I wanted to warn everyone of a potentially dangerous failure that can occur with the front towing eye mount on the S2/Turbo.
My front towing eye mount failed before Christmas when the car was being loaded onto a flatbed trailer, luckily it was on level ground and there was two of us able to stop the car rolling into the front of my home! So no damage apart from some slightly stained trousers!
I think that it was already damaged from a previous winching on to another flatbed trailer a few years ago when the car was removed from storage.
The mount is made from an aluminum block which is attached to the front impact bar, it features a DIN 405 Knuckle Thread (Rd 20 x 1/8) which is the standard thread size for the Porsche towing eye. The aluminium block on my car was badly corroded and snapped in two releasing the towing eye and winch cable.
I've been looking at options to replace it and so far, only have the following -
1. Replace with brand new - requires purchasing the entire front impact bar at around £500
2. Replace with used - around £150 (but then the aluminum could also be weak like mine)
3. Replace with an aftermarket solution, universal metal loop attached in the same place perhaps (e.g. Sparco)?
4. Engineer a new aluminum mounting block - requires the correct size tap to create a new knuckle thread (around 250 euros for the tap!)
I noticed on the rennlist 928 forum that owners there had been using a tap to clean up the towing eye threads on their cars, which got me thinking about creating a new mounting block for mine (in aluminium or steel).
Please be careful if you use your front towing mount and make sure the aluminium block is not corroded.
Would love to hear anyone else's ideas for a new front towing eye mount.
Pictures of my broken towing eye mount and hardware -
My front towing eye mount failed before Christmas when the car was being loaded onto a flatbed trailer, luckily it was on level ground and there was two of us able to stop the car rolling into the front of my home! So no damage apart from some slightly stained trousers!
I think that it was already damaged from a previous winching on to another flatbed trailer a few years ago when the car was removed from storage.
The mount is made from an aluminum block which is attached to the front impact bar, it features a DIN 405 Knuckle Thread (Rd 20 x 1/8) which is the standard thread size for the Porsche towing eye. The aluminium block on my car was badly corroded and snapped in two releasing the towing eye and winch cable.
I've been looking at options to replace it and so far, only have the following -
1. Replace with brand new - requires purchasing the entire front impact bar at around £500
2. Replace with used - around £150 (but then the aluminum could also be weak like mine)
3. Replace with an aftermarket solution, universal metal loop attached in the same place perhaps (e.g. Sparco)?
4. Engineer a new aluminum mounting block - requires the correct size tap to create a new knuckle thread (around 250 euros for the tap!)
I noticed on the rennlist 928 forum that owners there had been using a tap to clean up the towing eye threads on their cars, which got me thinking about creating a new mounting block for mine (in aluminium or steel).
928 Tow Eye Thread Clean-out Tap - Rennlist - Porsche Discussion Forums
928 Forum - 928 Tow Eye Thread Clean-out Tap - I am thinking about/planning, kind of, to have one or more of the clean out taps made to re-introduce the lending program that JP and some other of the guys conducted a few years ago that seemed to end with the Tap getting lost in Europe. I am...
rennlist.com
Please be careful if you use your front towing mount and make sure the aluminium block is not corroded.
Would love to hear anyone else's ideas for a new front towing eye mount.
Pictures of my broken towing eye mount and hardware -
