SINY993er

OK, I noticed my coolant light blinking the last time I drove the car. I parked the car, let it cool down and checked the coolant level. Needless to say, it was very low. What should I do now? Do I go to dealer, buy coolant, fill up the reservoir and then take it to my indy mechanic? I'm very new to the whole porsche thing...any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks

Anthony

gota911

You could top it off with distilled water and take it to you indy, or buy the CORRECT coolant for Porsches, top it off and take it to your indy.

You probably have 1) a leaking coolant tank cap or 2) the coolant tank is leaking. Both are known issues with 996 cars.

Make sure you post some pics of you car soon, or "some" of these guys will harass you unmercifully until you do.

Barn996

New cap for $25 is a good suggestion...then check to verify your coolant level is dropping. The plastic tanks are a known weak link.Mine is still ok after 10 years, but I did replace the cap 3 years ago and it solved my problem. Do a search, you don't have to use Porsche's coolant

jhbrennan

http://www.e-partssales.com/miva/mer...96WaterCooling

SINY993er

Thanks for the help....I'll have pics up this afternoon. Will keep you posted.

ivangene

for topping off I asked my indy what to use... he grabbed a bottle with about 2 cups left in the bottom and I said "can I have that" and he said, "It's yours"

Added some water to get the mix right and it was enough to top off.....Pays to show up with beer on Fridays

SINY993er

So, I spoke with my Indy, Protosport in NJ, who comes highly recommended and he suggested having the car flatbedded out to his shop. I mentioned that I was thinking of filling it up with porsche coolant and driving out there and he suggested against doing that, given potential to overheat and a host of other problems.

What do you guys think? It would save me about $175 in flatbed fees?

Dave!

That's incredibly over-cautious for what is 99% likely to be a leaky coolant tank/cap. Put some distilled water in it and drive.

Note: Last winter I got a new cap because I believed mine was leaking, the part number was something something .02. I got another a couple of months ago and it was a .04. They went through two revisions in under a year for the cap, and the mech at the dealer said they're just brutally over-complicated for what they do. Too bad it's not the cap, it's just a very small tank leak that rarely crops up. That's going to be fun to replace.

medtech

I don't know how cold it is out there right now, but your only issue would be the water freezing.

It's my understanding that regular distilled water is a far BETTER coolant than antifreeze. So theoretically as long as it's above freezing, you could fill the whole thing w/ distilled water and drive it to the dealer, no problem.

Recently mine was a little low, so I put in a bottle of RedLine Water Wetter, and distilled water. No problems.

So really the question would be how low is it? If the reservoir is just dry, add the Water Wetter, and some distilled, and then watch it to see if it drops.

C4CRNA

Make sure you don't have coolant in your oil.
I'll bet that's what the indy is thinking

Patrick E

Agreed. While the other posters are probably correct regarding the tank or cap, it's funny how you always think the worst when a coolant problem is mentioned (at least I do).

C4CRNA

Thats the first thing I would think of without the evidence of coolant driping out some where.

medtech

Good point ^^

Dave!

The thing is coolant will disappear pretty quickly so unless you see it leaking it can be easy to miss, especially since a tank leak won't really kick in until the car is just sitting there heat soaking (or at least that's what it was in my case). I've only ever seen the coolant leaking after I go back out about 5 minutes after a hot run.

It does have a pretty specific smell though, which you will smell.

Anyway! I wasn't worried about intermix because if you've gotten to the point where the coolant light is reading low without ever seeing smoke chances are it has just leaked out over the past couple of months. And it's not like we need any more alarmist posts on this forum.

BruceP

If it were me, the first thing I'd do (after checking the oil) is top up the coolant. The amount of coolant it takes to refill the system would tell me the size of the problem.

There is a lot of coolant in that car. An empty expansion tank is in itself not much cause for alarm. I've had that happen just from the cooling system burping after a refill. That warning light comes on a long time before you're in any real trouble.