[Miami Blue]

Hi All,

Took my car out of the garage yesterday evening after about 3 weeks and noticed the top of my head was touching the headliner. Initial thought was that the seat was somehow in the wrong setting. A quick visual inspection revealed that the headliner was sagging a lot. My car is a 2018 Cayman. Put into service in April 2018. I believe it was a Nov 2017 build and has about 15000 miles. The car is garaged so does not spend all its time in the Florida sun. The garage is not airconditioned but it is definitely cooler than outside.

Am bit disappointed that it only took three years of service to get a headliner sag. I have had this happen in my BMWs but that has taken many more years than this. A word of caution for you for the future to watch out for your 982s. I searched the forum and couldn't find many of these but i see that is normal in the 981s.

Will take to the local dealer for the warranty fix.

 

[Budget718]

...please keep us updated.

 

[Aronis]

Man that is a pain. I had that happen on my '03 RS6, but it was in 2014 or so when it started sagging, not 2005!!! WHAT THE ****!!! Hope you get that thing fixed correctly. I used a thin rib of wood to support it and fastened the wood slat on the side of the head liner. Looked ok. But on a four year old car......"fix it Porsche."

Mike

 

[Miami Blue]

I have an appointment set with the dealer for a few weeks from now (earliest available with a loaner). It would be under the warranty.

 

[Traum]

OMG I thought this only happened on the earlier cars! (ie. 981 and 987) For me at least, this is the first time I've heard of the headliner sagging on a 718.

Hopefully your dealership will set you right.

 

[GBS303]

Yikes, hope the dealer is able to solve the problem for you. This is the first I've heard about it happening on the 982's as well, though I suppose it's possible that they are just now getting old enough to have the issue.

 

[sobiloff]

Anecdotally, I notice that older cars driving down the highway often times have sagging headliners. My assumption is that all the wind buffeting around the back window slowly buffets the headliner away from the roof. This is one of the (several) reasons I prefer to drive on the highway with the windows up, but unfortunately all the track day organizations near me require windows down—and I'm going much faster on the track than the highway (although only for short durations). To increase my windows-down comfort, and hopefully reduce the strain on the headliner, I installed the AWE Mirror Wind Diffusers. They definitely reduced the wind buffeting at the track, and the audio from my Garmin Catalyst sounds better, too.

 

[JazzCatGab]

Anecdotally, I notice that older cars driving down the highway often times have sagging headliners. My assumption is that all the wind buffeting around the back window slowly buffets the headliner away from the roof. This is one of the (several) reasons I prefer to drive on the highway with the windows up, but unfortunately all the track day organizations near me require windows down—and I'm going much faster on the track than the highway (although only for short durations). To increase my windows-down comfort, and hopefully reduce the strain on the headliner, I installed the AWE Mirror Wind Diffusers. They definitely reduced the wind buffeting at the track, and the audio from my Garmin Catalyst sounds better, too.

I'm trying to reduce wind noise in the glasshouse during HPDEs and this may help, but the directions look daunting.

 

[sobiloff]

I'm trying to reduce wind noise in the glasshouse during HPDEs and this may help, but the directions look daunting.

It was an easy install, but I also didn't have to remove the door panel. I always get nervous removing plastic interior trim, but a nylon trim removal tool made it painless.

 

[JazzCatGab]

It was an easy install, but I also didn't have to remove the door panel. I always get nervous removing plastic interior trim, but a nylon trim removal tool made it painless.

That's good. I looked closer at the directions and it looks like something even I can do! Thanks. I'm trying to do some Hero camera recording during an upcoming HPDE and if I get my solo as I expect, I may only have to have one window down. BTW, with the HPDE in mind, did you by from AWE or Suncoast and how fast was the shipping?

 

[basenji7]

I have a 2017 718 Cayman S and my headliner has done the same thing a few weeks ago. Mine is out of warranty unfortunately. I've never had a headliner fail on a vehicle under 10years of age.

 

[CJA]

Re-line at a descent auto upholstery shop shouldn't be to bad.
Get a quote for a Jetta w/o sunroof first, then you have a baseline for the P cost.

Yeah - Jettas drop them a lot too, and I had one 100% replaced. Thinking it was $250-300 with a sunroof (more complicated).
3 years ago.

 

[Miami Blue]

Update: Had my service appointment today. The service advisor says it is a common problem. He indicated that even newer cars such a 2019 build came in for same issue.

 

[kenofstephen]

Hi All,

Took my car out of the garage yesterday evening after about 3 weeks and noticed the top of my head was touching the headliner. Initial thought was that the seat was somehow in the wrong setting. A quick visual inspection revealed that the headliner was sagging a lot. My car is a 2018 Cayman. Put into service in April 2018. I believe it was a Nov 2017 build and has about 15000 miles. The car is garaged so does not spend all its time in the Florida sun. The garage is not airconditioned but it is definitely cooler than outside.

Am bit disappointed that it only took three years of service to get a headliner sag. I have had this happen in my BMWs but that has taken many more years than this. A word of caution for you for the future to watch out for your 982s. I searched the forum and couldn't find many of these but i see that is normal in the 981s.

Will take to the local dealer for the warranty fix.

my cayman is having the same issue, same 2018 model manufactured in 2017, so sad, how to fix?

 

[Arne]

Welcome to the modern world of low VOC adhesives. Far more common across many makes that we realize. My Cayman is still under factory warranty through May 2023. I expect headliner failure sometime after that...

 

[gatorfast]

Same thing happened to my 718 earlier this year. Headliner was replaced under warranty and my SA did mention it was a common issue.

 

[kenofstephen]

Same thing happened to my 718 earlier this year. Headliner was replaced under warranty and my SA did mention it was a common issue.

unfortunately, my wife's car has been 5 yrs old and out of warranty.
I shall probably take her car for the below Alcantara mod which my friend has done to his Cayman.

 

[sheltie mom]

My son's garaged 2017 Cayman with 9,000 miles had the roof liner come down also. The 2001 BMW 325i has this problem too but didn't develop it until after 15 years, more miles and significant sun exposure. The Cayman is out of warranty and he just had the liner replaced. Was charged $3,000. Ugh

 

[gatorfast]

$3k wow! That is crazy expensive. Even if out of warranty, its upsetting to hear that Porsche is not covering the replacement as a "goodwill" gesture. I mean a 2017 model year car is only a maximum of 6 years old and obviously outside of abuse it is certainly not normal or common for the roof liner to collapse. This is not normal wear and tear.

 

[sheltie mom]

I didn't think so either and felt the dealer took advantage of my son being a very busy young professional. The car wasn't even purchased until November 2018. The dealer offered to buy it back for $10,000 more than my son bought it for. But then what are you going to buy next that doesn't cost more? I saw on the Porsche website the materials cost about $1300. Sometimes it is very difficult and time consuming to get satisfaction. I have a 2013 BMW 135is with a 6 speed manual transmission that failed at 50,000 miles. That shouldn't happen either and the dealer wouldn't do anything and I even contacted BMW directly. Nobody cares anymore.