Engine tap at start up with oil light.

[john12312]

Originally Posted by PaulE

If you're lucky the spoiler mechanism will just need cleaning and relubricating. If you're not, the gears will be stripped and the mechanism will need to be replaced. A couple of years ago I had a similar issue and took mine apart, cleaned it all up and relubricated the gears and cables and put it all back together. It's still working perfectly.

The mechanism comes out easily and comes apart easily. There is a central pinion gear attached to the motor and two rack gears attached to cables that run through tubes to raise and lower the spoiler. Take a picture of where the gears are positioned before you take it all apart, the spoiler should have been either fully up or fully down and it has to be reassembled in the same position it was in before disassembly. The cables inside the tubes are probably gunked up with years of road grime, they will need to be cleaned and regreased. The cable ends are spring loaded which need to be compressed and put into slots at the end of the rack gears. These ends are held in place by the mechanism case when it is all assembled. It's a bit of a trick to get everything together and have it stay in place while you reassemble the case. If you have a large flat surface to work on, and something stable to push against when getting the spring loaded cable ends back into the rack gears, that will be very helpful. I used the base of my vise bolted to the workbench top for this. The ends of the cables also have sharp metal pieces. Wear heavy leather work gloves during this part and avoid cutting your fingers like I did before I put the gloves on.

Hope you find this helpful, good luck!

Yes, thanks very much for the great info PaulE! Since the car has a blank history, it's probably needing a good lube as you stated. In South Plainfield NJ today, probably in your neck of the woods.