nmlss2006

Update: 1100 miles and 24 days later. No sign of coolant anywhere. Level seems steady. Car behaves correctly. The only real problems are: the blend door foam <sigh> and the fact that the AC stayed charged for 48 hours. But that is a story for another post.

Self-update: So I read up on the issue and I found, among other things, https://www.renntech.org/topic/44251-996tt-strange-coolant-leak/ . The experience would be consistent with mine, multiplied by 6.5 years as opposed to three days. The part where I'm concerned, of course, is the subsequent sudden failure when the glued in connectors decide to give way - if that is indeed what is happening. On the other hand, I do not know that it makes sense (...) to pull out an engine to get out the coolant distribution block, force out the connectors and bond them again 'just in case', but I hate the concept of not being able to trust that the car won't decide to take a break on me. From all the videos I could find, it can be *pretty difficult indeed* to say the least to pinpoint things further but.. I'm open to ideas.

No sir, the oil was positively beautiful. And - no smoke from the tailpipes either. I'm really at a loss.

As I mentioned in the other post, my US 996 is back on the road. But. But, there was an interesting mystery: the coolant was way down. As in, down by 3 quarts. The interesting part is: there was none on the ground, there was none in the engine bay (I assume the water pump has the usual weep hole which would cause pretty visible residue and/or spray. There was no coolant in the oil and, as far as I could tell, no oil in the coolant. What's my next diagnostic step? I am at a bit (a lot) of a loss. Thank you everyone!

So it ended up not being five years. It ended up being almost seven. The car was parked in October 2019. I put it back on the road today - in June 2026. How did it go? Amazingly well. I got out as much of the old fuel as I could - and it was not all. Put in a can of Seafoam (advisedly) and 5 gallons of 'fresh' gas. Left it to think about what it had done for an hour or so. Put in a new battery and turned the key - no, I had not changed the oil yet. It caught as fast as it could prime the fuel rails. From key turn to running, less than ten seconds. I was expecting the boxer cloud - not even vaguely. Drove it out of storage to where I could work on it, ~0.7 mi going 30 mph in fifth. It was running a little rough but not... bad. Got it to where it needed to be. Stopped it. Went in to grab some tools. Swore because the car was not centered in the lift. Restarted it -> it started like it did in 2008 when I bought it. Centered it in the lift, up it went, changed the oil. Oil was from 11/17 and had ~4800 miles on it - and looked, smelled and felt just fine. There's a distinctive feel to oil past its prime - this wasn't it. Put in 5W50 - it's summer after all and this car never sees 40F weather. Washed the thing... there are only two problems that I'll tackle in another thread. 1) AC needs charging. I have all the equiment and 30 lbs of R-134 (from Dupont... sorry, Chemours). That's next on the list 2) The coolant was VIOLENTLY down. As in, it took three quarts of distilled water to bring it back to level ... but there were no stains anywhere, there was no mix ... any idea where it might have gone? I shall change the coolant anyways, the car is on the factory fill from 09/2004 and the additive package is a remote memory by now, but I'd like to understand WHERE it's going. Oh yeah, also: tires that have been sitting for six+ years and were down to 15 PSI may cause you to experience some SLIGHT VIBRATIONS for the first 10 miles of driving. For 'did I forget I had snow chains on' values of slight. Anyways - one more thing to love about this car. My S54 powered M3 was a LOT more difficult to resurrect after a shorter stay... but that's another story for another forum.

Got it, thank you again. OK, let me try - next weekend, I hope I can get fluids in time - and report back.

Thank you JFP, one question: I was contemplating the gas, which yes, is one of the things which are very much on my mind. The question is: Is there a reasonable way to drain it? Or, how bad is outright dropping the fuel tank to take a look inside with a borescope and see if it needs further cleaning? The rest should be straightfoward (famous last words) and I do have a vacuum bleeder for the cooling system. I'm somewhat worried by 'see if it will start', I have to say :).

Hello everyone, I haven't been around because... the cars have been sitting. Since fall 2019. In an effort to actually get SOME use out of them, I had the odd idea to at least get ONE moving and I was wondering what a reasonable order of operations is. The car was parked in mid november of 2019 with the tires topped up to 50 PSI, in a garage under a cover - where it currently sits. Battery was taken out of it at that time, but no other special considerations were employed because, well, I was planning to take it back out for Easter 2020. That.. didn't quite work out. So now the question is : what to do? I was going to move it to the lift ... somehow (that's going to be exciting...) and at the very least change engine oil and filter before even ATTEMPTING to start it. Anything else I should consider? For reference, there are 61k mi on the car, it's one of the last produced and I've had it since early 2008. Manual gearbox. To the best of my knowledge, the car is 100% as it left the factory back in late '04 save for engine oil, oil filter and air filter - and brake fluid. That means that yes, in all likelihood trans fluids and coolant are the factory fill and while I was TOLD spark plugs had been replaced just before turning it over to me, I never actually got written proof of that in the stack of receipts from Porsche in CA that came with it. Belts, idlers... should (?) also all be factory. In my head, I see this as a two-stage process, i.e. first do the 'essential' work, get it back on the road for 50-100 miles, then put it back on the lift and do .. the rest (including driver side glass regulator, finally addressing the rear spoiler that stopped working on the way back from CA in 2008... etc). Ideas, suggestions, comments welcome.

Great feedback Porschelibrarian. In the meantime, I still have the non-functional rams on mine....

Stiffen the car, absolutely not. It's even worse than the soft top as far as noise goes. I bought it. I installed it. I used it half a season. It's been under its cover since. It's ALMOST as embarrassing as a classic 911 targa roof.

You need to look under the flaps of the tonneau cover. My 09/04 came without the receivers - I had to order them. The car had been ordered from the factory without a hardtop - and should have stayed that way, BTW.

JFP, thanks for your reply. I plan to keep it monitored and I was toying with the idea of replacing the coolant anyways, in my Copious Free Time. I have the usual UView vacuum setup which I have used on several other cars with some success. I wonder if it would make sense to wait and see where this issue goes before playing with that. [edit: entertainingly enough, I saw that you suggested it back in 2015. I have had it, I just deferred doing the fluids on the 911 because other cars needed my attention more - same goes for the radiators, which must look positively ludicrous by now...] I have read the howtos here and elsewhere on draining/refilling and it is my understanding that refilling without a vacuum tool is wishful thinking... and even doing the job with the tool and a lift is an excellent way to broaden my vocabulary. I have to say the car has been remarkably trouble free. Yes, the rear wing is doing its thing and the driverside window regulator decided to quit on me this spring (I am NOT looking forward to that one) but otherwise it's been filters and oil changes...

... I love 911s... My 04 TT is now up to 69,5xx mi and has been behaving more or less as it should. Yesterday, however, I got a coolant level warning from the car. Very odd. It went away with the car warmed up (as I would expect) and once I had it cooled down again, this morning, I opened the cap to refill the circuit. Full disclosure, to the best of my knowledge this is the first time the cap has been taken off since it left Germany back on 09/2004. It is POSSIBLE, though unlikely, that the dealer futzed with it when they did the 15/30/45 kmi service. I stopped going to them after the last one. It took about a quart of distilled water (!!) to get the level back to the max mark. Of course, I started looking for leaks under the car and I found none. Ideas? Suggestions?

Very late on the topic, but it may help in the future: there is at least one company who will rebuild the factory ram system at a much lower price than the positively hilarious rennkit.com list (who even have the impudence of charging separately for dust boots...). The company I found is down in FL : http://www.cabriolethydraulics.com/porsche-carrera-hydraulics.php The complete rebuild cost $650 a few years ago and they seem to have a good reputation.

I think I should try to explain better: in the howto referenced in this thread, it is stated that the central radiator duct is held on by rivets. Not the plastic ones that have a pin in the middle that you pry out, the metal ones that need drilling to get out. I have some small experience with rivets - and with taking cars apart, gearboxes and differentials included, though this certainly doesn't make me an expert - and will stand by what I said: yes, you can drill them out. Yes, you can put them back in. No, you cannot do that ten times in the same hole. And given the position, you get to decide what rivets you should be using and whether Tefgel/Duralac is a good idea (generally, yes, unless you live in the south far from the sea). Given the fact that it looks like you'd have to buy the entire centre radiator assembly if the metal decides to be grumpy, I would rather not do it every year. Or possibly, if I had to do it every year, figure out if there's an alternate way of fastening the parts.