Dai986S Posted March 22 Report Share Posted March 22 Hey Folks New member here. I've recently acquired a 986 with a Hardtop, however the front seal on the top has split and is leaking. I've had a look this afternoon and can only see the genuine porsche replacement part which is approx £700!! Anyone else had issues with the front seal on a hardtop and how did you resolve it? Cheers Dai Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATM Posted March 23 Report Share Posted March 23 Quite a few of us. Where is it leaking? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dai986S Posted March 25 Author Report Share Posted March 25 The front seal has shrunk back and is also tourn near the catch. see images. I am sure the water runs in from the front seal as it come down the windscreen on the inside and also their was a large about of water pooling under the catch cover. Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATM Posted March 25 Report Share Posted March 25 Ok good info Does the car have much damp inside? Have you tried the car with the soft top? Do you have the little rubber feet over the 2 prongs either side of the catch? Have you adjusted the rear clamps? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dai986S Posted March 25 Author Report Share Posted March 25 Thanks ATM for your help.. Does the car have much damp inside? It Did I've dried it out with the Dehumidifier, the Passenger Carpet was sodden, Have you tried the car with the soft top? No not yet. When I viewed the car it had been sitting outside with soft top and was damp inside. It was then delievered with the hard top on back in december and I thought it would be better sitting outside with the Hardtop but it was just getting wet inside. I've now bought a water proof cover to get it through the winter and dried it out with the dehumidifier Do you have the little rubber feet over the 2 prongs either side of the catch? I've not seen them do you have any pictures? or can you show me where I can find it on the Web Have you adjusted the rear clamps? I am not sure how you can do that. Any help would be appricated. Thanks Dai Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATM Posted March 25 Report Share Posted March 25 Ok so you sound like you're in a very similar situation to where I was 2 years ago. Before you get the full story know this - I'm still not sure if my hand top was leaking or not. So this winter I have not used my hardtop deliberately. The winter prior I did and I thought it was leaking, just like you. Now I am wandering if maybe the damp in the car was just condensing onto the underside of the hardtop and then trickling down to the front where the clamp is. So I did find some leaking sources which I have now fixed. Pollen filter - I had the plastic covers off and water was getting in through the pollen filter and then soaking the passenger footwell carpet. There are other potential sources for leaks for the passenger footwell so you need to get this dry asap. Door membranes - both sides. I had damp bottom sections of the door cards. I removed them both and brought them in the house to dry out. I then repaired the seal in bits aides using butyl tape. Damp behind the driver seat. You should check passenger side also. Mine was only damp on the driver side. It has taken a VERY long time to get this dry and it's almost there now. The foam under the carpet soaks up lots of water. In hindsight I think I should have removed the whole carpet. I may still do so. I have the driver seat out. I can then shove a dry towel though the hole in the carpet under where the seat was and get thus all the way back towards the bulk head. This them soaks water from the foam slowly. Over time the towels have been coming our less damp. Dehumidifiers - I have bought several from Asda and they are all over the inside of the car. I regularly dry off rhe rear screen too because I can see it collecting water droplets. During winter it is almost impossible to get the car completely dry but you have to try. Yours will be 10x harder now because there is damp in there already. If it was dry or dryer then only a little new damp would come in every day and be easier to manage. So my recommendation is to get the car as dry as possible now. If you believe the hardtop is leaking then remove it as I have and persiat with drying the car and fixing any current leaks you may have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATM Posted March 25 Report Share Posted March 25 Door mebrane Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATM Posted March 25 Report Share Posted March 25 1 hour ago, Dai986S said: Do you have the little rubber feet over the 2 prongs either side of the catch? This is without Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dai986S Posted March 25 Author Report Share Posted March 25 ATM Great insight!! I've just recently had to do the door thingy on my similar aged 5 series and previously on a 996 I owned. When I viewed the car with the soft top on the bottoms of the door cards were wet so this makes sense. I've got a Delongi Dehumidifier that I had running inside for at least 3 days and the carpets feel dry at least. like I said now I keep it parked up with a cover on it so at least its staying dry. Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATM Posted March 25 Report Share Posted March 25 1 minute ago, ATM said: This is without This is with Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATM Posted March 25 Report Share Posted March 25 1 minute ago, Dai986S said: ATM Great insight!! I've just recently had to do the door thingy on my similar aged 5 series and previously on a 996 I owned. When I viewed the car with the soft top on the bottoms of the door cards were wet so this makes sense. I've got a Delongi Dehumidifier that I had running inside for at least 3 days and the carpets feel dry at least. like I said now I keep it parked up with a cover on it so at least its staying dry. Cheers Double triple check everywhere. Then the question is where are the leaks? If the doors were wet this wasn't from the roof. I've seen a few threads recently on here with people getting leaks in passenger footwell from various places. Again possibly not the roof. If the car is dry then perhaps remove the hard top and leave it outside without the cover using the soft top. You need to know the car is staying dry with soft top before you can say the hard top is leaking. That's the last thing for me to do. I've also stripped the whole seal off my hardtop and reset / reseated it all. Not used the hardtop since then and still only just close to getting the car completely dry inside so any prior tests with the hard top on may have been skewed by excessive moisture inside the car already. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATM Posted March 25 Report Share Posted March 25 Rear clamps The two levers you use to clamp the hard top down onto the car are adjustable. There are 2 little triangular covers that pop off. Then you should see the fixings for the clamps. So you can adjust where they sit on the hard top. By adjusting them you can change the way the hard top clamps down onto the car. Both in terms of how far forward it pushes towards the front windscreen and also how far down onto the clamps shell. I was told it is best to do this with an assistant. So you loosen off the clamp fixing on one side, then your assistant pushes the rear window down and forward and holds this while you retighten. Repeat on the other side and again and again as many times as you see fit. That's how the rubber feet will help too. They will effectively pull the front of the hardtop seal down onto the car much tighter. If you clamp it on super tight I can't imagine a tear in the seal leaking. But that's just a guess. Mine isn't torn and I thought it was leaking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dai986S Posted March 25 Author Report Share Posted March 25 Thanks for the advices looks like I found my easter weekend jobs 😉 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATM Posted April 10 Report Share Posted April 10 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedBarediver Posted April 10 Report Share Posted April 10 1 minute ago, ATM said: Awesome. Good to know they're not expensive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zagamuffin Posted April 10 Report Share Posted April 10 One big tip, if carpets got wet no dehumidifier will dry the foam underneath , carpet has to come out fully . Never get it dry otherwise Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianJ Posted April 10 Report Share Posted April 10 Well worth checking the drains from the battery tray area in the front are clear, and also those under the clamshell in the rear. If blocked, any (or all) of those can result in water in the car. Just Google "986 Boxster roof drains" or similar - lots of help and videos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATM Posted April 10 Report Share Posted April 10 3 hours ago, zagamuffin said: One big tip, if carpets got wet no dehumidifier will dry the foam underneath , carpet has to come out fully . Never get it dry otherwise I have almost got mine dry now behind the driver seat after many many many months. Driver seat out. Keep shoving a dry towel down the gap between floor and foam towards rear bulkhead. Every couple of days I swap the towel for a dry one. Repeat Repeat etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norbert Posted April 10 Report Share Posted April 10 17 minutes ago, ATM said: I have almost got mine dry now behind the driver seat after many many many months. Driver seat out. Keep shoving a dry towel down the gap between floor and foam towards rear bulkhead. Every couple of days I swap the towel for a dry one. Repeat Repeat etc I removed the foam and installed a custom sound / heat insulation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
½cwt Posted April 10 Report Share Posted April 10 11 minutes ago, Norbert said: I removed the foam and installed a custom sound / heat insulation. What, you stripped the thick rubberised foam backing off the carpets?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norbert Posted April 10 Report Share Posted April 10 39 minutes ago, ½cwt said: What, you stripped the thick rubberised foam backing off the carpets?? I did but it wasn't a lot of effort, it was separated already. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dai986S Posted April 10 Author Report Share Posted April 10 Thanks for all the tips chaps. I managed to clean out the rear drain holes under the clamshell, to be honest I don't think they were blocked but the now run clear for sure. The bases of both doors are wet the passenger one is more towards the front of the door the drivers side is towards the rear, so next job when we have a clear day is door membrane. remove the door cards and see what condition the membrane is in. I've got the sticky stuff as this happened on my other german car of about the same age... Will keep you posted with how I get on. Cheers 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedBarediver Posted April 13 Report Share Posted April 13 On 4/10/2024 at 10:16 PM, Dai986S said: Thanks for all the tips chaps. I managed to clean out the rear drain holes under the clamshell, to be honest I don't think they were blocked but the now run clear for sure. The bases of both doors are wet the passenger one is more towards the front of the door the drivers side is towards the rear, so next job when we have a clear day is door membrane. remove the door cards and see what condition the membrane is in. I've got the sticky stuff as this happened on my other german car of about the same age... Will keep you posted with how I get on. Cheers Huh. I had my door cards off last weekend (changed to black ones) and I don't have any door membranes on the doors at all. I don't get water in through the doors so I guess that means the drain holes in the doors are clear. I guess I should look into getting some membranes just in case.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
½cwt Posted April 13 Report Share Posted April 13 2 hours ago, RedBarediver said: Huh. I had my door cards off last weekend (changed to black ones) and I don't have any door membranes on the doors at all. I don't get water in through the doors so I guess that means the drain holes in the doors are clear. I guess I should look into getting some membranes just in case.. You may (will) regret it at some point if you don't. They are integral to the design of keeping water out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul P Posted April 13 Report Share Posted April 13 Re the seal that’s a “kidney” for the hard top from Porsche. I am not familiar with the hardtop or the profile / shape of the seal but I just replaced the boot seal on wife’s car with one from these folks. https://sealextrusions.com/collections/automotive-seals-parts they appear to have a number of seal profiles on the shelf - and just perhaps there’s something in their catalog that would help. worth a call perhaps. ? No affinity. Just a happy customer for a seal for a daily driver. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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