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996 911 dumped a lot of oily water on floor

sjmsmart

Member
Joined
24 Sep 2017
Messages
13
Hello

I have just bought a 996 911 3.4 tiptronic with a good service history etc, checked it over best I could and as have had 2 x 986 boxtsers and I thought I had checked enough to have found a good one.

There was some slight white build up in the oil tube but hardly anything on the cap both when I first looked at the car and when I tested it today and paid, but everyone I spoke to advised that this was quite normal. There was no smoking, it did lose a little oil on the way home on a two hour drive but was running correctly with 1.5 pressure on the oil pressure gauge.

However when I got it home this evening I noticed a dropping of liquid onto the exhaust with a hiss/hissing. And when I looked under the car to my dismay water was literally gushing/dumping somewhere in the top back left of the engine bay. There is a large amount of coolant on the floor, there is oil in the coolant and there is oil on the outside of the water expansion tank/cap (I have not opened it as it is too hot but I can only guess that it is full of oil). This was all happening with the engine off as in water pushing its way out.

I am gutted, and fear the worse as in head gasket, cracked head, but some people have said on forums if there is water on the floor even with oil in it there can be other causes like oil air separator, pipes and or oil/water cooler.

I will try to get it to my garage early in the week, and have emailed the garage I bought it from but I would be grateful if someone could offer me some advice please.

Some pictures attached.
 

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Welcome to 911uk

It looks to be either the cap (old caps are know to leak) or it will be the expansion bottle.

Cap -£20
Expansion bottle -£120-250 (depending on part number)

I would change both, if the bottle looks yellow in colour it's well past its best and they are known to crack and leak. You can fit the bottle yourself but it's a fiddly job and will take around 2-3 hours.

Let us know how you get on..

Dan

(Make sure you buy an OEM bottle)
 
Had the engine out of mine recently and was going to change the bottle "whilst in there", until discovered it was over £400.

They've gone up a lot recently.
 
Don't do anything, don't try replacing this or that.
Just hand the problem back to the dealer to sort out.
If you mess around or try to fix it, you compromise yourself in that you did not let the dealer sort it out first.
 
Daniel said:
Welcome to 911uk

It looks to be either the cap (old caps are know to leak) or it will be the expansion bottle.

Cap -£20
Expansion bottle -£120-250 (depending on part number)

I would change both, if the bottle looks yellow in colour it's well past its best and they are known to crack and leak. You can fit the bottle yourself but it's a fiddly job and will take around 2-3 hours.

Let us know how you get on..

Dan


(Make sure you buy an OEM bottle)


Thanks what about the oil that is infused with the water.
 
Listen to Cheshire911.

For the first 6 months all faults are the responsibility of the dealer.
 
cheshire911 said:
Don't do anything, don't try replacing this or that.
Just hand the problem back to the dealer to sort out.
If you mess around or try to fix it, you compromise yourself in that you did not let the dealer sort it out first.
+1
 
wibbaboo said:
cheshire911 said:
Don't do anything, don't try replacing this or that.
Just hand the problem back to the dealer to sort out.
If you mess around or try to fix it, you compromise yourself in that you did not let the dealer sort it out first.

Was this bought from a dealer.. If so agree

Thank you, it has been left sitting where it was and will remain there until moved without anything being done/engine left off. Yes, bought from the dealer yesterday and by the time I got it 2.5 hours home this happened. I understand the consumer rights etc so will see what the dealer has to say. In the meantime more info below:

I have just opened the reservoir, it is thick dark brown oily gunk filled quite high.
The oil filler tube has some white mayo in it.
The dipstick is clear.
Pictures below:
 

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cheshire911 said:
Don't do anything, don't try replacing this or that.
Just hand the problem back to the dealer to sort out.
If you mess around or try to fix it, you compromise yourself in that you did not let the dealer sort it out first.

Thanks, I have emailed the a summary and pictures and asked them to arrange for it to be taken back to them to follow their procedure/warranty etc. In the meantime I have in the meantime posted further info and pictures against another members comment.
 
Oil air cooler possibly failed?

While I wait to hear from the garage (I will be phoning them tomorrow), I have found some interesting info below and was hoping others on here may know if this is possible?

I have read that that when it's the head gasket/cracked head you see white oil and froth in the water expansion tank and don't usually see water on the floor, and you also do not end up with thick brown oil in the reservoir, my reservoir is literally 80% oil and 20% coolant.

Apparently there can be an issue where the oil air cooler fails, and allows pressure to force oil into the expansion tank, causing the expansion tank to blast out its water through its overflow if the overflow. If the overflow is at the rear of the expansion tank then this would make sense as that is where the water seemed to be gushing from.

As I had no overheating issues and there is no bubbly white oil in the water, and no water on the dip stick could this be what this is?
 
If it was pink then that would be tiptronic oil .. that is pretty much pure oil that hasnt really mixed.

You didnt mention any running issues so i would lean towards the oil cooler that has failed .

As mentioned the garage will have to sort it , 2.5 hours from being ok when you bought it to this has to be some sort of record .
 
Demort said:
If it was pink then that would be tiptronic oil .. that is pretty much pure oil that hasnt really mixed.

You didnt mention any running issues so i would lean towards the oil cooler that has failed .

As mentioned the garage will have to sort it , 2.5 hours from being ok when you bought it to this has to be some sort of record .

Many thanks, yes I am definitely getting it back to the garage one way or another.
 
The garage have just emailed me to say they will arrange for it to be collected this week and get it sorted.

I am also covered very well by UK consumer law should I decide to have a refund.

I also noticed oil spray around the front wheel arches inside and outside and on the wheels (see pics), so not sure if the coolant system has also been compromised with oil at the front end of the car?
 

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With that amount of oil in the coolant expansion tank and no running issues or overheating it is most likely oil cooler failure.
We rebuild these engines regularly and deal with cracked liners / cylinder heads on a weekly basis however you would expect misfiring and or steam / smoke (basically more symptoms).
If front rads have pressurised and ruptured as a result or are leaking for other reasons it does sound like the selling dealer has more than one problem to resolve!
 

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