Coolant leak 997.1 Turbo

[vlad]

Hi, 5 minutes from home got a low coolant warning , stopped and checked and it was low below the min, though water temps. didn't go above the 80.

So drove slowly home, checked underneath and there was a drip, TBH I would normally assumed was the aircon. drain and the patch on the drive is abouts where I'd expect to see a damp path after a run, but perhaps not as central as usual , a bit more over towards the driver side wheel .

However with the low coolant obviously required more investigation, sure enough drips collected had a distinctive pink hue (so coolant?) slightly slippery though? (I couldn't be that unlucky and have leaking power steering fluid also ?) Is coolant slightly slippery ?

I'll be investigating tomorrow, looks like a lot of plastic undertrays to remove first, are there any common failure points?

radiators look undamaged. When the warning came on I feared the worst and that one of the coolant pipes into the engine had come off, but dry as a bone at the back.

Pics are driver side just behind the front wheel.

 

[T8]

It's probably a perished connector to the hose at the rad'.

Sadly, if one has gone the others are probably not far away from failing too. It may be best to bit the bullet and get the whole lot done in one go.

Good Luck :thumb:

 

[deMort]

Front crossover pipes are leaking and i expect its the lower one that goes into a plastic pipe that runs to the other side of the car .

If not too corroded you might get away with just this single pipe being replaced .

Put the wheel on a full left hand lock and you should be able to see them.

 

[vlad]

Thanks both :thumb: , yes its the union of the lower pipe, very wet! Mines a Tip. if it makes any difference to the plumbing, which pipe is it on the parts diagram?

 

[Clanky]

See here: http://911uk.com/viewtopic.php?t=101052&highlight=coolant

I did mine a few years back & it's a time consuming but reasonably easy job to DIY if you are handy with the spanners.

 

[vlad]

Thanks Clanky, what is involved in dropping the front subframe?

 

[deMort]

Im afraid im not going to put my hand up and say which pipe it is as PET is a pain in the backside with things like this !!

There will be a part number on the old pipe .. this is the best way forward although you might have to remove it to see then number .

Perhaps take some pictures of each side and post them here ..

Mainly because if not too bad then i have managed to replace just this pipe on its own before ..

It's obviously a lot cheaper than replacing all of the pipes which i think at a garage is about £1100 .

Subframe drop is not hard but doing this on your back on stands .. thats Hard !!!

Rack bolts undone , move it off the subframe .. undo the subframe bolts and drop it .. you have some access so have to tilt it down at the front to remove and refit the pipes .

New set come with markings to line them up .

You will also need to cut the brackets off .. well .. everyone i've ever done ive had to do this .

10 mm bolts for the plastic brackets will more than likely snap .

 

[vlad]

Well thanks to DeMort and Clankys advice gave me the confidence to take on the job on and looks like I got lucky it was (for the moment) just the lower pipe, which goes into the plastic fitting that was leaking.

Taking it slowly a couple of hours, with a trip to my local OPC, who had the part in stock plus a couple of litres of the Porsche Coolant and some new tapping screws for the wheel liner, undertray.

Caught the coolant when taking off the old perished hose, strained and reused + 4 litres @ 50% dilution to refill.

Simple job in the end, (but I got lucky no subframe drop) , I think the hardest part was taking off and reattaching the brake duct !

 

[T8]

Sounds like I did well to get all mine replaced under warranty last year.

 

[chunkymonkey1982]

Well thanks to DeMort and Clankys advice gave me the confidence to take on the job on and looks like I got lucky it was (for the moment) just the lower pipe, which goes into the plastic fitting that was leaking.

Taking it slowly a couple of hours, with a trip to my local OPC, who had the part in stock plus a couple of litres of the Porsche Coolant and some new tapping screws for the wheel liner, undertray.

Caught the coolant when taking off the old perished hose, strained and reused + 4 litres @ 50% dilution to refill.

Simple job in the end, (but I got lucky no subframe drop) , I think the hardest part was taking off and reattaching the brake duct !

Hi, did you bleed the system? I may have to do a similar job soon but i think its the pipe to the radiator and not a cross over pipe.

 

[vlad]

Hi, no I didn't bled the system, jacked the front driver side wheel quite high so it was on an incline (front to back and driver side to passenger side). When I disconnected the offending hose I caught in a bucket about 5 litres of coolant. Which was later filtered and reused. + another 4 litres of new coolant iwhilst burping the car 3 times and its now sitting between min. and max. on the coolant expansion tank.
If you do drain, keep hold of the coolant at nearly £16 litre its quite dear, my turbo tip. takes 27 litres of the pink stuff!

 

[darkhorse]

Hi, no I didn't bled the system, jacked the front driver side wheel quite high so it was on an incline (front to back and driver side to passenger side). When I disconnected the offending hose I caught in a bucket about 5 litres of coolant. Which was later filtered and reused. + another 4 litres of new coolant iwhilst burping the car 3 times and its now sitting between min. and max. on the coolant expansion tank.
If you do drain, keep hold of the coolant at nearly £16 litre its quite dear, my turbo tip. takes 27 litres of the pink stuff!

You can use the pink VW coolant from Euro car parts and de ionised water 5 ltr bottles to mix it with. Same stuff but loads cheaper

 

[chunkymonkey1982]

Hi, no I didn't bled the system, jacked the front driver side wheel quite high so it was on an incline (front to back and driver side to passenger side). When I disconnected the offending hose I caught in a bucket about 5 litres of coolant. Which was later filtered and reused. + another 4 litres of new coolant iwhilst burping the car 3 times and its now sitting between min. and max. on the coolant expansion tank.
If you do drain, keep hold of the coolant at nearly £16 litre its quite dear, my turbo tip. takes 27 litres of the pink stuff!

You can use the pink VW coolant from Euro car parts and de ionised water 5 ltr bottles to mix it with. Same stuff but loads cheaper

Hi Darkhorse, what about this from design911,

https://www.design911.co.uk/fu/prod...ttle---Long-Life-5-Year-Red/?source=doofinder

?