my neighbour had one and the roof caused so many problems that I wouldn't touch one with a barge pole now. Our local OPC had no idea how to work on it and when my neigbour started taking it apart I couldn't believe how many fiddly little parts were involved, all of which looked like they could break at any time.

I thought my cab roof mechanism was pretty shonky heath robinson stuff, but the targa was on a completely different level!

I'm well up for tackling electrics and motors as you know but I didn't fancy one of those.

 

[GMG]

...me neither,these cars have enough issues without adding the complications of a Targa roof :floor:

 

[deMort]

This seal is unfortunately a bitch to replace , this particular car was the first one i've had to do it on and i've worked on more of these roof systems than most mechanics have .. so if i say its a bitch ....

Normally .. the spring rod wears a small groove in this seal .. i use a file and make that larger .. that normally does the job along with raising the rear of the glass roof as high as is possible.

This one and that wasn't enough so i decided to cut a groove in it .. yup i cut through it .. plenty of clearance but i started to wonder .. the 996/997 targas and this is an emergency drain ..

I poured water over the roof and sure enough it leaked into the car via my cuts .

I then had to change this seal .It has 2 sections that need to be pressed into a groove .. lets just say it's really a 2 man job to support it and press it in place .

On a 993 then the blind is the most complicated part .. it's not actually that difficult to work on or fault find but i have done a few i guess .

The actual cable and runner mechanism is surprisingly robust and rarely needs replacement .. far better than the later versions of which i've replaced over 70 cables ... i lost count at about 63 roof refurbs on 996/997 so no idea these days but i did 15 last year alone .

993 by comparison i've done 3 refurbs ! downside is this means cutting the roof off .. you then find corrosion which is common and its roughly £8 K as a start point .

Scroll down past the 996/997 items here to see the last 993 i did ..

https://www.precisionporsche.co.uk/targa-roof-repairs

The roof is mainly bonded in place and needs cutting off .

OPC will struggle as they will never get many of these and as a one off job its hard for a mechanic .. i've been specialising on all targa roofs for over 12 years now and whilst i don't know everything i've learnt a lot over the years .

I won't go into the horrors i've been sent from other garages but suffice to say .. targa work and ask your garage have they done this before .. if not find someone that has .

Over all though .. the 993 is a very robust system with yes .. blind issues as they get older but these are sorted with the roof in and its circa 4-5 hrs usually plus parts .

These cars are not young anymore so for me .. it's just wear and tear .

if anyone wants to diy i'm obviously at your disposal and will provide what info i can .

993 cab roof is actually harder as there's so many items that can fail .. a switch in the wrong place such as a lift motor switch , control unit soldering on the joints , wiring shorting in the roof frame .. so many items and the adjustment needs to be spot on or the frame can snap .. yup i do these as well and i'm not a fan of them unlike targas lol ..

Each to their own but targas are actually easier to repair imho .

 

[GMG]

:worship: ...is all I can say Iain...must of us struggle with a brake pads change :floor:

 

[A993LAD]

So the targa is actually less complicated than the cab roof?

I guess I'm just so familiar with my cab roof now having fixed so many things on it it that it doesn't seem scary to me anymore whereas the Targa which is an unknown quantity to me looked quite intimidating on my neighbours' car.

It's great to have you on the forum Iain you are a mine of information.

 

[deMort]

So the targa is actually less complicated than the cab roof?

Yup .. i believe so .. the blind looks complicated but its just a motor pushing a cable , the way it moves up and down looks complicated but it's just a rod located in groves in the plastic rail ... as per the video .. a common issue is the spring rod fouling on the center seal or the plastic guide runners detaching a bit at the rear .

The actual Targa roof part .. 2 motors pushing a cable with a bit of mechanism on it up and down the runners .. glass roof is bolted to this .

Ok i'll admit the first time you have to set up the cables is a bit daunting .. the position is governed by a couple of micro switches and the motors won't stop until these engage .. have the cables too far forward and it will cause damage .. but it's not hard to set them correctly to be fair .

Targa blind issue or roof not working .. easy to diagnose .. cab roof .. hmm .. there's lots to check when these stop working !!

Hence .. i feel Targas are easier


Oh BTW .. Bless you young man .. i do my best but unfortunately i'm not as active here as i was .. even so .... i try to be .