Anybody made a Spoiler Indicator Light?

[navin in KC]

I saw this on Porsche Pete's Boxster board:

http://wa4ekg.home.att.net/996images5/FWLswmod2.html

I thought I was good with electrical stuff, but I get lost at the end of the instructions:

"...will be routed to the instrument cluster where it will be spliced with the piece of cut GREY/BROWN wire of one of the cluster's electrical connectors..."

jeez, does this mean I have to remove the instrument cluster?

At this point, I am asking myself again, do I really want to know if/when the spoiler is up?

Anybody gone through this?

thanks,

navin

[Loren]

I saw this on Porsche Pete's Boxster board:

http://wa4ekg.home.att.net/996images5/FWLswmod2.html

I thought I was good with electrical stuff, but I get lost at the end of the instructions:

"...will be routed to the instrument cluster where it will be spliced with the piece of cut GREY/BROWN wire of one of the cluster's electrical connectors..."

jeez, does this mean I have to remove the instrument cluster?

At this point, I am asking myself again, do I really want to know if/when the spoiler is up?

Anybody gone through this?

thanks,

navin

Sandy (the author) is a contributing member here. :thumbup:

[Sandy]

I saw this on Porsche Pete's Boxster board:

http://wa4ekg.home.att.net/996images5/FWLswmod2.html

I thought I was good with electrical stuff, but I get lost at the end of the instructions:

"...will be routed to the instrument cluster where it will be spliced with the piece of cut GREY/BROWN wire of one of the cluster's electrical connectors..."

jeez, does this mean I have to remove the instrument cluster?

At this point, I am asking myself again, do I really want to know if/when the spoiler is up?

Anybody gone through this?

thanks,

navin

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sorry for the confusion Navin. I came up with that mod. back in '01 because some 986 owners were interested in knowing at all times when their spoiler was extended, rather than just relying on the red spoiler warning (disagreement) light to tell them it wasn't up above 70 m.p.h. There's really no need for it in a 996 coupe because you can see the spoiler through the rear window. I'm not sure if that's true with a 996 cab.

I activated the amber LED in the FWL switch on my 996 coupe to monitor my spoiler, only because I had designed my own type of FWL circuit, which didn't require the LED.

The step you were questioning referenced the wiring diagram I included on my site. It shows that if you want to monitor the spoiler, you need to cut the GREY/BROWN wire (spoiler extended) and tap into it through the isolation diode for the amber LED's operation. The FWL switch's contacts can be used for toggling the OBC, or manually operating the spoiler, depending upon what your needs are and how you wire it up. As you can see in my photo, I already had a separate 996TT spoiler switch on my panel for manually operating my spoiler. I also didn't need the FWL switch for my OBC, because I took delivery of my 996 with the OBC stalk installed.

I will probably tear my site down, because there really is no need to modify a FWL switch to get a switch with "non-descript" graphics that has its switch contacts isolated from its nite-lighting LEDs. I figured out soon after I came up with my mod that you can put a FWL switch toggle (cap) onto a 996TT spoiler switch body and get the same arrangement. You just have to paint over the clear lens on the FWL switch toggle, or deactivate the LED beneath it (on its PC board)

Hope this helps, but if you have additional questions, ship me an e-mail.