deputydog95

Almost had a very very ugly incident yesterday at Sebring.

I was doing around 140 going into turn 17. Braked and did the first turn in. Right after I setup to turn right to complete the corner, the rear end let go with no warning and I spun. A lot. I'm in the 540 club now Both feet in and got it stopped pretty quick.

Luckily no contact with the wall or any other drivers. Hustled it off the track. Track workers said the back end is gushing coolant. Limped it over to the dealer's trailer in the paddock before it overheated.

Nothing they could do for it other than get it towed in. One of the tech's commented that they have been seeing a number of 997 GT3's blowing a coolant hose coupling at the track and it resulting the rear end being dowsed with coolant.

The car behind me when it happened said that he saw a couple puffs of smoke, then coolant gushing, then me spinning out of control. Luckily he wasn't that close and gave me a wide berth so he could get by with no contact.

They are going to figure out what happened tomorrow. Tough to diagnose with the bottom cover on.

Its definitely worth getting it looked at though as obviously the outcome could have been much much uglier.

DHI

Glad to hear that you didn't "bend" anything in that spin.

Let us know what the "forensics" turn up?

ADias

It sounds like the hose couple fitting reported here a few months ago. You should consider yourself lucky!

Izzone

I saw that happen to you.....stinks to have the day cut short

MJSpeed

+1

KBS911

Yep, it happened to my buddy's 10 GT3 last weekend as well. What happened is that a tie wrap mounted to a bracket that holds up the coolant line on the passenger's side let loose and allowed the coolant hose to rub on the drive shaft, wearing a pinhole in the hose. The coolant line is underneath the rear bottom panel just over the drive shaft. Luckily he caught it before he lost too much coolant. I went with him when he took it to the dealer for warranty repair. The tie wrap assembly is a poor design that press snaps into a hole in the bracket and then loops arond the hose. It relys on the press/snap fitting to carry the load. Better to just loop a stronger tie wrap through the hole in the bracket than to rely on the press fitting into the bracket. I'm taking my car in this week to have it checked. Regardless of whether it is still holding or not I will add additional, stronger tie wraps.

Warning to all, as the OP reported, this is literally an accident waiting to happen. Get it checked.

Wilder

Does someone need to get seriously hurt before a recall is issued? What a travesty.

rlips

My '011 GT3 will arrive in a few days. Between this and the center-lock, I am starting to have some doubt if I made a good selection...The plan is to have a daily driver that will be at the track about 30 days a year; perhaps this car is not really suitable?

axhoaxho

I think this issue has happened frequent enough and dangerous enough, that Porsche should have a recall/bulletin of it.

The dealer techs know all about this infamous issue. I know it happens mostly on the tracks, yet the issue is real and true.

How can we get them to escalate this concern to the right person in the corprate to address it? Or do they really need to wait until someone gets seriously hurt and file lawsuits, so to be forced to take action of addressing it?



Sorry for the rant...

FFaust

It'll be interesting to see what Dog has to report but this seems to be a Mezger engine issue where the aluminum couplings that are bonded into the block pop out without warning. Well so far anyway, all reports have been with this motor in the TT and GT3.

I know that if I was running one of these engines on the track, it would be with water wetter and not glycol-based coolant. Fortunately I only have a lowly M97

deputydog95

I agree. Could have been much worse. Turned out to be more of an inconvenience than anything. Day was cut way short and I had a 2 hour ride back to the dealer with the same tow trucker who hauled me back 3 years ago

Unfortunately I've only had the car a couple months so I missed the previous post.

I'll report what they find when they unbutton it tomorrow, but the Porsche tech seemed pretty confident that this is the same problem they have been seeing with other GT3's at the track.

Let this be a warning to those that are tracking, gets yours looked at before you have a "shorts check" moment or even worse.

For those wanting to use roadside assistance while at an event, whatever you do, DO NOT TELL THEM IT HAPPENED ON THE TRACK. You were near the track or even on the grounds of the track, but not actually on the track if you want them to pick up the bill for the tow to the dealer

deputydog95

Do you mean sheet metal or bones? Or is there something else I should be concerned with?

MM3.9GT3

The problem is that it cannot be checked without dropping the engine, and even then, what can you really check?

I am assuming that when Porsche fixes a car under warranty, all six points are fixed using upgraded parts so that the fix itself will not fail down the road. Can anyone verify this?

I am glad that you are OK.

deputydog95

Did you see the spin itself? Or just the plume of steam coming out of the rear end as I limped it over to the bert smith trailer?

Yes, it sucked losing the day. Better than losing the car or worse though.

I wasn't thrilled with yesterday's event. Way too crowded. Couldn't get a clean lap to save my life.

Not to mention session one was black flagged less than halfway through due to a guy in a 350z creaming the inside wall on turn one. Not quite sure how he managed to pull that off. And of course session 2 was cut way short due to my "leakage". Oh well. Nice to see the crew.

Sorry we didn't get a chance to meet but I went home early

deputydog95

Do you need to drop the engine, or just remove the bottom cover?