Kugley

I'll preface the following remarks with admittedly knowing I'm an idiot and arguably irresponsible. I'm at the track minimum one day and often twice a month and should have known better. I got a quote and was about to take my car in late spring to someone here in the Sacramento area that welds the coolant pipes. It wasn't cost but rather a matter of procrastination (which is no excuse for safety).
Fortunately there was no incident/damage to my car or the two others behind me, however, they ended up dangerously close to the wall. It was a crowded track yesterday, so luckily there weren't more cars involved. Turn 14 at TH is probably the last place on that track you want to dump fluid. I apologized afterwards to both drivers, and they were extremely cool (although understandably rattled). I put the car on the trailer and dropped it off at the shop a couple hours later.
Although the poor design of the coolant pipes is not my fault, I was still negligent in my inaction of a known problem. I felt obligated to share my experience (video) in case others who haven't yet done it might reconsider.

Spyerx

Bad and good on you.

At a minimum put water wetter in and get that coolant OUT of the car. (of course don't expose car to freezing temps)

Runner

Thanks for sharing! I'm at the track today and just decided not to risk it any longer. Going to schedule this ASAP.

r6elmo

thanks for sharing. can you share mileage and number of track days total? i have not addresses it on my car but run redline water wetter year round in norcal

ddaudi

What year car? 997.1 or .2?

Kugley

The car is a 2007 997.1. I bought it 2 years ago with 15k miles and now have 25k. It never saw the track before I owned it. I would guess I have 40 track days the last 2 years. I probably drive less than 20 miles a month on the street (if that).
Again, I had good intentions but just didn't act. I bought Water Wetter in the spring so that if it did happen between then and the time I got the weld, it would hopefully minimize the impact. However, it doesn't do any good when it's still sitting in the bottle on a shelf in the garage and not in the car.

996FLT6

I was on water wetter plus water when my pipe blew at thill from halfway between t13-14(only knew that because those track photographers took a pic showing coolant spilling out from the rear) all the way to entry of t1. Didn't even know it popped til I got flagged at checker flag station then Xmas lites aplomb came on. Nobody suffered any spins even my friend in his 997.1 gt3 was looking at me when I was parked on the side of the track. He asked me later wtf happened? Get your pipes done!!!

Houston GT3

Thanks for the heads up. Good reminder for us newbies.

ddaudi

I've heard this is a problem with 997.1 but not 997.2
Anyone know of a 997.2 that has lost coolant?
I was advised I did not need the fix for my 2010 997.2

golfnutintib

wrong - u do need to fix it on your 997.2 gt3

Spyerx

Affects all mezger motors. No matter year or generation.

surlynkid

Mine never blew on my 2010, but I just got them pinned. If you worry about freezing, just 10% coolant will get you to a few degrees below freezing. Spilling that is better than spilling 50%.

LexVan

Wow, your blatant procrastination (failed to pin, and failed to run WW) put a lot of people at risk; including yourself, fellow drivers and track corner/safety workers. Not to mention the cleanup time required and LOST track time to those run groups after yours. Good on your for sharing, and hopefully wakes up others to do the proper thing.

JarmoL

996.1 GT3's haven't suffered this as far as I know. They are the oldest too.. maybe they have different glue at the Weissach factory.

tcsracing1

it is not "if" it will happen, but rather "when" it will happen in these cars.