Is my Boxster oveheating?

[ColtranePorsche]

Hey Boxster experts,

I've just recently bought a Boxster a few weeks ago. Sometimes it seems to be running a little hot, even when not being driven particularly hard, or for very long. Is this a normal running temperature, or is something going wrong here?

It doesn't always run at this temperature by the way, sometimes the needle seems to be right in the middle. It is normally on hotter days I believe when it's running hot.

Also, it was serviced December last year, in which the coolant and oil were changed, and the thermostat was replaced too.

Is this normal, or worth getting checked out?

[rick3000]

Ideally, it would hover around the tick to the left, over the 8 and 0. However, the position in your photo is normal, especially if it is hot, high altitude, or uphill. Mine tends to be in the area during the summer. You don't need to worry until it passes the next tick mark to the right. If it ever gets close to the 120, a red light will come on you and you should stop the car and assess what's wrong.

[BFlath]

My water temperature indicated like that while driving hard or stuck in traffic.
I cleaned an incredible amount of debris from the radiators now it's almost always at the 12 o'clock position.

[elgyqc]

Originally Posted by BFlath

... I cleaned an incredible amount of debris from the radiators ...

Do this. The airflow to the radiators is very efficient... at piling leaves, seeds and other debris into the rads. Ben Burner has a good Youtube video on how to remove the bumper and do this. While the bumper is off you can install a wire grill behind the inlets to catch most leaves and larger debris.
I agree with rick3000, that is not a high temperature.

[rexcramer]

+1 on the ability for these cars to suck all manner of things into it. I pull my cover off every couple of years. Be sure to split the radiator and the condensing coils apart. Stuff manages to get in between them also. It's summer in New Zealand, gauge looks about right. Future considerations; X/O the water pump, perhaps a low temp stat and flush the system thoroughly.

[paulofto]

+2 on cleaning the rads. The first time I did mine there were dozens of leaves, a surprising number of insects and on one side a bird. I installed ‘gutter guard’ grilles after doing the first cleaning and since then the debris has been greatly reduced when doing subsequent cleaning.

[Radman]

Also, make sure both of your fans are running. I have one that isn't and it hovers in that area on even moderate days here in Central Florida.

Have the fan, just need to make the time to life it up and do some work.

[Quadcammer]

looks normal for a hotter day or stop and go.

[ndfrigi]

after purchasing mine last 2017, 1st thing I did is to clean that area.

[ColtranePorsche]

Originally Posted by ndfrigi

after purchasing mine last 2017, 1st thing I did is to clean that area.

Jesus, that is a hell of a lot of crap on the radiators! About 70,000 miles on my Boxster and I doubt this has ever been done, so I'll definitely look into doing that soon.

[luckyed7711]

I take it that gauge is reading centigrade? (Celsius)

[Rob175]

Last summer, after reading about debris around the radiators I took a look, since I had no idea that it was a potential "trash can". Well....my 98' in fact had leaves, cigarette butts and some additional unidentifiable stuff.

Even though I didn't want to remove the bumper cover I was still able to use a flexible hose connected to a leaf blower to get the areas cleaned out through the two front openings. (a long BBQ tong also helped to pick out the larger pieces) Afterwards flushing the area with a garden hose really did a nice job. Granted I didn't get totally in between the radiator "sandwich" but got everything out that was visible. Never had an over temp issue before but it still was pretty good yearly maintenance.

[Barstyle]

While I agree that doing ANY cleaning is better than none, I would recommend a bumper off clean to every car that has never had it done.

IIRC, the front radiators are for the AC, and the bigger rear ones are for the coolant. Since you aren’t cleaning the rear radiators at all, there will still be some airflow and thermal issues.

I was amazed at how much stuff came out of mine at 114k miles, and I believe it had been done before!