has anyone experienced a cooling failure with a 997.1? I had a massive system failure with coolant spilling onto the rear brakes and rear tires. Lost traction

 

you sure its not just a cracked overflow tank?

mike

 

It might have been, but the magnitude of the failure caused me to suddenly lose control of the car - ended up hitting an abutment. Car was a total loss. Damage to car is making it difficult to truly pinpoint the failure, but still investigating. I have recently seen an issue with coolant cap as well as hose'/piping issues (turbo only??), but not a cracked overflow tank.

 

my lord brother I'm glad you're OK. You can look up cracked coolant tank failures on this forum the 996 forum etc etc and you'll find that Porsche hasn't figured out how to make an overflow reservoir that last more than 10 years even though they've had a few decades to try and get it right. In fairness though BMW has the same issue with just about anything plastic in their coolant system whether be radiator end tanks plastic hose fittings etc etc etc.

 

 

Very common on the 996 and 997 GT3,s for the coolent pipe ends to fail ..

http://www.mcilvainmotors.com/servic...-line-pinning/

 

Glad you're ok. Yes, is the one flaw in the Mezger motor of the GT and turbo cars that needs to be proactively fixed if you get one and it hasn't already. It"s well documented and the coolant pipes need to be pinned so they don't come unglued and dump slippery coolant all over the rear tires. What model is your 997.1?

 

 

Wow. I am glad you are still with us today.

For a 997.1 I bet it was a cracked coolant tank. Now I don't want to drive mine until I replace it... Not sure about 991.

 

This is the 1st catastrophic cooling system failure I've heard about on a non-Mezger motor. All the others have been water pump failure or expansion tank failure, but these almost always start very slowly an provide some warning (tank develops visible cracks which should be part of your inspection done at each oil change, and water pump starts seeping before it starts leaking really badly). The water pump is also located in a position where even a fast leak would put the coolant down between the rear wheels, not onto them where a total loss of control would result. If the coolant tank burst, that could saturate the left rear wheel, but I've not heard of this method of failure without prior warning.

 

.Wanted to make sure everyone double checks the all aspects of the cooling system. Safety first!! car was only 10 years old with less than 36K. All services performed/annual checks/no oil or fluid leaks of any kind before the accident. Not a lot of fun when you are sliding along with minimal control.

 

What was determined to be the cause of the massive coolant evacuation?