Bono

Want your opinions on mystery coolant level/loss:

Purchased my 2011 GTS .2 last fall and only did 2 single day events before the Chicago winter. These are the facts as I know them:

- I have never had issues with or thought about coolant much in my previous non-GT 997s
- sometime last fall I noticed coolant in car was down very slightly, about 1 finger, and had dealership give me a splash just to top it off
- in all of my winter work, season preparations, I have to be honest and say I can't ever remember even looking at the coolant resivoir
- recently at my first and only DE event of 2013, I noticed the coolant was down significantly in the resivoir. I had to add about 4 of the small plastic soda bottles, maybe 80 ounces (quite a bit I thought) to get the coolant up to the max level
- drove home checking the coolant level about every 15 minutes of driving and absolutely no coolant loss.
- there was some evidence of coolant spray around the resivoir cap, but dealer thought probably just sprayed when I took off to fill .. honestly, I don't remember it even being pressured up at the track when I had to take off to fill it
- being ultra paranoid, I drained the oil right away when I got home, and no sign of coolant and exactly same amount of oil I put in over the winter
- dealer checked the entire system and said no signs of a pressure loss anywhere, and even checked the cap and said it tested correctly for pressure.

So here is the question .. was the cap on the resivoir simply loose, and I lost some coolant on my first drive to the track and first DE event .. maybe sprayed some out of the threads of a loose cap?

Or, has anyone else experienced something similar with some thoughts?

I have been driving the car often over the last month with absolutely no coolant loss .. have 2 big DE events coming up in 2 weeks.

LexVan

When you top off in the future, use distilled water. The coolant cap should be really hard to remove. Make sure it's really tight.

Bono

Thanks, I did think about it, but had to just go with plain water at the track. I will use distilled if happens again. What do think problem or maybe cap was just loose?

deutschmick

I was mysteriously missing coolant early in my ownership, too.

Solution was to tighten the cap.

Jenner

Purchased 2011 GTS used correct? Do you have prior owners service history or can the dealer tell you when the last coolant change was?

My guess is they flushed & filled the coolant and didn't "burp" or purge the air out of the system. Looked full until you ran the car hard and the air made it's way to the reservoir.

Bono

Jenner, you have definately given a plausable answer. I'm going to check into last time coolant changed..this theory could fit. Thanks, I do appreciate your time/thoughts. Prior to me owning it, No signs that the car had ever been tracked and only 6k miles on it. I may have been the first to really drive it hard.

Jenner

As a 2011 it could have been sold the first time in the fall of 2010. You bought it in the fall of 2012 and I believe Porsche says 2 years for coolant changes. If you purchased from a dealer, my guess is they did it prior to selling the car if the previous owner didn't bring it in for the service on his own. I must say it does fit rather nicely...the simplest answer is usually the right one.