fester

I have about 9K miles on my '13 C4S - I was driving back to work after running an errand and noticed more engine sound than normal while at the traffic light. When I checked the engine temperature, instead of 194F coolant it was over 240F (close to red zone, see picture). This happened once before but as I restarted the car, it went away, similar to yesterday.

I'm very worried about this intermittent heating issue.... what if I don't notice and engine breaks down or even catches fire!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have appointment on 6/2...I guess will find out more...

Anyone had similar issue??

Noah Fect

Strange. With the "louder" engine sound I'd guess there's a lean burn condition due to a leak somewhere, but it hardly seems possible that it wouldn't throw an OBDII code and light the CEL.

fester

When I had this issue for the first time, it was right after the first oil change on my way back from the dealership , I noticed strange (jet engine like) noise, noticed temp creeping up and called the dealership workshop manager immediately. They were closing their workshop, yet he stuck around for me to drive back, hooked it up to the computer (car had gone to normal temps) to look for the fault ...NOTHING!!! That was at around 3K miles... 6K miles later (at 9K) now this got repeated. I really hope it's a thermostat etc issue at they can fix quickly!!

chuck911

Please, gentlemen, lets stop this nonsense about the temp guage actually working as a, you know, temp guage. Accepted wisdom around here is that since it reads a steady 194 at the track it must be an idiot gauge. I've tried explaning about thermal mapping, excess cooling capacity and all that to no avail. But if you guys keep talking about readings above 194, well its just no good, see?

Meanwhile, back in the real world, either coolant is low, or there's a fault somewhere in the thermal management system. All simple fixes and nothing to worry about. Well, I'm a little worried about the guys who might still insist its an idiot light. But seriously, to put things in perspective, before water cooling and thermal mapping made things so ultra-stable that people actually started believing a temp guage is an idiot gauge, these things were air-cooled, temps fluctuated all over the place, and they still ran for 200k+ miles.

The noise you heard was probably cooling fans ramping up to speeds you wouldn't normally experience this side of racing at high noon across Death Valley. Not something you want to continue very long, but as long as they get it fixed, nothing to be overly concerned about either.

Now about that idiot light showing numbers greater than 194....

LexVan

Fester, as a side note, don't get into the habit of running your fuel so low. That's tough on your fuel pump since it is contained in the tank, and uses the fuel for cooling.

Noah Fect

Chuck, the way the water temp gauge works, it will show a steady 194F unless the temperature goes above 221F. At that point it will start reporting "real" numbers again. This is more or less clearly explained in the service information book for the 981-generation Boxster, and it says it's the same system that the 991s use:



I drive around in Sport mode all the time, so I never see anything but 194F on the gauge, given that it runs far below the 221F normal operating temperature in that mode.

fester

Interesting - I didn't know that, thanks for sharing. I typically don't let the fuel to get to low reserve levels -- there have been incidents with others where C4S stalled and stopped with gauge still showing fuel in the reserve....well, all in all, couldn't agree more what you're saying.

LexVan

There's something in the owner's manual about no full throttle accelerations when the fuel light comes on. Or at least it was on the 997 series. Haven't read much of the 991 manual yet.

fester

hmm... I wonder if that's related to my overheating issue!!

LexVan

I doubt it. But worth reading the owner's manual a little bit more. Myself included.