All three fans (2 radiator, 1 engine) kick on every time I drive. Weather has been in the 70's mostly. Rad fans kick on when temp gauge hits the zombie mark (between 180 and 250), which is usually 5-10 minutes into the drive on suburban roads (no stop-n-go).

This is not a new development. Right off the showroom floor it always ran closer to the 225 tick than the 180 tick. Dealer always said "Don't worry about it."

My indy says "hey the fans kick on, so not to worry." Oh really now. Shut the car off and those fans stop, so the baking continues.

I won't even get into determining the *actual* coolant temp, since Porsche decided that's not something a performance car owner should know beyond an inaccurate dummy gauge. The 6c trick is cool, but why hide it?

On my to-do list: find (or build) a guage that displays that 6c digital temp. (including history, like the cpu graph on computers). The hardest decision (sic) will be to get rid of those critical cassette holders to make room for the actual temperature gauge.

 

Do you consider the temperatures accessable through the climate control unacceptable? A few taps of the right buttons and lots of temperatures are available.

 

Jon- thanks, I'll try it to see if it stays visible all the time after you do the key sequence, convert from celcius whatever. I've done it once (long time ago), but I just assumed it would be like texting while driving, ie. you'd have to redo the key sequences every time you want to see it.

 

Just curious why you are tackling all these problems after all this time?

 

Because it's my only vehicle now, and because I have more time to spend on it.

 

Gotcha. So just to be clear, you had this issue since you bought it new in '99/'00?

 

I did the climate control display this weekend. Once I set it up and left it on it stated there even after starting and stopping the car, taking key out, etc. I watched it for a couple days for fun.

 

Yes, this issue (among others) existed when I bought it new in late '98.
The gauge thing started p*ssing me off when friends/family "advisors" would ask "what temp. is it running?", so then me reading the manual and forced to conclude "I don't know WHAT that middle 3/4 mark is, and I'm not even certain those 2 numbers (180, 250) go with those other 2 marks", coz the manual is not clear about that.
So now that I've earned my Porsche education (takes a few years), I feel I may want to do something about it, ie. lower thermostat, 3rd rad, etc.
Also, the unexpected depreciation hit over the years means I'll be keeping it more years than I otherwise would have.

 

dg- thanks that's good news.

 

Clean your radiators

 

ch- thanks, yes I'll clean the radiators later this week while I'm in there replacing master cylinder. Radiators look spotless, but I guess you have to take them apart, debris gets in between <whatever the sections are called>, per some excellent youtube video I saw.

 

How old is the water pump, thermostat, coolant and serpentine belt?

 

All original (25k miles) - water pump, thermostat, coolant and serpentine belt.

 

Time for all to be replaced.

 

Get yourself a $20 Harbor Freight IR thermometer and take some readings to verify the data you get from the car.