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Cooling issues


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Good morning all,

My Y2K Carrera is ailing all of a sudden. It seems it sprung a coolant leak as evidenced by the pics below. Wondering if it's a stuck thermostat or a water pump that would be causing this particular leak from that location. The computer says it's between 184-194 deg when the cooling system starts leaking so it almost seems that something's preventing coolant flow when the engine gets up to operating temp. I replaced the cap, had an old one as spare but that didn't do the trick.

Any troubleshooting assistance you can provide for me to get this repaired will be very much appreciated. I'd like to determine if this is a job for the dealer and if so what I should expect it to cost.

IMG_6636.jpg

IMG_6637.jpg

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Could just be when it gets up to temperature that the increase of pressure causes that clamp and hose fitting to "break free" and start weeping. I had a few of those after 12 years on my car.

I certainly recommend having a shop do it unless you are the DIY type. The shop will have a vacuum refill tool for the cooling system which means they can refill it without the worry of any air pockets (which is especially bad for this car).

It would probably take a shop 1 hour to do the work.

That hose is P/N 99610685005 about $50 MSRP, but because of the year of your car you also need the tube it goes into it because the hose has been supersceded and redesigned, P/N 99610624354 about $60 to $70 MSRP.

Drain the system, then replace the hose and clamp.

Be sure to refill with Porsche coolant and distilled water (50/50) and bleed it properly. Don't add a non-compatible coolant otherwise you are asking for a disaster later on.

Unless you also see evidence of coolant coming from behind the water pump just above that area as well, in which case replace the water pump and gasket as well.

If you decide to do these things on your own spend some time with search you will find all the answers how to do the above things.

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Remove the tensioner belt from the water pump and spin it to see if it makes a grinding noise. If so, it's probably the pump going bad. If not, your hose may just be leaking.

I replaced all the rubber hoses on my 99 Carrera a year or so because they were not looking so great, and I didn't want to wait for an eventual hose explosion. I also replaced all the original clamps with new screw-type clamps.

If it is the water pump, it's a fairly straight-forward DIY that is well-documented on this forum. It took me about three hours when I did it.

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Thank you for the info gents, good stuff! I think I'lltake it to the dealer because spark plugs also need to be replaced and tierodends in the front are making a popping noise when cold. What's disturbing to meis that I have such issues(exclude the plugs) and the car only has 55K miles. Iguess even though the car is a garage queen things do go bad.

Edited by gcp
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Thank you for the info gents, good stuff! I think I'lltake it to the dealer because spark plugs also need to be replaced and tierodends in the front are making a popping noise when cold. What's disturbing to meis that I have such issues(exclude the plugs) and the car only has 55K miles. Iguess even though the car is a garage queen things do go bad.

I had a similar leak on my 996 that was solved by updating the hose clamp. There is a TSB that covers this subject for the 996.

post-898-0-32723600-1314841309_thumb.jpg

Edited by slbates
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If it's only a hose clamp replacement Id' like to tackle it myself but I can't find the DIY for bleeding the cooling system, can someone please point me to it?

Thanks again for all your help!

Edited by gcp
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If it's only a hose clamp replacement Id' like to tackle it myself but I can't find the DIY for bleeding the cooling system, can someone please point me to it?

Thanks again for all your help!

You need a vacuum coolant system re-filler to do it right. Do you have one?

No I don't, where do I get one and is it worth buying? I read something about facing the car downward after the fill? Will that not do? I was reading your DIY....

Good to talk to you again Loren after a few years.

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Well guys, it's not the hose clamp for sure, and it's not a hose. It appears to be the pump so I guess it'll be a bit more than the qucik fix I was thinking it may be. Thanks for all your help!.

Try Amazon.com for that UView vacuum tool, they always have decent prices on it, sometimes less than $100 total. It is identical to the P labeled unit, but without the fancy logo, and it's extremely well made and will pay dividends indefinitely. In other words, that thing really works well and it can stand up to the abuse to which they are subjected.

If you doing the water pump, it will save you hours of manual bleeding, etc..., etc...

Good Luck!

Regards, Maurice.

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1s thanks!

Is 55K miles normal for a H2O pump failure on a 996? Seems low miles for such a failure......

50 to 60 thousand miles and you are right in the "sweet spot". :eek:

Sad but true... There is also some "wisdom" out there that says to stay away from aftermarket units because of the impeller material quality. There is a lot of info on that issue on 986forum.com, but a lot of it is geared towards driving sales for a certain purveyor of such wares. Said purveyor shall remain nameless, but definitely do some reading here as well on that issue as you don't want to do that job twice, especially the burping part if you get the Uview unit.

Regards, Maurice.

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1s thanks!

Is 55K miles normal for a H2O pump failure on a 996? Seems low miles for such a failure......

Mine just failed at exactly 35k miles. I spoke with two Porsche techs that recommend replacing the darn thing at, you guessed it, 35K intervals. It is cheap insurance. My pump was only $222 plus the gasket at Sunset.

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  • 5 months later...

Sure you've fixed by now, but outside of the squeal/squeak up to 2-2.5k RPM you had the same exact symptoms I had. Starts with a small drip. Went new Pump because its bad, hoses and clamps because its 13 years old.

Also, there is a coolant plate, mine had a leak - i had the gasket replaced. $24 part and I think I was quoted/paid less than an hour labor for that part of the job.
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  • 1 month later...

My apologies for not reporting back!

Yes, I had the dealer fix it last Sept. and it's been running well ever since. But now another problem surfaced, the motor of the convertible top is operating slow and won't close the top completely without manual help. I need to execute a search on this topic....

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  • 5 weeks later...

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