Question after Water Pump replacement - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

dav9515 · 03-21-2018, 04:25 AM

So, i had a very reputable and well known shop here in CT do my Water Pump and Thermostat replacement. I brought in the parts including 3 gallons of Porsche Coolant and 3 Gallons of distilled water. When i got the car home, i opened the trunk to find 1 unopened Gallon of coolant and 1 unopened Gallon of distilled water.

i thought this was weird assuming if you properly flush the coolant it should take more than the 4 used to fill the system. Looking at the radiator cap area today it was wet around it and the cap was not properly on but the carpet was not wet so it didn't "leak" a lot. However the fill level is below the min mark and upon inspection of the coolant it appears to have been mixed with the old coolant (red porsche - New + Green/Yellow - old = an orangey color now)

So my question, i didnt specifically state to the shop i wanted the coolant "flushed" but i would have assumed in doing a Water Pump replacement and me providing adequate supplies they would have completely drained the system and refilled with new. Is that not normally the case for WP replacement? did i need to specify?

This shop is a very well known race shop and had numerous full track cars as well as street cars they were working on so i felt good leaving my car with them but this is a real head scratcher for me.

for details the car is a 97' base so with the 2.5L motor. any input/advice? should i just use the remaining gallon of Red coolant i have to top off the system and keep checking to see if i need to add more?

alm001 · 03-21-2018, 04:35 AM

Seems a reasonable enough issue just to ask them about it.

I would not spend a lot of time running with mixed coolant in the car.

Is this South Windsor?

dav9515 · 03-21-2018, 04:51 AM

yes South Windsor, thanks for the quick reply

JayG · 03-21-2018, 05:16 AM

Its really hard to get ALL of the coolant out.

When I did my WP, I used an extra 8 gallons of distilled water to flush out the old stuff. I tried to get out all the flush water and when I filled it, it only took around 5 gallons to fill

kk2002s · 03-21-2018, 05:32 AM

I had green so like others when I replaced WP and Thermo I flushed twice (Distilled water). The second flush had a hint of green. Each fill I too only got in a bit under 5 gallons but my coolant now is pink, not orange
Maybe they only did 1 flush. My first flush was still pretty green.

I now have 2 gallons of 50/50 left over of pink stuff

dav9515 · 03-21-2018, 05:55 AM

Thanks for all the replies everyone. This is making me feel better that maybe i just need to top off the reservoir and i should be ok to go. It's really hard to tell the color of the coolant in the tank as it is distorted a bit but it definitely looks more orange than pink to me so there probably was still some residual green/yellow in there combined with the porsche red/distilled water (pink) to make it more orange.

Perhaps i am just being paranoid.

alm001 · 03-21-2018, 06:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dav9515

yes South Windsor, thanks for the quick reply

I work about a block away, near Nomad's. I constantly see Porsches driving there from my window.

dav9515 · 03-21-2018, 08:17 AM

The shop itself was rather impressive and they have a boatload of fully track prepped porsche's there. Nice eye candy.

Geof3 · 03-21-2018, 11:08 PM

Definitely want to check if there is a mix, if so, needs to be flushed. Porsche fluid is full strength so 2 gallons is actually 4, might need a top up here and there.

dav9515 · 03-22-2018, 04:10 AM

So, should i just top off with distilled water (currently about 1/2 inch below the min mark) or use coolant? or do i actually need to just do a 50/50 mix to top off?

I assume with such a small amount needed either way is fine, just asking opinion.

kk2002s · 03-22-2018, 04:38 AM

Personally now that I have the same 50/50 as I have in my car, I will always top off with that mixture. If you have 50/50 from what was just put in your car, I suggest topping with the known 50/50

To keep topping off with distilled water will start to dilute the antifreeze

JayG · 03-22-2018, 05:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kk2002s

Personally now that I have the same 50/50 as I have in my car, I will always top off with that mixture. If you have 50/50 from what was just put in your car, I suggest topping with the known 50/50

To keep topping off with distilled water will start to dilute the antifreeze

you should not be having to keep topping off the cooling system.

Even if you have to a little water every now and then, you are looking at a few ounces of water in 6 gallons of coolant. That's not going to have any significant impact on the dilution

rp17 · 03-22-2018, 06:13 PM

For the guys that did it at home, what did you use to get to those hard to reach bolts? Water pump that is..

Starter986 · 03-23-2018, 03:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rp17

For the guys that did it at home, what did you use to get to those hard to reach bolts? Water pump that is..

I found this video has some good tips... especially about the hard to reach bolts...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN4pBnGynIA

Geof3 · 03-23-2018, 07:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dav9515

Thanks for all the replies everyone. This is making me feel better that maybe i just need to top off the reservoir and i should be ok to go. It's really hard to tell the color of the coolant in the tank as it is distorted a bit but it definitely looks more orange than pink to me so there probably was still some residual green/yellow in there combined with the porsche red/distilled water (pink) to make it more orange.

Perhaps i am just being paranoid.

Take a small syringe and remove some fluid from the tank. It will be pretty obvious if it is a funky color. As mentioned, just call the shop and see what their procedure was when doing the fix. If they are a reputable shop, which it sounds like they are, I would bet they didn't just add some random coolant to some other random coolant. At least I hope not. You really don't want to mess with running an unknown coolant mixture.

dav9515 · 03-23-2018, 08:58 AM

i'm going to do that today, i have my turkey baster all ready to go

dav9515 · 03-24-2018, 03:48 AM

Update*

of course good and bad, i pulled some coolant out of the tank and it was definitely Pink! a plus it looked like they did the job correctly, i just need to top it off to get above the "fill" line.

On to the bad, i realized after this the real reason the coolant looked so orange in the tank is the color of the tank. It appears to be original to the car (97') and the color indicates it's probably something i should consider changing in the near future. Which of course means emptying and refilling the coolant...again!

pulling at a thread here as usual on older cars ha.

kirkandorules · 03-24-2018, 09:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rp17

For the guys that did it at home, what did you use to get to those hard to reach bolts? Water pump that is..

Start a collection of 10mm wrenches - every shape and size imaginable.

Geof3 · 03-24-2018, 03:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dav9515

Update*

of course good and bad, i pulled some coolant out of the tank and it was definitely Pink! a plus it looked like they did the job correctly, i just need to top it off to get above the "fill" line.

On to the bad, i realized after this the real reason the coolant looked so orange in the tank is the color of the tank. It appears to be original to the car (97') and the color indicates it's probably something i should consider changing in the near future. Which of course means emptying and refilling the coolant...again!

pulling at a thread here as usual on older cars ha.

I wouldn't worry about the tank unless it starts to leak. After so many years most coolant bottles have discolored. As long as you can see level, nothing to worry about.

DWBOX2000 · 03-25-2018, 05:57 AM

Now if your mixture is fine, the level is okay and the coolant didn't jelly up, is there really anything to really worry about. Coolant doesn't make the engine run cooler right, it just keeps it from freezing. At least that's what I thought I read. Depending on where you live, distilled water might not even be a big deal. I know when I did mine and didn't use distilled water I got really worried about it after various posts. I called my mechanic who told me not to worry about it considering the water in my area. He's an indie but was the head mechanic for one of local dealerships for years. So if he wasn't worried, I guess I shouldn't be. 2 years later, no issues. I'm starting to learn not to over think some of this stuff.