The dash warning light for the rear spoiler is lit when I achieve the appropriate speed. However, the rear spoiler still goes up and down automatically at the proper speed level.

What can I do to resolve this issue?

The car is a 2001 996TT.

 

your spoiler is not going upfare enought to trip the up signal. poss it's low on fluid...if its very cold the fluid may contract a little, try a little wd40 on the uprites

 

I got a warning yesterday for the 1st time too - the prior owner told me that every once in a while, when he would accelerate just past the mph to activate the spoiler and then slow down right away, he'd occasionally get a spoiler warning light. That's what happened to me yesterday, and when I turned off the car the spoiler stayed up. I turned the key and used the button to lower it no problem, and it worked fine all day today. Not sure if it's the same for you, but I'm not too worried about it.

 

I heard about using graphite as well. Is that a better solution than WD-40?

 

I have exactly the same problem and it has been like that for over a year.
I have checked everything and there are no leaks or any other strange things. Also checked the wiring but all parts look like new.

 

EXACT problem here as well. I believe my passenger side hydraulic lift is faulty. It's leaking just a little bit. More than likely you'll need a replacement lift. Common on these cars.

 

I have the same problem as well. Been like this for 3 months now. It goes up and down, but it throws the spoiler failure control warning light. I've done some research and people recommend changing the spoiler switches. Not sure if that's the actual problem. Dealer wanted $60 bux for each switch and we would need two of them.

 

I'm starting to believe that there are 2 types of Porsche 996TT owners.

1. Owners who have existing rear wing issues
2. Owners who WILL have rear wing issues

I have a 2001 model which had the rear wing serviced prior to my ownership (at considerable expense). I also ran into problems with it myself after purchasing the car and elected to disable it for free. I believe this may be more difficult on newer models due to wiring changes but don't take my word for that. I've grown accustomed to seeing the wing in the down position now and even prefer it.

 

anybody know what type of tool is needed to inject more hydraulic fluid?

 

No tool is needed. We had the same error with the spoiler going up but still getting the red flashing spoiler light coming on the dash. We filled up the reservoirs and the error went away. Also, the spoiler goes up evenly. We just used the Lucas power steering fluid with leak stopper. It has a pointed tip that you can put right into the reservoir. There's a great tutorial on this site that walks you through everything. Just do a search. Somebody was asking the same question a few days ago so it's been pretty recent. Hope this helps and it sure beats a $1600 rebuild/repair! Takes about an hour of easy work (but my son did the work!). I wasn't going to pay $1600 to replace it and just buy a GT2 wing. Now, we were able to buy a Precision Porsche wing that goes up and down on the stock hydraulic bars.

I copied the instructions from "Asgor" Hope he doesn't mind?

"If the motor is running and the wing does not go up and down symmetrically, then the probable culprit is uneven (or insufficient) hydraulic fluid servicing in the two cylinders in the pump / motor assembly. That was the problem I had. Each cylinder has it's own fluid - - - there is no sharing or ability to "equalize" fluid between the cylinders and rams. If one of your cylinders has developed a slight leak over the years and now has a slightly lower amount of fluid than the other cylinder, the result will probably be a spoiler malfunction light. Tell tell signs of a fluid leak is fluid leaking out of the bottom weep holes of the rounded black plastic caps that snap on the bottom of the rams.

Here's how I "refilled" both of my cylinders. My disclaimer is that your results may vary, but this is a pretty simple closed hydraulic system so in reality there's not too much that can be screwed up.

Take the entire motor and ram assemblies out of the car. Yes, you have to remove the wing and lots of stuff from the deck lid to get this stuff off the car. You will need a relatively strong battery charger or other 12 VDC source to run the pump electric motor. Jumper cables from a batter will work if you can manage not to short the cables together.

Once everything's off the car and on the workbench, connect your power source to the electric motor leads to check the polarity. Depending on which way you connect the power, the rams will either go up or down. You want to start with the rams all the way down. With the rams all the way down and with the pump assembly held in a vertical position, carefully disconnect both of the hydraulic lines (one for each ram) on the end of the pump assembly. Make sure the lines are at the TOP of the pump assembly, and also note the proper orientation of the lines. Once you have the lines off, keep the disconnected lines held high so as not to let any fluid spill from the lines or rams. Now, while still holding the pump assembly vertically, in each of the holes of the pump assembly where you removed the banjo bolts from each ram hydraulic line, carefully fill each "hole" with suitable hydraulic fluid. I say "suitable" because in reality I don't have any idea what the Porsche spec hydraulic fluid actually is. I used hydraulic jack oil which is available at most automotive parts stores. I'm sure it's not Porsche spec, but it has worked well over the past year with no problems what-so-ever. If your hydraulic cylinders are low, each one will probably take several ounces. Fill each hole until fluid spills out.

Now carefully reattach each ram hydraulic line banjo bolt. If you've got each cylinder full, some fluid should weep out as you tighten up the banjo bolts. You'll find you either need an extra set of hands, or some type of a vice or clamp to hold everything vertically if you're working alone. Again, you don't want to let any fluid spill from the removed ram hydraulic line.

Now with everything back together, use your electrical power source and run the rams up and down several times. At first, one ram will probably slightly lag the other. If after a dozen times or so of running the rams up and down they are still uneven in their travel, the ram that is lagging is probably not quite full. This is what happened to me. I had to undo the banjo bolt of the ram that started to move just slightly after the other ram had moved, and add just a tad more fluid to it's cylinder. After I did so, everything started moving symmetrically.

There is another DIY that talks about "bleeding" the system by slightly loosening each of the banjo bolts and then applying power to the motor. My guess is that if you have air in the system, and you keep everything in a vertical orientation such that the banjo bolts are the highest points in the system, and if you keep everything held in this position long enough so that any air in the system can rise to the top (where the banjo bolts are), that this method may in fact work. However, I didn't have to do it so can't comment on its validity. However, if you have trapped air in the system, you'll need to find a way to get it out as air will surly cause problems in a hydraulic system.

Once I was satisfied that everything was moving up and down properly & symmetrically , I cleaned everything up and bolted everything back in the deck lid. Since doing this, I have not had a single spoiler fail warning light. If you've got everything in had to do the job (including the ability to remove the rear wing), it's no more than a couple hour job".


John

 

great info. Did you guys use/buy any special tool to remove the spoiler from the hydraulics?

 

LOL - that's where I stopped reading, since it was already over my head.

Thanks for posting - I think I'd rather have a spoiler that just stays down before I attempted this. I have zero skills. I know a lot of other guys would have no problem doing this themselves.

 

I'm with you leftlane! LOL!

However, thank goodness for folks like Asgor who come up with these terrific DIY instructions.

 

I wish I could take the credit for that set of instructions, but in truth they were put together by someone else here on 6Speed and I simply cut and pasted them into a message I posted some time ago in another similar thread.

To be honest I am one of those people who aren’t particularly comfortable turning a wrench: somehow every time I try to do it, something unexpected goes wrong. Having learned my lesson many times in the past I now let the pros take care of mechanical repairs.

 

I just went through all of this myself. First the hydralics failed on one side, which killed the other site. Parts alone was $1,200!
I know that is not your problem, but then, the red light came up continually when i reached spoiler speed. My mechanic looke at two little tiny switches on the right side tube area, just under the rear decklid attached to the tube that raises the spoiler.
He just ordered two new little switches and will replace them this week, that should fix it.