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Last weekend while in a crowded restaurant, the hostess stands on top of a table and yells "Whoever owns a silver Porsche, your car is smoking!" As I fought my way through the crowd of rubberneckers hoping to see a Porsche burn to the ground, I see my pig with LOTS of steam coming out of the hood and from under the body. Coolant everywhere.
Turned the flashlight on to see where it was coming from, and could not see anything obvious due to the undertray. Steam was coming from drip on exhaust and enough was coming out to leave a sizeable puddle. Started it up and coolant idiot light was illuminated. Got some distilled water and put 2.5 gallons in which looked like it just poured out. Moved it to a more convenient spot for a tow truck and got it home.
Plastic coolant pipes were replaced 2 years ago with aluminum, so pretty sure that is not it. After removing the undertray, it looks like it is coming from one of the T's -- the water is dripping down the outside of the aluminum coolant tubes coming down the driver side rear (ref #22 below). Or that is the working assumption -- can't really see the T's (ref #18 and not shown) under the turbos from top, or the exhaust from the bottom. Will look some more today to see if I can narrow it down.
On the assumption that it is one of the T's, my extended warranty does not cover coolant system (except for water pump at 50%) and the shop just told me the book says it is going to take 13 hours of labor to replace the $30 part, so probably going to dig into it myself (and spend 40 hours on it).
Any advice? Posche52 indicates that the intake needs to be (should be) pulled, so I guess I am looking at ordering an intake gasket and will replace both T's while I am there. Any other parts I should order? Anything else back there that is a potential failure item that should be replaced proactively?
Go to page 30 of the coolant pipe sticky. Get the metal T's described there. The plastic porsche ones will just fail again. Do a coolant T search. Fair amount of Info.
Sounds like your coolant T ruptured. Same thing happened to me when I pulled into the parking lot for a trail run in Golden. Coolant all over the ground and it wouldn't hold water.
Prestige Porsche replaced it for $521 out the door. If you want to pull the intake mani to do it yourself, I'd suggest doing both T's, and both valve cover gaskets, coolant temp sensor, and the thermostat. I mean, if you're going to dig all the way in there, might as well replace some of those cheap parts that require a ton of labor to get at.
Prestige Porsche replaced it for $521 out the door. If you want to pull the intake mani to do it yourself, I'd suggest doing both T's, and both valve cover gaskets, coolant temp sensor, and the thermostat. I mean, if you're going to dig all the way in there, might as well replace some of those cheap parts that require a ton of labor to get at.
The quote I got from my dealer (13 hrs @ $105 plus parts) of around $1500 was driving me to do it myself. At $521, doing the work myself is a hell of a lot less appealing...
The quote I got from my dealer (13 hrs @ $105 plus parts) of around $1500 was driving me to do it myself. At $521, doing the work myself is a hell of a lot less appealing...
I will give them a call. Thanks for the pointer.
I would see if they would install metal T's if you supply them.
Go to page 30 of the coolant pipe sticky. Get the metal T's described there. The plastic porsche ones will just fail again. Do a coolant T search. Fair amount of Info.
Got it. Thanks.
Originally Posted by mtnrat
There is also an air line T behind the intake. It gets brittle. Replaced mine with a brass one.
Yeah, I saw last night that there was silicone goop on this airline T -- probably brittle when the dealer did the aluminum coolant tubes and they hacked a fix rather than replacing the part.
Originally Posted by mtnrat
I would see if they would install metal T's if you supply them.
A friend of mine who recently bought an 05 CTT has roughly the same mileage. I told him he should do his soon after mine blew. 4 days after mine were fixed, his failed too.
I would see if they would install metal T's if you supply them.
Mtnrat: It looks from your pictures as though you sliced the existing lower hose to get it off, so I am assuming that to install the metal Ts, you purchased the OEM plastic w/ hose and then removed the plastic T from the new hose and put the new hose on the metal T?
Also, could you give me an indication of how much time it took you to do this?
Mtnrat: It looks from your pictures as though you sliced the existing lower hose to get it off, so I am assuming that to install the metal Ts, you purchased the OEM plastic w/ hose and then removed the plastic T from the new hose and put the new hose on the metal T?
Also, could you give me an indication of how much time it took you to do this?
Thanks,
Dave
I did do that. Used a dremel very carefully to cut the metal bands.
Time to do what? The whole thing or just cut the bands and make the T's?
I was starting with the dremeling to remove the clamps last night, but got sick of worrying about slicing into the hose, and also figured it was taking too long, so I rednecked it – and basically just destroyed the T to get rid of it. I used a combination of dremel, angle grinder and persuader (hammer). The T came apart easily enough.
I then reassembled with a makeshift jig that I created out of a cardboard box, so that the hose angles are roughly right.
I’m a bit less concerned about keeping the angles all perfect because the shop doing the job will have the trans out, and can adjust more easily than if I was doing the job in the garage, with my head under the hood.
Do I have to remove the upper coolant pipes in order to access the t pipes? I was thinking if I removed just the plastic bracket that holds the 3 coolant pipes that I can work on the Ts? Am I fooling myself?
Do I have to remove the upper coolant pipes in order to access the t pipes? I was thinking if I removed just the plastic bracket that holds the 3 coolant pipes that I can work on the Ts? Am I fooling myself?
I just did the job yesterday.
You have to remove the intake and the upper bracket of the triple pipe assembly to be able to access. You do not need to take the triple pipes off. The pipe of the triple that is on the driver side is the one that is connected to the T, so you will have to remove that hose, but it can be done with the upper bracket assembly removed.
When you are done replacing both Ts, it should look like this:
11-13-2015, 12:22 PM
