Hey Folks! Picked up our 2009 C4S 6 speed at the tail end of last year and just woke it up from it's winter slumber so I'm starting to tend to a number of maintenance items. I've done some searching across the web but can't seem to get a definitive answer on if on a 997.2 car with the 9A1 engine, are 60,000 mile water pump replacements recommended? My car has about 54,000 miles on it now.

My current list of maintenance items includes:
- Coolant expansion tank (can see hairline cracks in it)
- Engine mounts (can see excess passenger seat vibration and have had trouble shifting coming out of corners at times)
- Clean front radiators
- Oil change

The standard 60,000 mile service was done before I bought the car which included drive belt replacement and diff fluid replacement as well. Any help/advice is greatly appreciated!

 

Leave the water pump alone, he is happy where he is. (For 997.2 cars only). Coolant tank -yes. easy DIY if you lower the engine enough. Hard if you don't get it low enough. Engine mounts- same time as coolant tank- super easy. Clean front radiators- Yes , and install screens. You will be glad you did and look better anyway. Oil change- Yes of course. 997.2 cars are silly easy to change oil yourself.
We are assuming the service done included spark plugs and brake fluid flush.
Do those things and go drive your car!

 

2009 C2S 170K miles

Forget the water pump... this .2 is a different animal. Some have failed and early but it appears a real rarity. I just replaced my water pump... I got 170K miles on it... think about that! Wow.

Engine mounts... I did mine at 100K. was it needed? I dunno... maybe. I feel it will have nothing to do with shifting.. nothing.. others will disagree with me on this. If you are having shifting issues, change the fluid out for Mobilub PTX or the new Shell product as notchy shifting is a common issue with these Japanese transmissions... others here can help you with the fluid as I think Mobilube PTX may now be superseded by Shell. Shaking seat... yea, so does mine for the last 150K miles of ownership... the rattling seat belt can drive me nuts. I don't see mounts the issue here.

Regarding the coolant tank... maybe I have been lucky as my 2000 Boxster S, well I think I put three tanks in that thing. I sort of can see some stress lines in mine but I feel there is no need to change this out either... again there are so few failures.

Porsche really beefed up the components on the 997.2... I feel that there is little preventative maintence required.... wait till it breaks. Except for transmission fluid where I think it should be changed every 30K miles or so... but that is just me.

Peace
Bruce in Philly

 

Bruce,
Always enjoy reading your posts...
Regarding the 30K mile transmission fluid change, is that for Mt or PDK? Maybe both?

David In Sugar Land

 

This is great @Bruce In Philly @Floyd540 thank you for your thoughtful and detailed replies! You've given me some valuable insight! Bruce you have me questioning the tank since the links are so small, maybe I'll just leave it for now. I've already got the mounts (Rennline semi solids) so thinking I'll put those in anyways and I'll add a transmission fluid change to my immediate list as well. When cold this thing is super notchy but as it warms up, much better. I also have that 1st gear struggle I've read so much about that manifests itself from time to time. I remember reading fluid almost completely cured yours right Bruce?

As for spark plugs, unknown change date and I know the Dealer didn't do it. I'll also add that to the immediate list. Been contemplating exhaust options so could do it while I'm down there removing things... Sharkwerks bypass for sure, thinking about Fister side miufflers vs. FVD etc.

 

Good advice all around. I'm at 137K miles on the original coolant tank ... 2010 C4S PDK. In fact I'm pretty much original everything excluding front strut mounts (AWD thing), motor mounts, front axle boot (damaged due to road conditions), and front computer (I'm told they are static sensitive).

 

Another data point for the 997.2 water pump.

I changed mine (as well as the thermostat) preemptively at 79k miles. I had no leaks but could hear some noise as you can see in the video below comparing the old vs new pump. DIY link here:
https://rennlist.com/forums/997-foru...ement-diy.html

 

Hate to rain on the parade after Bruce's 170,000 mile water pump testimony. But mine failed at just over 40K miles on the now sold 2009 C4S. Took the serpentine belt with it too. No warning whatsoever. Just noticed what looked like smoke coming from the engine compartment and a rise in coolant temperature so it was pretty obvious what had just happened. Was lucky enough to be near an easy exit where I could shut down and call for a flatbed.

The bad thing about the water pump croaking is that you're done driving. Period. Coolant temp. rises very quickly so it's not like you can coast home or anywhere else for that matter. You need to shut down in short order. My replacement including the serpentine belt came to around $1,200 as I recall it. Covered by Fidelity extended warranty.

I have a little over 67K miles on my GTS with the original water pump. Given my experience with the -09 C4S I've thought about replacing the water pump preemptively but I think I'll hold out since I have Fidelity coverage on this one too. Drive mostly locally also so not too worried. But I've read more than one post here about water pumps failing in the 40K to 60K mile zone.

Whether or not to replace it preemptively probably depends on risk tolerance and driving habits. Frequent long road trips far from home, I might consider it even though my warranty won't pay for it. Driving mostly around town I'll leave it alone and have Fidelity pay for it when and if it fails.

 

I don't own a 997.2, only 996GT3 and 997.1. And Audi and BMW and Ferraris. My practice with water pump is they always get changed as a matter of routine pre-emptive maintenance. The frequency is different for each car but I don't wait for them to break before I change them. There are several reasons for this. My wife drives the 997 and my daughter drives the Audi. Either one would just smoke the engine if the water pump went. And the safety and aggravation of having to call for a tow truck or stuck somewhere is just too great for the girls in my life. So the 997 water pump is changed at 60k miles and the Audi water pump was changed (en masse with $2,000 of parts) before the daughter head off to college. The BMW 530ix is my personal beat-up car but its water pump, thermostat, radiator and all coolant hoses are changed at 100kmiles interval (coming back up soon).

This is a long way of saying water pump is a maintenance items, the interval is what you pick it to be. One more thing, only factory water pump and radiator go back on my cars. I learned that a long time ago.

If I had a 997.2, I would pick the water pump replacement to be 90K miles, but that is just me.

 

If I was still driving a BMW (experience with E46 and F07), the first thing I would do after I turned 70k miles would be get the water pump replaced. That's probably pushing it. Learned that the hard way.

Don't think there's a right or wrong answer here but I'm going to let it ride.

 

FWIW, my high pressure fuel pump failed last year (or was it the year before? 2020 has been such a year-that-never-was). I remembered seeing some threads about replacing the water pump and since they had to take the water pump off to get to the HPFP, I asked my service manager about the advisability of just replacing the water pump before it ran into issues. He said he normally does advise replacement at the 60,000 mile point as a maintenance item and while I hadn't hit 60,000 miles yet, it made sense to do so and save the labor in the future. In your case, replacing the pump as part of the 60,000 mile servicing wouldn't save any labor but could save you a tow later.

 

Not sure if this was in response to me or someone else. Either way, waiting for the pump to fail rather than replacing it preemptively would save me a lot more than just a tow since as I said I have Fidelity platinum coverage. And as I see it, the water pump is one of those items that either works or it doesn't. Nothing in between that could cause damage, at least not that I'm aware of. And it gives you very clear signals when it's no longer working.

Yes, it sucks to get stranded having to call for a flatbed but it also sucks to pay upwards of $1K to replace something that still works just fine. Going by Bruce's account I may have close to another 100,000 miles left on my pump Not something I'm expecting but based on testimony here and elsewhere these pumps seem to either fail in the 40K to 60K mile range or many go a lot longer.

 

My pump didn't fail catastrophically... it gave signs.... I had time. YMMV

Peace
Bruce in Philly

 

Curious....what signs? I got nothing.

 

New to me, two months, 2006 997.1 Cab with tiptronic and 42,500 miles ...water pump just went, noticed pink coolant leak under pump/themostat housing and scheduled water pump replacementr at local indy shop, quoted $1250.00 for job including new belt. I guess thats fair price.. Local Porsche dealer quoted 5 hrs for waterpump and 3 hrs if only thermostat.