An absolute must read for all 997 Cabriolet owners

[voltairesb]

A short but very intense rain storm a week ago was a painful but important lesson for me and all other cab owners out there. The 997 is every bit as at risk as old boxsters were to severe and expensive water damage from clogged drains. And i'm not talking about the easy to clean cowl drains adjacent the battery in the front, i'm talking about a set of completely hidden, all but unknown drains for the rear.

For the 997, porsche devised a system of drip trays which run against the inner walls of the car, down into a 15mm x 250mmx400mm tray behind the driver and passenger seats (below the carpet insulation) and out a set of narrow drain tubes into a cavity between the body and the plastic inner fender. Silt and other road grime accumulates in a "cake" about 1 inch x 7 inches in this space and can get thicker and thicker as silt deposits.

I had my yearly convertible maintenance done (this is the only place porsche mentions drains, and then, not specifically) one year ago and when my Dealer disassembled my car to begin repairing and replacing the rear control module, they found that cake to be about 6 inches tall. My dealer went round and round with PCNA for about 4 days before Porsche stepped up and did the right thing and decided to pay for it.

But here is the word to the wise. My car is garaged, driven apps 5-6k miles a year, and washed 2x a month, and I never knew this problem existed. My car has been in the dealer for 2 oil changes, and a new clutch, and both seats have been out for a pesky problem with the lumbar support. At no time in any of this work did it occur to them, or become obvious to them, that cleaning needed to be done. So i suggest everyone add this new step to their quarterly cleaning. 4 times a year, take your rear inner fenders off, clean the accumulated silt, and blow that drain hose out with an air hose, lift up the rear carpets and make sure the drain pans are clear.

I'm going to get pictures from the dealer so you'll be able to see what i mean.

best of luck to everyone!

[Elite1967]

Hi,

thanks for the advice.

I could not understand properly where this cake accumulates.

Is it behind the back inner fenders? Or elsewhere?

thanks

[voltairesb]

The dirt accumulates between the plastic inner fender and metal inner fender.

[fastm3]

Unfortunately I saw your thread a few days too late. I now have a considerable amount of water in the drivers side footwells, both front and rear but mostly rear. In addition, the electronics modules are acting strange as well. The spoiler, convertible top, and switch to open the trunk all don't work, and I'm getting System Fault messages as well. I'm hoping once everything dries out, the electronics will start working properly again, but I might be overly optimistic on this. Any idea which module could be damaged?? Obviously one that sits in the area under the driver's seat.

So in addition to the 2 or 3 drain holes in the battery compartment that drain underneath the front fender, there is one that drains from the rear of the convertible top to the rear fender, correct? I'm going to try to look for all these drains later on today. If you had some photos, they'd be extremely helpful. Thanks.

[Lelan Stice]

You need to remove the drivers seat ASAP and take out the rear control module under the seat. If your luck you can blow it out with compressed air and possibly save the module. If not lucky it will have to be replaced.

[ronmart]

A short but very intense rain storm a week ago was a painful but important lesson for me and all other cab owners out there. The 997 is every bit as at risk as old boxsters were to severe and expensive water damage from clogged drains. And i'm not talking about the easy to clean cowl drains adjacent the battery in the front, i'm talking about a set of completely hidden, all but unknown drains for the rear.

For the 997, porsche devised a system of drip trays which run against the inner walls of the car, down into a 15mm x 250mmx400mm tray behind the driver and passenger seats (below the carpet insulation) and out a set of narrow drain tubes into a cavity between the body and the plastic inner fender. Silt and other road grime accumulates in a "cake" about 1 inch x 7 inches in this space and can get thicker and thicker as silt deposits.

I had my yearly convertible maintenance done (this is the only place porsche mentions drains, and then, not specifically) one year ago and when my Dealer disassembled my car to begin repairing and replacing the rear control module, they found that cake to be about 6 inches tall. My dealer went round and round with PCNA for about 4 days before Porsche stepped up and did the right thing and decided to pay for it.

But here is the word to the wise. My car is garaged, driven apps 5-6k miles a year, and washed 2x a month, and I never knew this problem existed. My car has been in the dealer for 2 oil changes, and a new clutch, and both seats have been out for a pesky problem with the lumbar support. At no time in any of this work did it occur to them, or become obvious to them, that cleaning needed to be done. So i suggest everyone add this new step to their quarterly cleaning. 4 times a year, take your rear inner fenders off, clean the accumulated silt, and blow that drain hose out with an air hose, lift up the rear carpets and make sure the drain pans are clear.

I'm going to get pictures from the dealer so you'll be able to see what i mean.

best of luck to everyone!

Thanks for the heads up! I hadn't heard of this one, but I'll be contacting my dealership to make sure I don't get burned by this on my 2006 C4s Cabriolet

[Chad_Pgh]

I have a related water issue on my '08 C4 Cab...I just noticed my passenger footwell area is soaked under the carpet (the foam pads), noticed this while removing my bose subwoofer for some new trim. I noticed the AC drain tube is in tact, but it terminates under the car with a grommet attached. There is noting on the other end....however after looking at PET I noticed they show a J-shape "connecting piece" (part #996 573 797 02), which I apparently don't have connected..Has anyone else noticed they have this connecting piece? Is it possible that if mine fell off that the force of driving could allow water to accumulate there? I did notice the drains under my cowl area were blocked up a couple months ago, I cleaned them out - so it's possible it's still wet from water finding it's way into the cabin??

[229golfer]

Hi Guys. I am new at this. Did anyone get any pictures, I have a 2006 c4s launch car, want to do all preventative maintenance. Please post pics if you have them.

[NaijaBerry]

Several years on and this remains a very real damage threat. I was literally scooping out water in the rear foot well any time the car was washed or there was a slight downpour. Even with the car covered the water would still find is way in there somehow. So I removed the rear wheels and the plastic lining under the rear wheel arches, I couldn't believe how much dirt was in there, the drains were totally blocked! I pulled it out and cleaned it up and there has been storms with the car uncovered and not a single drop inside.

 

It would be a good idea to check this at least once a year, it's a very small drain for what clearly is a major drainage. See the cleaned out plastic drain with a flexible rubber cover below...

 

 

[ronmart]

1 hour ago, NaijaBerry said:

Several years on and this remains a very real damage threat. I was literally scooping out water in the rear foot well any time the car was washed or there was a slight downpour. Even with the car covered the water would still find is way in there somehow. So I removed the rear wheels and the plastic lining under the rear wheel arches, I couldn't believe how much dirt was in there, the drains were totally blocked! I pulled it out and cleaned it up and there has been storms with the car uncovered and not a single drop inside.

 

It would be a good idea to check this at least once a year, it's a very small drain for what clearly is a major drainage. See the cleaned out plastic drain with a flexible rubber cover below...

Did Porsche 

 

This is great, thanks but I"m disoriented as to what I'm looking at. Can you zoom out a bit for more context?

 

Is that some type of control module in the wheel well? Seriously? 

 

I suspect one reason why I haven't been impacted by this yet (knock on wood) is that I only drive my 911 on sunny days. 

 

 

[NaijaBerry]

58 minutes ago, ronmart said:

 

This is great, thanks but I"m disoriented as to what I'm looking at. Can you zoom out a bit for more context?

 

Is that some type of control module in the wheel well? Seriously? 

 

I suspect one reason why I haven't been impacted by this yet (knock on wood) is that I only drive my 911 on sunny days. 

 

 

 

This should give a clearer picture, I have no idea what the control module is for

[Richard Hamilton]

Tyre pressure monitoring is my guess.

Edited October 6, 2016 by Richard Hamilton

[jl-c]

I was going to guess brake pad sensor or ABS sensor but tyre pressure may well be the answer! It says BERU on it I think?