Not a question since I know the official answer, but rather than continuing one of the muddied threads I figured I'd start a new one that can stay clean.

I want this thread to hopefully answer the question once and for all. As such please do not reply here unless you have information that moves the investigation along.

What we know is that Porsche's official response is that roof rails can not be installed if they weren't ordered as part of the build. There are places selling "retrofit" kits, but they are for decoration only and should not be used to carry weight (the better sellers make this clear). If you don't have roof rails from the factory at this time your only safe option is use a "gutter" mount system from someone like Thule or Yakima. Note that the factory rails have a load rating of 220lbs while a Yakima representative told me that I shouldn't put more than 100lbs on their "gutter" mount system (this is while I was trying to decide if I should order the rails or not).

As promised in other threads, my rails have come off for the car to be repainted so here are some pics. Unfortunately since the entire roof liner didn't come down the interior pics aren't great. What the pics show are:

1. The rear driver side exterior mount location. The silver "discs" are actually raised a bit from the sheet metal. I expect these are part of the interior piece.
2. The underside of the driver's side front mount. The silver plate is the mounting plate. I expect this is missing on non-rail cars. There is a part number, but I can't see the whole thing. It appears that this piece is roughly the same length of the foot pad on the rail itself.
3. The underside of the driver's side rear mount. Sorry for the bad view, but in the middle of the pic is the rearward most mounting hole. Contrary to the front plate, this one appears to be about twice as long as the rail's foot.

What I don't see is any indication of special structural changes, though things might look different with the entire headliner out of the way.

Before this thing gets put back together, is there any additional information/pictures I should try to get that you think might further this cause.

Now someone without rails needs to pull their roof liner down and get some pics so we can compare.

All in all, however, I think a retrofit can be done safely if someone was so inclined.

 

Here is a list of parts for the roof rails from a parts list that was generated on 1/11/2012 (e.g. I doubt it's changed, but it's possible).

• 958 559 025 00 (041) - roof rail complete - black - left
• 958 559 026 00 (041) - roof rail complete - black - right
• 958 559 043 00 (8Z8) - roof rail complete - silver - left
• 958 559 044 01 (8Z8) - roof rail complete - silver - right
• 958 559 197 00 - fastening angle roof rail front - left
• 958 559 198 00 - fastening angle roof rail front - right
• N 911 733 01 - combined nut M6 - qty 8
• 958 559 201 00 - fastening angle roof rail rear - left
• 958 559 202 00 - fastening angle roof rail - right
• WHT 003 205 A - clamping nut M6 - qty 8

 

you always come through, good write up. I'd be afraid for anyone to retrofit one to the car though.

 

I'm not advocating doing it, just trying to provide as much information as possible to try to answer it.

Porsche says it can't be done, I have to believe there is a good reason for that. Doesn't mean we can't try to figure it out though.

With that said, if someone used these parts to do the job I wouldn't be too concerned with the load tearing free and falling in to traffic. Weather it can support the rated 220lbs that the factory installed option can is another question though.

The real piece that is still missing is to get a look at the underside of the roof on a sans-rails model to see if anything looks different.

 

The dealer in Bellevue WA said they installed roof rails for a customer. it was about 3K (parts and labor) They said the majority of work was getting the roof liner out then measuring. The roof liner goes in first so they had to remove all the trim pieces to get access. Its definably doable but getting access and measuring 50 times before drilling hold in your roof takes time. When i look up the cost of the parts for my Cayenne it was about $900.

 

Interesting to hear a dealer say they've done. So far the only response that anyone has gotten is "no".

Yeah labor would indeed be the big cost here I imagine.

 

well if you have to - do beleive...

who want to work and pleasure their customers - they work. who loves to sit on a chair - says "we cant do it, we have no (toilet) paper."

what to extracharge there? to drill 8 holes? for those who dont know how to drill - may be.

want to know how do this job exactly - try to ask G_A, he did this.

 

No I don't believe it can't be done. The point of this thread is to try to resolve it beyond the unhelpful and inconsistent dealer responses.

Drilling the holes is a fraction of the labor involved. While its not rocket science, pulling the headliner from a car this size is a tedious and cumbersome task and getting it back up is worse (if you are doing it by yourself).

If G_A has done it, I think many of us would love to see him document the process so we all know

 

I beleive everybody shall do what he can do. who have working skills - will take off a headliner in hour or 1.5 for first time. to drill correct is more spasecraft science related. if somebody scares of screwdriver - let him pay in service, here's nothing to do.

 

This thread is so helpful for me! Thank you very much for all the pics!

In my case, I would like to remove the rails, since I don't use them on my 2012 Cayenne Turbo and I like the cleaner look.

It seems, that it would be possible to remove the rails, reduce the silver discs and do a new paint job on the roof, right?

 

So called "silver disks" is rivetted nuts, so you need to drill them off, and weld holes in roof. Only then a paint job.

 

Do you think, this would be possible with a reasonable effort? Could my Porsche dealer do this?

 

I think they can, but will they do - that's a question

 

Is the rail screwed from the inside and is it possible to remove the inside mounting plate? Or is it welded to the roof?

Is there an instruction for removing the headliner?

Thanks a lot!

 

no, they are not welded
dont know about instruction