Philag

Morning, fellas.

Yesterday evening was rough...

I picked up a friend for the Rockets game and as I approached a stop light, I noticed the "check coolant" indicator on the dash. When I came to a stop, I noticed steam from the engine bay. I cursed and shut her down.

Got it towed to my mechanic that I use for my other vehicles since he was only two blocks away and left it overnight.

I'm pretty sure I didn't drive very far after the alarm as I only saw a short trail of fluid behind the car, but within a minute of turning the car off, there was a puddle underneath. Lost all fluid in the reservoir. Fluid sprayed all over the engine bay. I haven't had a chance to take a god look at it since it was getting dark and I needed to cool off. I'm hoping its just a busted coolant line, but for all of the fluid to discharge, I'm wondering if the reservoir is compromised...

Any ideas what might've caused this?? Suggestions? Should I be concerned with anything else after this episode?

Thanks.

emtee49

Sometimes the expansion tank is the culprit. Evidently, it's pretty common and not a huge deal. Hope that helps.

RJHerrmann

Vote 1 for expansion tank, vote 2 for expansion tank cap. I had the latter happen when I noticed a white steam cloud behind me when I was driving. $25 fix, plus coolant.

Philag

thanks, guys. Mechanic just called and said a couple of lines were loose. I'm guessing a combination of age and crappy clamps caused this. Should I consider replacing the tank?? The tank appears to be in good shape, its still white, not yellow.

RJ, I will be installing the updated cap today.

Joe Ricard

Pressure test all of it.
It is my goal to replace all the factory tension clamps with real hose clamps. Dang there are lots of them.

Sneaky Pete

I had a water hose spring a leak while waiting for valet parking at St Elmo's in Indy. Great Steak House with shrimp cocktail sauce so hot it burns your nose hairs. Parked the car for the night, went back in the morning and pulled the bad hose, went to Autozone for a similar sized hose and I was back on the road.

It could be the expansion tank or a hose. Good time to climb underneath and check for spongy hoses.

Macster

I'd replace the tank only if a careful inspection spotted signs the tank was leaking. The most common place is from a crack/split that appears to arise from the mold seam at the bottom of the tank. This leak is funny in that early on it only opens up enough to let just a bit of fluid out but only when the engine/coolant is fully up to temperature and the shut off engine heat load raises the coolant temperature and pressure.

What you can do is after the hoses are fixed and the coolant level is topped up and you have a new cap installed on the tank, drive the car around until the engine/coolant are fully up to temperature. By this I mean you should drive around enough in town that the radiator fans come on.

Then at home raise the engine RPMs to say 1500 and hold until you or a helper notes the radiator fans come on. Then shut off the engine.

The heat load of the engine will raise the coolant temperature and pressure and if there is a weak component in the cooling system, in this case the tank, you'll know it. But it could be another hose/clamp or even a radiator.

Be careful. The coolant is very hot -- 212F (and in places much hotter) -- and under some pressure. Don't go shoving your face in close to any place hot coolant get get to you if something lets go.

Philag

Thanks, Macster. Great recommendation on the test.

I'm reading different opinions on which coolant to use. Would you recommend purchasing the coolant from Porsche dealer/Suncoast? Or can I just use Peak Lifetime or similar from my local autoparts store?

Sneaky Pete

Don't mix coolants...they have different grades. The pcar coolant is made by Pentosin. If you google you will find that O'Reilly's has it.....or get it from Suncoast or a dealer. What color is your coolant. Yellow or pink? Pink is the newer version. Whoda thought coolant could be so confusing.

Philag

Mine is yellow. I've read that the yellow and pink are compatible.

Macster

To avoid any issues from incompatible anti-freezes being mixed or using one that doesn't have the additives that the Porsche water pump/seal require, I have always used Porsche coolant. I bought a jug years ago just to have on hand and still have some left. Obviously, I've not had to use hardly any at all.

If the system gets low there's a leak and I get the leak fixed and the coolant changed/replaced with fresh after the leak is repaired. Then I just drive the car and the coolant level doesn't change until the next leak.

If I have to top up the fluid I just use distilled water. For instance some years ago the tank was low, the light was on, and I added distilled water, about a gallon. Since it doesn't get that cold here the engine was not at risk of freezing. Then when the level went low again, in around a month, and I finally determined the cap was at fault, I just added another nearly one gallon of distilled water and put on the new cap. The leaking cap only let water vapor escape not any anti-freeze, so in both cases just adding water didn't dilute the anti-freeze just brought the ratio back up to proper mix of anti-freeze and water.

Another time when the coolant tank of my Boxster finally let go and gushed hot coolant to the ground and I had to add "coolant" I just dumped in a gallon of distilled water the next day after everything had cooled down overnight then drove the car to the dealer and got the tank replaced and fresh coolant added to the system.

Same thing when I had the water pump replaced. Replaced the coolant. Same thing when I lost a radiator. Had the coolant replaced.

For the Turbo, the same. When I had the water pump replaced I had the coolant replaced. And more recently when the radiators were replaced -- all frickin 3 of them! -- I just had the tech replace the coolant.

Except in cases where there is a leak I never add coolant. Now maybe the techs add coolant when I take the car in for service -- so far I haven't been told they have had to add coolant and I think they'd mention it because my info is having to add coolant is a sign there's a leak -- but of course if they do add coolant they use Porsche anti-freeze blended with distilled water, the same stuff they replace the coolant with when they do a coolant drain and refill.

Philag

Good news, folks.

Post repair: I got a call from my mechanic earlier saying it was idling really rough after a cold start. And temp was rising above normal operating temp.

I stopped by about an hour later to go over the issues. After reading some posts with similar issues, I was hoping for wet coil packs. Maybe they weren't completely dried. He was thinking I may have busted a head gasket, yada yada yada...Durametric threw codes for misfire in cylinders 1 and 3.

Long story short, we started it and let it idle for about 5 minutes. It idled just fine; temp was good. Cleared codes and I went ahead and drove her around the block with no issues. We called it good.

After the coils experienced a significantly higher temperature, is it pertinent to go ahead and have them replaced? Anything else I should keep a close eye on or go ahead and replace?

thanks for the input, fellas. This site truly is a great source of information!!

Philag

Macster

The misfires probably arose from the drenching the engine received from the coolant leak. The engine didn't get hot enough for the coils to be damaged or you'd be seeing misfires (or worse) all the time. In fact the slightly elevated temperature probably worked to more thoroughly dry the coils.

Misfiring when damp is not unknown. My Turbo has misfired upon cold start now several times after being left out in the rain, heavy fog, and once after being washed after servicing and then being left to sit "damp".

This misfiring is a sign the coils are due to be changed.

However, old habits die hard and the last time I had my car in for plugs instead of just requesting the coils be replaced at the same time I fell back to my usual behavior and I let the tech know if he spotted questionable coils to just replace all 6. After the plugs were in and we were talking he said the coils looked just fine, but the engine misfired a bit after I picked it up and drove it away. This was from the car sitting after being washed a day or so before I picked the car up.

In hindsight I should have just had the tech replace the coils but I didn't. Next time I have the car in for something I'll have the coils replaced. I do not think I'll wait until the plugs need doing.

Up to you what you do. An argument could be made that misfires when damp is a sign the coils are degraded. I would have to say I would find it hard to mount a strong case against this argument.

Thus my recommendation would be to replace the coils, even though they are not currently misfiring.

Give the engine a good check for any signs of coolant leaks, and this includes where the hose fittings are in the block and around the water pump and the radiators, and well, you get the idea.