Rust Trap Warning

[Lennym1984]

I've seen a few 987s on Facebook recently with visible rust bubbling around the passenger side vent and so whilst replacing my side vents with black ones, I thought I'd investigate a bit.

Sure enough, when looking inside the very edge of the panel, I could see the beginnings of some flaking paint on one of the lugs. In essence the little rubber bits which hold the vent seal to the bodywork trap moisture against the edge and overtime cause the paint to fail and the corrosion to take hold. You will not see this unless you remove the vent and then look around the edge with a mirror but overtime it'll creep until you end up with the bubbling rust that these people were showing. At this point, it'll be too late as the metal will have perforated.

If you catch it early like I have it's a super simple repair (rub off the rust and cover with a decent paint - I used epoxy mastic). Make sure you remove all of the rust and rub back both sides of the panel until you are happy that you have caught it all. The edge in question is not visible with the vents in place and so you don't need to worry too much about making it perfect

Mine had only just started and was a light surface rust. I could probably have left it for another ten years without any major issues but obviously it pays to treat rust early and if you catch it before it has perforated (and ideally before it has worked its way round to the visible portion) its no big deal.

[BBB]

Mine was the same. I removed the vent to paint it black, remove the impactor plate and fit a 3D printed intake cover.

Mine had rusted at the lower curve of the bodywork itself, not the vent tabs. It looked as if the vent had been rubbing on the paint. A big flake of paint came off and all the metal underneath was rusty. By the time I’d removed all the rust the area was too big to do a spot paint and I ended up having the whole rear quarter painted, plus new stone chip sticker.

I’m glad I caught it when I did, as looking from the outside it all looked good.

[Lennym1984]

Just now, BBB said:

Mine was the same. I removed the vent to paint it black, remove the impactor plate and fit a 3D printed intake cover.

Mine had rusted at the lower curve of the bodywork itself, not the vent tabs. It looked as if the vent had been rubbing on the paint. A big flake of paint came off and all the metal underneath was rusty. By the time I’d removed all the rust the area was too big to do a spot paint and I ended up having the whole rear quarter painted, plus new stone chip sticker.

I’m glad I caught it when I did, as looking from the outside it all looked good.

Ah.... the Boxster and Cayman have a different quarter panel shape (the Cayman one is a bit more flared). I wonder if this moves the problem down further on the Boxster?

 

[Nobbie]

This is a common issue on the 986 where there is a foam rubber sheet glued to the inside of the panel under the vent which traps moisture and eventually rusts and bubbles straight through under the vent. Maybe the issue didn’t come to light early enough to fix it on the 987.

[Lennym1984]

11 minutes ago, Nobbie said:

This is a common issue on the 986 where there is a foam rubber sheet glued to the inside of the panel under the vent which traps moisture and eventually rusts and bubbles straight through under the vent. Maybe the issue didn’t come to light early enough to fix it on the 987.

There's no foam behind it. It just looks like the rubber pieces holding grot against the paint

[Terryg]

This is very timely for me, thanks @Lennym1984

[Boxstercol]

How easy is it to remove the vents, mine seem stuck firm.

Almost looks like they’ll break before releasing!

[red rocket]

9 hours ago, Boxstercol said:

How easy is it to remove the vents, mine seem stuck firm.

Almost looks like they’ll break before releasing!

I know the feeling, but it's not actually very difficult - warm them up with a hairdryer or heat gun beforehand. There are videos on Youtube - search 987 vent.

[Boxstercol]

On 6/11/2021 at 7:15 AM, red rocket said:

I know the feeling, but it's not actually very difficult - warm them up with a hairdryer or heat gun beforehand. There are videos on Youtube - search 987 vent.

Cheers 👍

[BBB]

On 6/10/2021 at 10:07 PM, Boxstercol said:

How easy is it to remove the vents, mine seem stuck firm.

Almost looks like they’ll break before releasing!

This is the best video.

 

[the baron]

On 6/7/2021 at 12:38 PM, Nobbie said:

This is a common issue on the 986 where there is a foam rubber sheet glued to the inside of the panel under the vent which traps moisture and eventually rusts and bubbles straight through under the vent. Maybe the issue didn’t come to light early enough to fix it on the 987.

I had to have around 10” of metal cut out due to this,  very common problem on the 986.