Soft top help in WPB, FL ???

[Bill986]

Hello-

I am in need of some help with a top mechanism. I am a new owner of a 97 Blue Turquoise Boxster (purchased from a member of this board) in West Palm Beach Florida.

Here's the situation: I bought the car about a week ago in Oregon with the hardtop installed. Drove it home (4145 miles!!! to FL) then removed the hardtop. I wanted to clean the top, so I put it up then down 1 time with NO problem at all.

My friend drove the car to work today and put the top up, then back down when he left work to return car. When he arrived, I noticed the top cover (clamshell?) was crooked and tried to put up the top to investigate. (He says he noticed nothing go wrong during the operation of the top.)

The top wants to go up on the right side, but the driver side wont move. I hear the "gear" noise on both sides. After removing the plastic cover, I can see the levers turning on the right side, but the left side wont move. No bent levers or broken joint ends are visible.

I wouldnt mind taking this to a mechanic if there is one within reasonable distance that someone could recommend. Braman Porsche is 2 miles away, but they would most likely charge a fortune to fix this. If I have to, I will start pulling it apart to fix it myself.

Can anyone make any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!
Bill

[RandallNeighbour]

Bill, your boxster is probably experiencing a top transmission cable problem.

The 97's had non-reinforced cables that stretched due to heat, but the cable inside is steel and doesn't stretch, so it disengages from the transmission, and never does it on both sides the same way. One side goes up and the other doesn't and it gets the top all whacky.

Don't fiddle with it any more. From all I've read, this is not a do it yourself fix. It requires skills in top transmission timing, etc. Get it to a dealer or a good Porsche mechanic. They'll need to remove your clamshell, bend it back if it's not straight, replace the cables with the new reinforced ones (which should have been done under warranty in 99 if I'm not mistaken) and then get the timing right on the top so both sides work together at the same points.

Sorry buddy, but this isn't gonna be cheap to fix. Let us know how it turns out.

[Bill986]

Thank you, this is what I was afraid of. I'm still open for suggestions of mechanics if anyone has one locally.


Again, Thanks

Bill