Carpokes Porsche Forum

And so it begins...

There are a few hidden screws.
If you haven’t looked the PET may help locate some hidden hardware.
I haven’t looked at the dash illustration recently but just a thought.

My plan is to do a separate DIY doc somewhere on the whole dash removal process, but in the meantime, I'm going to keep a running list of things to do here.


I started by pulling the steering wheel. Make sure the tires are pointed straight so you can get the wheel back on straight when you're done. To get the wheel off, just pull off the horn pad on the non-airbag steering wheels. You need to really yank on it. The 'rarely' break and there's no other way to get them off.



Use a 24mm socket to get the nut and wavy washer off. If it's really tight, a helper to hold the steering wheel is a good idea. I use a big breaker bar and 6" extension, and just hold the wheel with one hand while cranking the nut off with the other. Once the nut is off, detach the spade connector for the horn in the center of the steering wheel.



The wheel attaches to the steering shaft with these splines. I've never needed a puller. Just pull the wheel off once the nut is removed. Bonus bar trivia: there are 40 splines.




While I was in the area, I pulled off the turn signal stalk trim. It's held on with three screws.




This trim piece as little flaps that trap the stalks. You need to work those free to pull the trim piece off the car.




Next I removed the sun visors on both sides. The clips have 2 screws each and the ball joint flanges have 3 screws each.



With the visors removed the front header panel falls off on its own, so be careful to remove the dome light connections and then the whole header panel can be set aside.






And here it is with the front header panel removed.

Next up, I pulled out the panel under the radio with my gauges and USB connectors....

Two long screws hole it in place (with 3D-printer spacers behind). The factory cubby just pulls out in contrast.


Left gauges in place and just unplugged them.


Put the label maker to use so I don't mix up the USB connectors.

Then the radio itself. Removing it reminded me what I nightmare it was adapting the wiring connectors....


Glad I stored these little removal tools in the center armrest compartment.



Way too easy to forget what goes where. 6 things plug in -- see next shot.





Inching one step closer....

Next up was the center console....


Started by disconnecting the battery since I'd be messing with wires that go to the DME/KLR, etc.



I have a custom panel in place of the ashtray. Need to remove the screws holding it down. On factory cars, the screws are shorter and under ashtray.


Then remove the 2 remaining screws holding the shifter surround trim in place. Pay no attention to the rat's nest of wires in the ashtray area. That's for my Speedobooster and knock counter, and will be something I need to clean up on reassembly. Most of the wires had color-coded connectors (way too many connectors really) but I also had to cut three wires that I hard wired in haste over the years (brown, grey, white/blue).


Getting the switches out is tedious. You need to squeeze these clips and push the switches from the top.




The fader wheel is different than the other switches; to remove it you need to pull the little clip away from this barb.



Once the buttons are removed and the screws are out, the shifter is the only thing holding it in place. To remove, just pull this clip off by hand, and pull the shifter up; the trim, boot, and shifter all come off together.



Shifter-less car....

And then finally the console itself....


At this point only 4 screws hold the center console in place. These two under the center armrest compartment...


And one on each side under the radio area....



And with that, the progress becomes more noticeable...

Slow but steady... Next up was cluster and vent surround piece....


This is all fairly well documented elsewhere, but vents/surround come out be removing these 8 screws.



With dash trim off, you can remove the 4 screws holding the cluster in place. And then reach behind the cluster to unlatch and detach the 3 edge connectors plugged onto the back of the cluster. Remember to put the trip reset switch (circled) back in its place when reassembling.





There are 3 edge connectors like this behind the cluster. Reaching back there is tight. Pull the levers out to unlatch them.



Little by little it's starting to look like I'm taking the dash out....

Nice work, dash removal is never a fun job. I am always a bit leery doing it on customer cars due to the fear of being blamed for some sort of squeak or rattle that may or may not have been there before the job. A DIYer who can do the job at home is at an advantage, because there is no time pressure and it can be done in stages.

The key is to take your time and take a lot of pictures as you are doing. The timing of this post is prescient as I just had to remove the entire dash from a customer 928 S4 to access and replace all of the HVAC vacuum actuators that @dr bob mentioned earlier. Thank goodness the 944 doesn't have all of that crap!

An interesting aside is that Porsche has a TSB dedicated solely to foam tape and other methods for attempting to fix squeaks and rattles---on the occasions that we have had to remove 996 ad 997 dashes for repairs, we often find a decent amount of foam tape on the underside of the dash, likely applied by a dealership during a warranty repair!

Thanks. And yes, at least no vacuum pods to deal with. I had MORE than my fill of those under the 450SL dash. And trust me, anything remotely able to rattle will get felt, foam, zip ties, Krytox, and whatever else I can think of to prevent creaks and rattles!

Modest progress today between painting bezels and making license plate mounts. I just pulled out the climate control unit, as I've done a million times....


The knobs all just pull off. Then you need to pick the faceplate off using a small screwdriver or even fingernails. It just has one tiny clip on each end holding it in place. (Which makes you wonder why it sits so tight and doesn't rattle.)



Then remove these 4 screws to free the climate control unit (after removing connectors from behind).



You need to pull these 3 connectors off the back of the climate control unit to get it out of the car. They are easier to pull off with the vent trim removed, as you can just reach in from above and pull them off.


A little closer every day.