Rear spoiler help - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

TNBoxster · 07-12-2021, 05:40 AM

I have searched for help or insight on an issue I'm having with my rear spoiler. However I wasn't able to find any postings that address my issue. My rear spoiler appears to be raising at speeds much lower than 70-75mph. When it retracts, the motor runs for an extra second after it is fully retracted. This is causing the gears to grind. The manual switch is functional but it will also continue to run the motor after the spoiler is fully retracted.
Could this be a sign of a bad relay or should I troubleshoot another area?

elav · 07-12-2021, 10:45 AM

I'm not sure what would cause the spoiler to go up at lower speeds but to address the extra run time when retracting I would start by switching the spoiler up relay and down relay to see if the issue follows.

I had a spoiler that often would report that it wasn't retracting, although it was. The issue with my spoiler was that the 20+ year old grease hardened and the cables in the tubes were binding too. I took the entire assembly apart, cleaned everything and re-greased it. If you wanted to do the same, you can visually inspect and test the micro switches in the spoiler. Let us know the results of swapping the relays...

Stl-986 · 07-12-2021, 01:52 PM

Most likely a bad switch inside the assembly. Been about a year since I tore one apart.

How do you know it is going up at slower speeds?

TNBoxster · 07-15-2021, 01:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by elav

I'm not sure what would cause the spoiler to go up at lower speeds but to address the extra run time when retracting I would start by switching the spoiler up relay and down relay to see if the issue follows.

I had a spoiler that often would report that it wasn't retracting, although it was. The issue with my spoiler was that the 20+ year old grease hardened and the cables in the tubes were binding too. I took the entire assembly apart, cleaned everything and re-greased it. If you wanted to do the same, you can visually inspect and test the micro switches in the spoiler. Let us know the results of swapping the relays...

Swapping the relays produced the same result. Looks like I'll be pulling the entire assembly out to test the switches. I need to pull it anyway to make sure none of the plastic gears have been stripped. Thanks for your reply and suggestions!