I was working to fix some butchery a PO performed on my 928 today. They cut out a section of the spare tire well next to the battery box for some reason and just put a piece of steel on top of it. I was replacing it with aluminum sheet and was going to top it off with dynamat to reduce the resonance I am getting in the car. I shot a screw into the frame rail next to the spare tire well ,toward the back on the side, now I have a slow leak coming out of the frame rail, from the bottom, not where I shot the screw in, that appears and smells like antifreeze. I can't see any lines back there and checked the WSM's and don't see anything back there. Did I just make a really big mistake? Someone please let me know if there's something in there or if someone at some point maybe just spilled some antifreeze in there by accident!!

 

Could it be washer fluid?

 

I suppose that's possible, that might explain why it smells a little bit like antifreeze. Is there a hose or tank in the frame rail back there?

 

I'm not aware of any water-fluids that run inside the frame rails back there. I also can't think of how drilling a screw into a 'frame' section would cause a coolant leak in another place nearby. If the leak continues, grab a sample and give it the full sensory treatment to see if it really is coolant. Coolant tastes sweet, if that helps any. Just don't swallow or inhale too much and you'll be fine mr. president...

Fluid gather in low spots and cavities in the frame when you drive through water, wash the car, clean the undercarriage, etc. I'm not sure that there are any frame channels that are continuous from the front where the coolant is to the rear where there shouldn't be any. Ditto the washer system-- no nozzles there in the back, so no plumbing.

Keep an eye on the coolant levels, and also the brake fluid.

 

Thanks Bob, that's what I was hoping to hear. The only other thing I could think of is what you eluded to. The sunroof was a little low in the rear LH side when I bought the car a couple weeks ago and I'm thinking perhaps some water got by the seal on the sunroof and drained down into the body somewhere. I just drove the car around 50 miles and it didn't seem to be running much warmer than it has been, although I thought it may be a bit higher which was probably more psychological than anything. I'll be keeping an eye on the coolant level as you had suggested. It definitely didn't have the consistency of brake fluid. I drove it about 10 minutes from my house and then parked it and let it set for a couple minutes and didn't see any fluids so I think I'm okay!

 

Good news. For a while it sounded like you were pulling a PO stunt!

Enjoy!

 

How about some pics ...

 

Ask and you shall receive. I still have some finishing work and trimming to do on the aluminum panel.
http://forums.rennlist.com/upload/928_pics_056.jpg
http://forums.rennlist.com/upload/928_pics_058.jpg
http://forums.rennlist.com/upload/928_pics_059.jpg

You can see where the PO used expanding foam to seal it, I scraped it all off. The aluminum will get covered with Dynamat soon.

 

I wonder if rivets might have been better?

 

My intentions were to remove most of if not all of the screws after the silicone cures and fill the holes with another dab of silicone. The whole thing was butchered, so I couldn't make it much worse. Otherwise rivets definitely would have been the way to go.

 

Mike I suppose there may be coolant in the frame ...