[Rolls912]

What does everyone think?

 

in my 3 months of ownership I’ve had;

• door mech plastic rod end snap
  
• sun visor plastic tab disintegrate
  
• sunroof gear fail
  
• rear latch fail (cannot confirm if it’s a plastic part yet)
  

oh the joy.

 

:wacko:

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[Rolls912]

What does everyone think?

 

in my 3 months of ownership I’ve had;

• door mech plastic rod end snap
  
• sun visor plastic tab disintegrate
  
• sunroof gear fail
  
• rear latch fail (cannot confirm if it’s a plastic part yet)
  

oh the joy.

 

:wacko:

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[Roboman]

Hi Rolls, you live in a hot climate so the plastic will suffer if previous owners have left the car out in the sun .... especially in Summer.  I brought mine back from the middle east.  For the most part it is fine, but there is sun damage (fading) on the top of the dash and the side panels on the windshield are a bit warped.  You will encounter brittle old plastic .... it happens; heat of engine and heat of the sun.  So don't despair, these are fine cars, fun to drive, and you will encounter plenty of support on this forum.

 

As a matter of interest .... your rear hatch.  I'm presently having a discussion with snova on this.  A quick test for your rear latch ...

 

1. Does it open with the footwell switch?  (If yes, then I assume your comment about rear latch fail is that it doesn't open with the boot/trunk key)

 

2. So if the footwell works, discern if pressing the footwell switch for different lengths of time results in motor movement of different lengths of time.... you can either hear this, or note that the rotor arm stops in different places.

 

The motor should run for the same length of time and park in the same place (approximately) for each press of the button, whether that press be long or short.  It is similar to windscreen wipers .... when you turn them off mid-wipe, they still sweep until they park.  A proviso for the button press is that if you hold the button for a long time (say two or three seconds) the motor should overshoot the parking spot and loop around again.

 

If the duration of the motor movement appears to mimic the duration of button press, then there's a good chance that the problem is the switching mechanism inside the motor housing.  I don't know how difficult the motor is to access in a coupe, but on my cab it is not much effort.

 

Have a look at "key won't open trunk" or "rear hatch wiring" which is just a a couple of post prior to your one.

 

Good luck

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[Waylander]

you wanna try a 36 year old Honda VF1000 for plastic bits breaking, just about every mount screw hole is cracked and split bits fall off each time I look at it, I have become very good at plastic welding in the last 6 months!!

 

I think I have used up 20 ABS welding rods and half an 2mm ABS A4 sheet, 

 

most of this thing is NLA so you have no choice but to try and fix it

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[snova]

I think Japanese cars do better because it’s hot in Japan. ;-)

If the 968 was designed over there they would have never created such a large rear glass hatch.

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[Rolls912]

Thanks gents.

My car has an immaculate interior so I’m guessing it’s missed a lot of the heat.

 

I just feel the 968 used marginal suppliers for the 968 plastics. I’ve never had such issues with other old Porsche’s I’ve owned. Things like the sunroof gears and sun visor clips just shouldn’t happen on such a young car IMO... Anyway, onwards and upwards!

 

roboman - I can hear the motor working. Just nothing happens. Will need to eventually investogate.

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[Roboman]

Okay Rolls, well there's lots of bits in that segment of the system including PLASTIC CLIPS .... don't you hate that?  Good luck when you get to it, but for now I hope you will have a bit of a break and enjoy Christmas. Cheers!

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[ds968]

Porsche cheapened out when it came to many trim pieces and even the functional ones with plastic components, but it’s not unique to the 968, not is it unique to the brand ; cars much more expensive which one would expect to be the epitome of craftsmanship ( Ferrari, Maserati, etc. ) are known to have done the same for many of their models.   But back to our cars ;  one of my friends who had a 968 and a GT3 ( first generation )  was very disappointed by the interior quality of the GT3 pieces , he felt they did not even hold a candle to the 968.. they seemed feeble, brittle , and just downright looked and felt cheap .,he was afraid to touch them in fear they’d just break in his hand .  And that car was both younger and clearly more expensive that the 968.    So with our cars getting past the ripe old age of 28 + years since production,  plastics,  rubber , and other synthetic materials can be expected to start failing ..  IMO 

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[Roboman]

 

 

roboman - I can hear the motor working. Just nothing happens. Will need to eventually investigate.

 

Wow, doesn't time fly???

 

Rolls did you fix the boot opening problem?  If the motor is turning then it should have just been the connector/cable that links the two.

 

My problem is warped side panels for the windscreen ...... has anyone straightened them out???

 

       

 

The rubber seems robust and not brittle so I'm considering clamping it between two pieces of wood and pouring hot water over the back of the panel.  Anyone any other ideas?  Success with other methods?

 

Thanks

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[MCL968]

 

Wow, doesn't time fly???

 

Rolls did you fix the boot opening problem?  If the motor is turning then it should have just been the connector/cable that links the two.

 

My problem is warped side panels for the windscreen ...... has anyone straightened them out???

 

SidePanel1.jpg SidePanel2.jpg

 

The rubber seems robust and not brittle so I'm considering clamping it between two pieces of wood and pouring hot water over the back of the panel.  Anyone any other ideas?  Success with other methods?

 

Thanks

Some folks on here years ago had some luck with a heat gun and clamping them between boards. I am not sure hot water would do the trick.

 

Let us know how it goes. Mine are the same, as are all the ones on the early cabriolets.

 

M-

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[Roboman]

Thanks M, I'll let you know as I plan to tackle this fairly soon.

 

I'm a bit of a scaredy-cat on this as I don't want to damage the plastic, obviously, and I fear a naked flame might melt it before I know what's happening.  I guess I could heat up a metal bar and clamp it to the inside.

 

In the end I shall err on the safe side as I imagine replacements are like hen's teeth.

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[Waylander]

You guys have to remember that Porsche were hanging on by their collective finger nails, all money they had sunk into the 986 project



Not selling 928, and 911 sales slow Porsche were robbing parts bins and trying to save as much as possible, and the 968 was hugely expensive compared to the Supra, 3000GT and others



So its no surprise the plastics suffering and of course we tend to forget that they are now 32 years old

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