New Boxster owner-giving out 1 free item!

[tamarsha]

Originally Posted by jjanari

I also flushed and filled the coolant. I suspect the coolant was original (is the orig green?); either way, the coolant that i drained looked pretty clean. it's suppose to be lifetime, but that's probably not realistic. I refilled with havoline extended life.

I have never looked into a coolant flush on my '03 with ~40k. I was under the impression that the only coolant we could use was some super special fluid that for $45 a gallon must be made from the milk of a virgin yak.

What is the story here? Can we use conventional coolant in the 9x6 as long as the whole system is flushed?

[FTD]

coolant info from Mike Focke's web site:
Porsche claims their coolant is Lifetime, but don't believe it. It is simply a silicate and phosphate free Glycol based coolant. This should be changed every 5 years/150k mi. (whichever comes 1st) in order to provide maximum corrosion protection. It is the organic carboxylates which breakdown after this interval.

Instead of buying the super-expensive Porsche Coolant from the dealer, Zerex Extreme Life 5/150, Texaco Extended Life, Shell Rotella® ELC Extended Life Coolant, UNI-GARD 5/150, Mercury Extended Life Coolant Anti-Freeze, all meet or exceed Porsche Coolant requirements and are much cheaper. Use of any other type coolant is not compatible with the system and can form a gel-like substance if mixed with the proper coolant which can then obstruct flow, create hotspots, blow up your engine, etc.



Mike Focke's antifreeze
info

[jjanari]

I got most of my parts, particularly the brake pads/rotors from pelican. The pads (pagid) were around $80?? and have the hole for the wear sensor already, which I ended up re-using. the rotors were zimmerman and were about $130 for the pair, iirc.

I changed the serp belt too and that was the easiest belt change I've ever done b/c it's so accessible once you remove the inspection cover.

You're right about the coolant to the extent you can't use regular old prestone. If you look at some of the sites, like mike focke's, he talks about other non-porsche coolants you can use, which are much cheaper. the Havoline coolant I got is a phosphate-free, silicate free extended life and much cheaper (i.e around $14 at o'reilly's).

suburban, I too have a lot of sorting out to do, but it least it's winter, right?
although today it's sunny and in the 70s so I should probably pick up the pace.