dfinnegan

My car left me stranded in Manhattan today.

I drove in, parked at a garage, and when I returned to pick it up an hour later there was an Exxon Valdez spill under the car.

Ugh.

Back home, garaged, weeping and waiting for me to roll up my sleeves.

Thankfully it didn't dump on the road and drain the engine dry while I was driving!

Great stuff.

mbackhand

Sorry to hear that

ian89C4

I hope that is just an oil return tube or something simple like that. Good luck with the fix.

Rocket Rob

Dave - Sorry to hear that happened. Keep us posted on what you find, when you have a chance to investigate. I hope its something simple to repair. These cars hold a lot of oil. Any oil leak can create a large puddle quickly.

Wachuko

NNNOOOOOooooooo! I hope it was just a hose that let go while parked.

Keep us posted.

ducnine

Sorry to hear about your lose (of oil). Hope you can get it fixed soon.

The poor thing was probably pissed off at you for driving it in this cold weather :-)

dfinnegan

Pissed off is right, but it was due to 5 mos of NOT driving it; this weather or any! :-)

I've discovered oil drops in the drive where it stood shortly before I left home early yesterday. In a place where the car never stands. I drove 2 hrs with an hour of stop and go traffic.

Seems I've dodged a bullet.

I'll let you know what I learn when I get a chance to get under it, but it appears to be dripping from in front of the t'stat.

Cheers

Bearclaw

I've never had to get a car towed out of a parking garage. That doesn't sound like any fun.

Geoffrey

Ahh, but this is NYC, they do it all the time, however, not usually at the request of the owner

Bugeye

Oh no - I feel a kinship with my car's twin. Sorry to hear and best of luck - hopefully our cars are not identical twins!

Gregg-K

The thermostat area is a common place to spring oil leaks.

If you're lucky, the cause will be one of the small rubber hoses that connect the stat to the oil tank. If not, it would be wise to replace those hoses proactively, anyway ... they are readily available from Porsche and are cheap.

Alternately, it could be one of the hard line connections from the stat to the front cooler ... either one is cracked (or better) has come loose.

While you can see the various components without disturbing anything, do yourself a favor and first remove the shark fin and rocker panel molding ... it will be much easier to see what's going on. Also, get yourself a set of the plastic hardware for re-installing them, the fasteners have likely deteriorated, and it's not worth the hassle of messing with them.

Good luck!
... Gregg

dfinnegan

I've had a chance to look at things.

I cleaned up around the t'stat, added two qts of oil and started the engine.

As the engined warmed up a bit the oil level rose to about 2 o'clock on the gauge. Which means that I was only down a bit less than 2 qts. It sure looked like more under my car!!

After a bit the drip started. Though, I can't figure out the source. The drip is falling from the forward end of the oil tank seam.

The seam is visible in the image below. The drip is from the bottom front which is not visible in the drawing, but is along the bottom from item 14 toward the front.


oil tank



It drips down onto the curve of the body work. Then drips down onto the oil cooler line fittings where they connect to the thermostat housing.

I put a paper towel in around the bottom fitting (item #14) and found no leak.

I could find no leak around connects 2 or 2a.

Nothing running down from the level gauge access panel (item #10).

I suppose I could have a leaking tank!?

I guess I'm going to have to remove the tank and diagnose further.

Oh, and I have a couple of videos that I placed on YouTube. They show the actual drip which is just barely visible in the video. It looks like a very tiny flashing white light up near the forward end of the tank seam. Note that the videos are turned 90 degrees counter clockwise on you tube and I don't know how to fix that.

The second video shows the drip rate; This is after turning the engine off!

Leak
Drip Rate

jimq

WoW! Thats not a drip Thats a river
I hope you find its something minor.

dutchcrunch

my vote is gasket number 10 i belive the is the level sensor for the tank. if you change that gasket dont put the gorilla grip on those nuts when tightning back up cause you do not want to snap the studs

dfinnegan

Definitely not #10. Not 2 or 2a. In fact, it appears that it is not any of the hose connections. #14 has residue around it, but I'm fairly certain that it is not the source of that oil flow, as I wrapped it with paper towel and that failed to staunch the flow and showed just a faint hint of new oil.

I fear that there is a hole in the tank.

Looks like I'll be purchasing new lines in preparation for an oil tank removal.

I like the wrenching, but I'd really rather drive it. Really, I would.