I was leaking coolant so I took it in. Looks like my plastic coolant tank has a crack.

No worries a warranty repair.

All in all, my two current Porsches (986 and 996) have been the most trouble free cars I have ever owned. In all of these years of ownership I have only had to to make two unexpected repairs. A wheel bearing in the Boxster (not totally unexpected considering all of the track miles) and now the coolant tank in the 996.

These really are great cars!!

 

Yup - It's nice to have a car that's so low maintenance.

 

Ray,

Can you give us an idea on running/maintainance costs between the 986 and 996? Like on differences with oil changes or 15K or 30K maintainance costs between the two?

I have heard that the MAF on the 986 is so sensitive that it requires replacement more often than the 996. Is that true?

 

Under normal usage I suspect the maintainance cost between the two would be almost identical. My actual costs for the 986 are higher only because of all the R-Compound tires, rotors, pads, brake fluid, extra oil changes, and other track related expenses that I put into the 986.

As far as MAF's go both of my cars are on the original MAF's (8 years for the 986 and 6 years for the 996). Additionally, I have had the EVO intake on my 986 for over 6 years (through multiple filter changes) with no problems.

 

Ray, could you please consider sharing with us all the parts that are being replaced with the coolant tank repair/replacement? I'm thinking of taking action proactively now at about 45K miles on my '02.

 

+1
Should we be doing this as a preventative? 2000 with 43,000 - original tank.

 

I figure it'd at least give **** folks like us peace of mind. And I actually don't think it's too much $.

 

I'll try to get a part list from my dealer when I pick up the car.

 

I assume once the tank goes, you have to be towed to a shop?

 

Why would you want to fix a coolant tank that's not leaking? I can understand changing water pumps when timing belts are changed ($30 for pump and labor's already done), but why change the coolant tank?
Sometime's I read about failures on here and assume the failure rate is higher than it probably really is. I'd like to know what % of coolant tanks never fail. Mine has 80K on it.
I did have my water pump go at 60,000 miles. I was able to drive it to the shop w/o issue. I called my indy, assuming it was the coolant tank and he said it would be OK to drive as long as I was able to keep coolant in it. Temperature never rose, but then again, I didn't drive it far.

 

The M96 uses a timing belt?! and not a chain?

 

$115 or so from an online parts seller $250 at the dealer. 2 hours to replace the first time, 45 min the second time. On the 911s the trick is to remove the black plastic mount to get enough room to unhook the lines and twist the tank out. Be careful removing and replacing the sensor. Boxsters are a 100% pure bitch even for the pros. Watch the bottom of the tank. Look for fine cracks that then grow a white crust or just the crust itself. The tanks turn yellow as they age. Compare the plastic in the far edges of the mountings to the material of the tank. If you crack a tank, open the pressure valve to go into limp mode. The tanks are not "if" they are "when".

 

Thus the reason why, pat.

 

Service Manager tells me that coolant tank is NOT covered under CPO, but just under factory warrantee. Labor to replace is around 3 hours on the 996 - up to 6-7 hours on a Boxster. Anyone know if this is correct info??

 

don't know what the book rate is for the boxster, but i did mine in about three hours. i imagine the dealership could do it in less than two hours.