Should I lose sleep over my coolant pipes?
 

Being a new owner I'm now obsessing about this blown coolant pipe issue. I've read the summary of the NHSTA report as well as the many threads on this topic. It seems that of the 20k+ affected cars/GT1 motors out there the failures happen most to tracked cars. Apparently the GT2/3s in the early 997 run had epoxy that was defect from the supplier. It affects about 7k of these cars. It seems, though hard to verify, that 996tts have had fewer failures. If I had one of these cars then I would do the pinning as soon as possible but it seems so much rarer for the 996tt

I've talked to two reputable independent shops and the both say they've only seen the issue on tracked cars and have only done a handful of preventative fixes.

So, I don't track my car and figure that I won't worry about it until I need too. But then I read about a new owner like Flohmann and I get freaked out all over.

A buddy has a 03 and wasn't aware of the issue until I asked him to ask his mechanic and now he's a little worried

At the end of all this is my question Has anyone figured out the odds of this happening?

I can sleep if it is 1:1000...

I'm on my second 996TT and don't track either and I lose zero sleep about this issue. You can scare yourself into just about any repair if you try hard enough.

If you aren't on the track and the pipes let go, pull over and have it flatbedded for a fix then. Very few of the cars that have had this happen actually led to any damage so stop worrying about it and enjoy your car.

Percentages mean nothing because if it happens to you all you care about is 1 in 1, right?

I talked to a local shop that has a Porsche cup car and does maintenance on high end cars of all makes, their statement was they see cooling failures on tracked cars rarely and have never seen a non track car fail. Of course take that as another opinion only all be it at least educated. I have low miles and do not track my car but if the motor ever comes out for anything I will have it pinned= but until I am not personally worried.

I don't track my 996 Turbo, and I lose zero sleep over its coolant pipes.

Happened to me. It is just an epoxy and time is your enemy. When it happens. Just pull over and have it towed engine will be fine if you shut it off when it happens.

well, you nailed it when you suggested that you're "obsessing" over it! lol.. but then i witnessed my buddy in here's car let go while up-hilling ( behind me thankfully! ack ) at a breakneck pace of 58 mph! LOL..so, anything is possible i suppose? and it may well come down to time + age + plus your particular car having had a good slop of that defective epoxy!

while my car has been tracked mercilessly and gone through a myriad number of VERY hot run heat cycles all paired with quite possibly overly obsessive yet *needed* ( 127,750+ ) maintainence? and the only thing i lose sleep over is my gf's yapping little lapdog. but epoxy letting go? not much.

( he says,.. fingers crossed lol )

Yeah, good times. What a day that was.
I've never tracked my car, but I did purchase it used (as the OP), so there's no telling whether or not any of the previous owners had tracked it.
One of the eight fittings gave way just as described above. It happened while not pushing that hard.

IMO, the time to have the fittings addressed is:

1) After one (or more) give way
or
2) The very next time you have the engine dropped for service

^ well, it worked out in the end. your car is virtually flawless now ;)

If you do not track the car do not worry about it.

For cars n coffee, don't worry about it. For track, it's a must do...

My car is used 90% for track and I did lose sleep until the fittings were welded.

My indy had a car come in the day before I brought mine and had 2 others during my fix. He bought a Turbo engine from a salvage and showed me were 2 or 3 of the fittings were already starting to back out.

for everyone who says not to worry about it for either track or show k=let me just say when i had my motor out i had a loose fitting. when i pulled the second 3.8 motor which had been opened up twice before and never had the fittings addressed the pass side fitting at the oil cooler fell out in my hand.
its just my opinion but i believe every water cooled engine porsche made with these fittings will fail. fix it and forget it

Eventually every part on every car will fail. You can spend a ton to replace and fix things before you need to or you can deal with things as they come. Odds are in his favor and if he ever needs any engine out work he can do it then.

Your heart might fail one day, as it does for a lot of people every day. You don't get a preventive transplant just because it might happen or because it has happened to other people.

Wise words.

agreed.