996 / 997 Targa roof problems with rebuild

Young man i have to say if you have removed one of these roofs before and are doing it again you are part of a very small number of people in this country that have done this .. i kid you not !

For me its one of my specialist areas . every mechanic has areas he is better at than others .. i've had the pleasure of doing 29 996/997 roof refurbs so far in 15 years on Porsche so if you have any questions then please feel free to ask ..

My email addy here if needed ..

[email protected]

far easier to send pictures etc if needed .

I only check it in the evenings though so no instant reply .

Be aware .. a lot of places tend to sell the blind cables as being the roof cables .. they wont work obviously .

Small update with some pictures . .. i like them so why not share i figured .

Found an old friend when working on this one .. not fitted one of these in about 14 years now , very much doubt they are active these days .

my record is 3 fitted to the same vehicle .. a Cayenne as well !

The batterys on these will tend to be well dead by now and the unit can try and charge them with ignition off which its not supposed to ..

A cause of flat batterys if the car is unused for a bit shall we say .

Couple of pictures of a previous repair and a pry bar was used to remove the frame .. er .. it's not needed ..

Feel free to email me or post for how to do it without damaging the car ... i dont charge

[email protected]

Open the picts in a new image for a bigger picture ... chrome .

A young man asked me about noises on these and fixes via email .. i figured i might as well post it here as well just in case its of any use ..

996 AND 997 ..


As i say on the forums .. this may well turn into one of my longer posts so read it several times ..

Damp smell .. gutters are obviously on the inside , fabric curtains cant get wet as they are above the water channel .. dirt though will collect in the channels .. poor drainage due to partially blocked rear drains will also stay damp .

Pull the pu in the corner as i mentioned .. make sure its perfectly clear then with the roof open pour water into the channel to wash out the years of dirt in there .

keep an eye on the rear secretion of the drains though .. if over flowing then there is some sort of blockage ... rear panel off to keep an eye on this .

Noises ..

rear hatch area .. gunmmi .. use on the rear hatch seal all the way around .. just spray it on and leave it , again on the rubber stops.. also look at the tailgate hinges , a plastic stop there .. lubricate it , tailgate hinges and normal grease on the pivots ( spray grease ) .

rear section of the Glass roof .. gummi it ... mainly the centre bar with the rubber trim .. you cant actually get at the glass roof seal and it should be a felt based seal so no lube should be needed .

Crytox is a Porsche rubber replenisher available from any OPC .. so by lube i mean this .. about £13 per bottle and a God send for these cars .. smear a small amount on your finger and rub it into any surface .. i use this over Gummi most of the time .. it lasts longer .

Open the roof .. look under the wind deflector .. x3 plastic strips .. lubricate these , lube the x2 plastic / rubber stops each side , lube the roof parts each side that hit the wind deflector ... one or both of these can be missing .. its a plastic triangle .. just lube what's there .

Both front windows .. Rain X on the glass where it touches the door seal .. leave to dry on the window .. do the same on the entire door seals .

Roof open and gummi the centre rubber between glass and hatch .

rattles / creaks from the front .. the panel the sun blinds are fitted to is located in place by x4 metal tabs with felt tape over them .. this can wear .. bit of a mission but remove that panel and retape them .

the front to rear panel each side can have the felt tape get displaced so its leather on leather .. another place but like the above .. its a mission to remove ... i would need to explain in detail if needed for both these jobs .

Rattles you have described each side in the far corners is going to be the linkage has worn .. brass spacer in a metal plate with [plastic runners in it .. limited what you can do here as its wear and tear .. adjusting the cables is one thing i would do but that's not for the faint hearted .. get it wrong and it can jam .. my suggestion and what i have done in the past ..

Axle grease with a small paint brush .. fabric down so you can get at it then paste the grease on the plastic sections of this plate .. you'll need plenty to act as a cushion but not to much that it can contaminate other areas .

To check the front glass drain tubes .. sit in the back with a torch , gently pull back the fabric where both parts join .. you will see the tube and if there is a problem with it .. do for both sides .

Drains by the battery .. use a long screwdriver and push through the grommets so they drop out onto the fuel tank .. they are there to stop mice ingress and they are useless at that .. no grommets and you have an inch hole that will never block .. bear in mind there are x2 each side of the battery .

noises come and go with temperature .. there is little you can do about that but work on the noises at operating temp .. the car will be this hot most of the time .

As ever @demort thank you.

I was going to post up about any tips on this.

Really want to be able to access the rear drains but think it's beyond me.
Did the ones in the frunk and also the small ones at the front of the targa roof.

I could see some water marks on one of the cloth covers and the car has been a bit misty but nit sure if that was me being with wet coat and shoes getting in the car.

The white staining on the fabric is water based .. it will wipe off with a damp cloth .. the drains / gutters are inside the car unlike a house so white marks is not uncommon .

I answer PM before the forums so i understand the PM now .

Cars mist up due to a water leak or getting in and out with damp clothing .. also breathing .. don't do that as you exhale moisture

A working a/c will soon clear the screens and also remove moisture to a degree .

The carpets on Porsche cars have about 2 inches of foam under them .. when wet they stay wet im afraid .. need to be removed to totally dry out .. giant sponge .

I've been asked a few times at work and on here why the front glass drain tubes break .. and basically don't tend to last that long .

Some pictures to show you what it looks like when the roof is opened along with one which it will look like when in the car and roof closed .

I think you can easily see why they don't last that long .


Right click on any image and select open in a new tab ( chrome ) for a larger image .

So. Another one with the infamous Targa problems

Mine started as the roof didnt want to go to fully closed position on drivers side. I had to help it with my hands.

It went from worse to worse when i started to hear some "drrr" noice. First it was only to close position but then it started to get when i open to.

I removed the motors and saw that one of the cogs on the driver side motor was really bad worn. I guess the cable is really bad to?

Well, I had both motors out. Moved the glassroof and it went pretty smooth back and forth. Though I could never push it up to "closed" position, maybe its impossible without the strengh from the motors? I put some dry lube in the cable. When i put back the motors it still didnt work.. Im sure the cog on one of the motors are the issue but im not sure about the cable.

Do you think its worth only to buy one motor and try? or should i go all in and change the cable and the motor?

And do I really need to "reprogram" the motor when i change it? I saw on the schimatic that the end position is stopped by an sensor.

Answered via pm .. ignore the link to this post as obviously you have found it

An update..

I drove the whole summer with no targa function :'(

Was about to fix this problem for myself. But I've moved from an house with two garage to an apartment so I really don't have anywhere to do this operation.

I got an fixed price from my Porsche dealer to fix it. So the car is there now and they are performing the renovation.

Looked around with many car fixers. But only certified Porsche dealer was the only one eh wanted to do this fix.

There are im afraid very few garages that want to touch these .. OPC cant refuse a job as such but i'll bet the guys there certainly haven't worked on many of these and will be following the instructions closely .

Just a heads up .. the labour for a cable replacement is about 2 days or 16 hrs .

Book time is actually far lower .. totally impossible but it was about 7 hrs i believe .. excellent if you can get it for that amount !!!

You have the guide tubes and the cables replaced along with the main frame seal .

The plastic feet on the mechanism must be inspected for cracks .

Never ever fit an entire mechanism with new feet even if you have to buy it .. 16 new plastic feet and the roof will jam .. you have to mix and match with old and new feet .. this is im afraid due to wear in the frame which we cant do anything about so work around it .

Obviously all grease must be cleaned out of the runners and NO fresh grease added .

When i check the rear drains on these .. mainly the channel drain i pour water into the tube and see how fast it comes out behind the bumper ..

Often i get a dribble which is clearly not fast enough ..

I remove the very front PU / bumper fixing , pull it down a bit then rip out the tape which covers most of the drain hole .

Customer in recently .. he unfortunately parks outside and on an incline .. most of the water has to drain out of this tube .. i had to think of something new to try and stop water ingress in this situation .


PU/Bumper removed .. tape removed and i drilled a hole where the drain exits .. i then cut it into a U shape .. basically i made the drain as large as possible..

All refitted and so far the customer has not had any further issues .

pictures i hope explain it better .

putting back together a targa porsche and noticed a white clip that does not seem to go anywhere- does anyone know what this is supposed to connect too? Sits behind the targa control module.

I'm not sure what that is for as I've not had that part of my car apart but often there are connectors that are in the loom and dont go to anywhere. deMort would probably be able to confirm.

been doing some research on replacement guts for the targa motors looks like the toyota l/Citroen ones here are the same

https://www.brossautoparts.net/bsr1...citroen-and-toyota?search=sunroof repair gear

they have a 3 year set I am going to check the measurements on then try.


looks like the same motor in mercedes clk
http://www.atasoyotomotiv.net/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=3305

That's the wiring plug for the rear windscreen wiper motor .. you don't have one so it should have a foam bag over it .


The roof motors .. the main issue is the drive gear wears as per images in this post .. it's a preened fit to a shaft .. it could be changed but the cost of doing so for us at least is not worth it .

Very rare to get an issue with an actual motor .

The ally fins breaking off and not meshing with the plastic gear .. that will only affect the manual operation and not the powered operation of the motor .

The motor looks similar , no black " fin " on a Porsche motor at the top of the image and the wiring looks different .. there is a potentiometer fitted to each motor although on a Porsche only one is used .

Siemens is the manufacturer i believe