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Just had this happen to my 2013 991.1. Bought the car new, it has 43K on the clock and has always been serviced by a Porsche dealer. First instinct was to check the forum to see if this is a common occurrence, certainly seems like it is. Am a bit surprised that this hasn’t been covered by a recall for a safety situation, there have been recalls and campaigns for seemingly lessor issues. Or there hasn’t been a class action, we’ve had class actions for glare and mileage.
In over 45 years of owning countless cars I’ve never had a tail light fall out. And that includes cars and trucks that my kids did their best to abuse!
It appears that a new tail light is ~$750. As others have noted, if one side fails the other side could easily fail also. Consequently fixing the problem is $1,500 for parts. If you use a dealership you know that Porsche labor rates, which have always been high, are now beyond ridiculous, in some cases $350/hr. The fix at the dealer could easily be $2,200, parts & labor.
Almost done venting 😤
I’m going to report this as a problem on the NHTSA website. Then follow up with my dealer and Porsche North America. Will anything come from those actions? IDK. But it’s worth the effort IMHO especially if a lot of owners experiencing the issue do the same.
wow im scared to ever touch my tailights now. i did not know that this was a known issue with 991's. A couple months ago i had that reflector that is right beneath the taillights fall off. It was the rear driver side reflector that is in the bumper cover. i bought another one from porsche for like $31, and popped the new one right in. I have no idea what caused it to fall out though.
@OBG maybe thats why the taillights are pretty cheap compared to other Porsche parts. I always thought that $799 on suncoast for the clear tailights was pretty cheap compared to the price of tailights on other cars. It even comes with that reflector in the middle if you have a AWD car. Are the red ones more expensive?
Last edited by mikescayenne; 07-13-2023 at 09:08 PM.
wow im scared to ever touch my tailights now. i did not know that this was a known issue with 991's. A couple months ago i had that reflector that is right beneath the taillights fall off. It was the rear driver side reflector that is in the bumper cover. i bought another one from porsche for like $31, and popped the new one right in. I have no idea what caused it to fall out though.
@OBG maybe thats why the taillights are pretty cheap compared to other Porsche parts. I always thought that $799 on suncoast for the clear tailights was pretty cheap compared to the price of tailights on other cars. It even comes with that reflector in the middle if you have a AWD car. Are the red ones more expensive?
When I look at this part I don't consider $750 per unit as cheap or inexpensive. It's a plastic sealed assembly with minor electrical components. It's not a "wear" part, it sits in a static position. The design used to hold it in place is clever. However, the consistent failure mode noted by many in this forum (and who knows how many failures not documented) suggests a reliability and safety design flaw. IMHO, we spend too much money to purchase and maintain these cars for failures like this to occur.
Same thing happened to me about a week ago. The fail point was the small red tab that attached to the metal bracket which then attaches to the car with the two long screws. While the metal brackets are obviously well engineered, I believe the plastic tab is a design flaw. Luckily for me the broken portion was still in the metal bracket so was able to gorilla glue it back the tail light assembly.
Tail lights should never fall off of a car… PCNA should address this, no matter the age of the vehicle…
Just my two cents.
Last edited by ATL Fahrer; 07-16-2023 at 07:38 PM.
If everyone that had a taillight fall out and reported to appropriate government agency, that is the best that can be done. No action will be taken until there are sufficient complaints. Agree it is a safety issue.
I really think the failures are due to over tightening. Especially from dealerships or folks using air or electric ratchets. I have a 2013 with over 100k miles many bumper removals and the tabs looks solid. I could easily see a situation where someone cranks on these which break the plastic tabs. Obviously Porsche could have designed for this with a stronger plastic tab attachment.
Hello all - thanks for sharing this background; of course, my 2013 991.1 has experienced this same failure. The initial fix from lighting supplier, Hella, to fix these defective lamps was to add the metal reinforcement bracket shown earlier in this post. It sounds like they later may have removed the bracket, and just started using an adhesive between the black mounting & adjustment bracket and the red taillamp housing for added strength. Does anyone have any knowledge of what adhesive was used, or any personal experience with your lamps and what adhesive you used to 'glue' these back together? With plastics, it gets critical, as adhesives don't necessarily bond with all plastic grades (polypropylenes are particularly difficult to adhere to, and I believe the red
housing is a PP blend). Any experience with this repair that could be shared is MUCH appreciated - Thank You!
For selecting the proper adhesive: the material the taillight is made of must be stamped on it, for recycling purposes.
In the parts list following the illustration from the parts catalogue provided in the post of RPS911, you can find a "repair set" 991 631 925 00, viz. -926 00. Consists of bracket, screw and vent element. May be this serves for the repair.
BTW , to Wolpertinger: no, I do not have a Doppelkupplungsgetriebedrehmomentschlüssel, either.
But I believe, you just mean Porsche special tool no. 9768.
haha
Hate to join this club, but this happened to me yesterday morning. Came home to the tail light assembly being about half way out. My dealer, who is exceptional, Porsche Madison, was good enough to advocate for a goodwill repair from Porsche. That taillight assembly is over $1700 from Porsche. Yes, I'm aware there are cheaper ones online before any keyboard warriors HAVE to jump on that.
So, I want to reinforce the older side and make sure the new one is reinforced as well. Did anyone ever source where to find that metal bracket?
I think I would just glue it. Rough up both surfaces with some 60 or 80 grit paper. Clean with isopropyl alcohol. Then use a polyurethane adhesive. It's thick like a sealant. Shoe goo would probably work good, too. You want some flexibility to absorb shocks and vibrations.
I checked both today - thanks to this thread - I found a hairline crack in the bracket where the retaining screw for the black bracket goes in. It is a very fragile single point of failure
I used jb weld to glue the black bracket onto the light and went over the hairline crack
I really think the failures are due to over tightening. Especially from dealerships or folks using air or electric ratchets. I have a 2013 with over 100k miles many bumper removals and the tabs looks solid. I could easily see a situation where someone cranks on these which break the plastic tabs. Obviously Porsche could have designed for this with a stronger plastic tab attachment.
I don’t think it’s related to tightening of the light to the car
07-13-2023, 08:46 PM
991.1 Tail Light Fell Out
