A/C went out last week with a hissing noise indicating loss of pressure. I just got it to the service place this morning and the SA looked over the front radiators and pointed to a couple of impact points that he thought could have caused the loss of pressure and noted that if that's the case, it wouldn't be covered under warranty.

Firstly, if this is true and even remotely common then this seems like a great advertisement for @RGS. But it seems to me that having the radiators so exposed to a place that's guaranteed to take tons of rock damage is poor engineering and, although it doesn't represent a parts or craftsmanship failure, does represent an engineering failure and should be covered under warranty. What does Rennlist think?

 

Depends what you think is common. If I had to guess then this occurs to less than 1% of Porsche's on the road but you will find posts on here about it. Covered under warranty? They'll laugh at you.

 

On the one hand, it must be rare, as many 911’s since the 996 have condensers up there in front, no screens, nothing to really protect them except for the radiators in front.

On the other hand, there’s nothing to protect the radiators and condensers!

I wonder what object must have made its way past the radiators and missed those coolant tubes and somehow hit the condenser tube. Any idea? Are you on any roads that are prone to debris of any kind?

Hopefully it’s not too expensive, a freak thing, and it never happens again.

 

Nothing broke through the radiators for sure. The fins definitely have some damage, but I couldn't tell if anything had punctured the radiator channels which is what I think he was saying happened? I'm not totally clear on the issue tbh. My car has around 5000 miles, but I live in Atlanta and our roads aren't great. My understanding is the northeast is much worse though.

 

i had a 2000 mustang that got a rock puncture in the backside of the oil filter. Even though it had a plastic shroud on the bottom, front and sides. also had a small piece of sand get stuck in the actuater on the side of the transmission that shifts gears on my wife's car. just enough that it did't fully go into gear. was drivable but had a warning message.

in short, random ****e happens.

 

Wow, looks like you were following a gravel truck on a dusty road! Those rads are beat up. Seriously, do you tail-gate on the highway frequently?

You'll never get a warranty claim on those. You should probably buy screens, however.

 

I doubt they tailgate on their adventures. I think that's what happens when you actually drive the car to places instead of just C&C down the street.

 

ill bet there's no leak in the radiators its leaking from somewhere else. they all get beat up, bent fins are no big deal you can straighten them to restore-airflow. carl

 

It looks from your photo like you either have a GTS, or the same optional front fascia, without the moveable slats that cover
the radiators at higher speeds in the base and S models.
I suspect that may be part of the issue.
Anyone else have similar thoughts?

 

@Tompoodie that's exactly what I thought when I rolled through this thread.

I'm not sure what speed the slats close up, but I would think a HVAC radiator should be able to withstand (unless the 1 in a 1,000,000 perfect strike) a rock or whatnot and hold up below those speeds (or that speed).

 

Boy -Sorry this has occurred!!!

But you are correct- let this be a lesson to all not to leave those areas unprotected.

 

FWIW the Air Conditioning Condensers are in front of the Engine Radiators. One “could” say the Air Conditioning Condensers “protect” the Engine Radiators.
In any case, impacts to an Air Conditioning Condenser do not need to puncture a tube. An impact of sufficient force can cause a fracture in the solder points where the tube(s) connect to the headers.
I would agree with Porsche that damage such as this is not a warranty item.
As almost all vehicles position their Air Conditioning Condensers, Engine Cooling Radiators, as well as: Engine, Transmission and Power Steering Oil Coolers in this location, I suspect the incidence of failures like this is probably no more common on our Porsche’s than in the vehicle population as a whole.

 

I drive pretty normally in a city where roads are poor and construction is common. A good bit of it probably occurred on the road trip when a semi truck in the next lane over dumped a couple pounds of gravel and concrete washout from its wheel well going over a bump. Obviously that didn't knock out the A/C months ago. The damage here all looks superficial to me. Unseemly, but superficial. Which is why it surprised me that the SA thinks this could be a problem; why would porsche put something fragile there with no active aero or anything really to protect it?

 

If that were true then why would we not see similar damage frequently on 986, 996, 987, 997, 981 and 991 with heat exchangers located in same location? Do not intend to argue with you but that is my thought. I have seen similar heat exchangers on heavily tracked vehicles which is understandable from catching tracks debris thrown up by others.

 

A/C condenser hit and subsequent leak happened to my 991.2 when debris fell out of a truck ahead of me. Out of pocket expense didn’t even ask about warranty since I knew the answer.

Got these for the GTS right after delivery.