When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Hey guys, quick question, I was checking my coolant level today and it seems to me that it is on the MIN line? Am I reading that correct? Service department at Porsche said nothing to worry about unless you get a warning on the dash. True? Or should I top off? Thanks
You are reading it correctly and about 50% of the folks on here will tell you not to worry and the other 50% will say top it off.
I'm in the "top it off" category. Get some appropriate coolant at a 50/50 concentration to distilled water and get the bubble right in the center.
You can pick up the correct coolant at any VW/Audi/Porsche service center but since it's a bit over an hour away from me I just go to Oreilly's and buy the Pentosin brand.
Use a flashlight and look into the coolant reservoir. If you see fluid, you're okay. However, I tend to fall into the top-it-off camp so I'll take a few minutes and add coolant.
Never occurred to me that I should check this as I’ve been dumbed down to wait for a warning light to appear. Now, for the first time in 8 months of ownership I checked and it appears (and someone please correct me if I’m wrong) that I am at the “minimum” mark. So does prevailing wisdom say minimum is ok? Should I wait for it to drop below minimum? (That doesn’t seem right). Do I add a little to get it halfway to MAX? (This way, if it’s losing fluid, I can see it before it drops below the MIN mark). How much fluid should one expect to add to bring it halfway from MIN to MAX?
I feel somewhat irresponsible that I’ve waited this long to check this.
Last edited by Tier1Terrier; 05-03-2021 at 09:17 PM.
Never occurred to me that I should check this as I’ve been dumbed down to wait for a warning light to appear. Now, for the first time in 8 months of ownership I checked and it appears (and someone please correct me if I’m wrong) that I am at the “minimum” mark. So does prevailing wisdom say minimum is ok? Should I wait for it to drop below minimum? (That doesn’t seem right). Do I add a little to get it halfway to MAX? (This way, if it’s losing fluid, I can see it before it drops below the MIN mark). How much fluid should one expect to add to bring it halfway from MIN to MAX?
I feel somewhat irresponsible that I’ve waited this long to check this.
I think you should add coolant/distilled water. For all you know it could be less than “minimum” in the reservoir. Last Wednesday, I was about a block from home, the rad fans up front went nuts. There was no error messages showing. I crawled home, and saw that the coolant temp was at the max. Once the car cooled off, I checked the coolant level and it also showed “min”. I ended up adding one litre of distilled water before the needle moved off the minimum mark.
My car is a CPO so an appointment has been made for Porsche to look it over this Thursday.
Question: where does the coolant go? I checked under the car and don’t see a leak.
Never occurred to me that I should check this as I’ve been dumbed down to wait for a warning light to appear. Now, for the first time in 8 months of ownership I checked and it appears (and someone please correct me if I’m wrong) that I am at the “minimum” mark. So does prevailing wisdom say minimum is ok? Should I wait for it to drop below minimum? (That doesn’t seem right). Do I add a little to get it halfway to MAX? (This way, if it’s losing fluid, I can see it before it drops below the MIN mark). How much fluid should one expect to add to bring it halfway from MIN to MAX?
I feel somewhat irresponsible that I’ve waited this long to check this.
I checked the .1 service manual, and didn't see a value for the difference between "Min" and "Max" for the red tank ball. Based solely on a seat of the pants guesstimate and experience in checking my '17 C2 .2 since I purchased it June 2019, if (big if) you are at the minimum, I think you may be somewhere in the region of 0.7-1.0 l below "normal" (ball sitting in the middle). Of course if the ball is sitting "at" min, who knows. Obviously this is a complete WAG. It would not however surprise me if Porsche, being Porsche, calibrated the Min mark as indicating "ze coolant ist vun Litre below ze Minimum! Ach du lieber!"
I have no visible leaks or pink residue below the water pump, but over the last two years I've logged a total of 450 mL of clean distilled water I've had to add to my tank. My guess is it evaporates as steam or micro-leaks in the system. I think a half litre over two years is within acceptable limits.
My technique is to measure out the amount in a graduated cup I stole from Mrs. Rich's kitchen (DON'T RAT ME OUT! ) and pour it in, 200 mL at a time, until the ball rests in the middle. But being a retired engineer with time on my hands, I am kinda OCD about this sort of thing.
Last edited by Rich_Jenkins; 05-04-2021 at 09:40 AM.
When you only add distilled water, you are diluting the total water/antifreeze ratio. Do it enough times and it can effect the freeze point of the antifreeze level, minimize the lubricant for the water pump etc. Like above I purchased the correct antifreeze fluid from an auto parts store and mixed a 50/50 mix in a battery service bottle. Marked the bottle with 50/50 antifreeze. Now when I need to top off, I have the correct mix ready to go. Also I found when I filled it to the full mark, it moves to the half way after a few days of driving. Now I just fill to the half way point and it seems to stay there for months.
I have added 1.2L to my .2 C2S in the past 10 months, 7k miles, including 3 track days. Planning on doing an early oil change and will ask the SA about coolant level dropping.
that float will rest at min to mean anything between min and empty correct? once it drops enough, assume some coolant warning will come up also. Seems we should not rest on min and always get to mid point.
02-03-2020, 04:56 PM
991.2 Checking Coolant level question
