Engine coolant

[Orangebob]

Hi all, just a quick one, basically my coolant expansion tank emptied itself in the boot, looked through loads of forums and will be fitting new tank myself on Monday. My question is what do I fill the tank with? Can I just top it up with xxxx or does it need draining and starting fresh so as not to risk creating gel like substance others have reported by mixing 2 different antifreezes? Lastly how much antifreeze do I need for topping up or to fill full system? Sorry if this seems a bit of a noob question but the closest I've ever been to any mechanic work is changing a wheel, thanks in advance, Phil

P.s. car is a 2001 Boxster S and the coolant fluid was pink if that helps

[thom4782]

This is not an easy job. Here's a link that will show you how. Look at the Replace Coolant Tank and Flush Coolant System articles.

Replace Coolant Reservoir

Important: do not mix different types of coolants. Best to go with the Porsche stuff.

PS: 50/50 mix is recommended

[Orangebob]

Cheers for the reply, already done a few hours tinkering on Friday, realised after a while that it wouldn't be an easy job, removed aluminium undertray from below and found how to get to engine from above and tried for a while to remove hoses from tank behind firewall, now have the spring clamp pliers off ebay that arrived yesterday thanks to the above tutorial and another that said the job was nigh on impossible without, quite confident on that part, but how do I know if the coolant currently in the system is Porsche and if I can just top up with Porsche or if it has been drained before and is now the pink stuff that was all over the boot, liquid in tutorial mentioned is green? Happy to flush the lot and replace but how much would I need to buy to do this? cheers again

[KRAM36]

All the Porsche anti-freeze I have seen is the pink stuff. You still need to do the 50/50 mix.

[Deserion]

Zerex G-05 also works well (gold/yellow). It's Mercedes-Benz approved, and that's perfectly acceptable to me.

[newBgeek]

I just finished tackling this project myself on my 2001 Boxster S. I tried following the guides from Pedro's site and 2001 projects, but it was too awkward trying to access the clamps from the top or through the firewall, and it didn't seem like a good idea to fight with the firewall plate since it's made of plastic and can easily crack. Looks like the guy from 101 projects cracked one of his nipples doing his.

So I took a look underneath and saw that the hoses are clearly visible as in this photo.


I took this picture with the aluminum cover plate on, but you can't actually reach up unless you remove the cover plate and the braces which sandwich it, but you can zip them off pretty quickly if you have an impact since they all use the same size nuts and bolts.

Use a good work light that you can point up, a creeper with a headrest, and with your remote clamp tool, it's a fairly straightforward job. The overflow hose is a gift. The 2 above are easily reachable. The oil fill clamp I had to snake the clamp tool over the wiring harness. The main hose that attaches directly to the reservoir I could not reach due to the brake line and the other 3 nipples, so I opted to remove that hose from the other end which was easily accessible. A bit tough to remove though. Would have been handy to have a 90 degree pick, but I managed with just pliers with a 90 degree tip.

I recently did a coolant flush on my son's BMW and the instructions were to slowing fill the reservoir tank with the ignition in the on position. After I got one tank full of coolant in the boxster, I turned the ignition to the on position without starting the car and surprise, it worked the same way as the BMW. It started sucking in the coolant and I was able to pour all of the coolant back in without starting the engine. I re-used my coolant since it was only 1 year old. I wonder what it is that is sucking in the coolant?

[Hummer-addict]

Make sire you buy a OEM tank and use a new cap ending in 04...I got to do the job twice cause my aftermarket tank pushed antifreeze out of the overflow. I removed the engine cover the second time to reach the clamps...way easier then reaching from bottom with clamp tool.

[newBgeek]

Originally Posted by Hummer-addict

Make sire you buy a OEM tank and use a new cap ending in 04...I got to do the job twice cause my aftermarket tank pushed antifreeze out of the overflow. I removed the engine cover the second time to reach the clamps...way easier then reaching from bottom with clamp tool.

I tried it both ways and found it way easier from the bottom because you can clearly see what you are doing as my photo shows. The guy from 101 projects made it seem like it was impossible to even look at the hoses without removing the transmission. Not true. You can easily view and reach the hoses at the same time, at least on my Boxster S.

[Orangebob]

I gave up trying to remove clamps from top, took the aluminium plate off the bottom and a mere 5 hours later the tank was out (many tea breaks) discovered the oil filler hose (one with flexi bit) was split so just waiting for a new one to arrive on Monday then can put it all back together, not sure if I should replace spring clamps with jubilee ones at same time, bought original but used tank, looks mint compared to one taken out but not sure I should trust it to last too long. Lastly I found a Porsche specialist only a mile from where I live so can pick up 50/50 mixed Porsche antifreeze for £6.50 a litre,

Total job cost £135 - Used tank £45, New oil filler tube £36, Coolant £13, for a full set of spring clamp pliers £40

[newBgeek]

Originally Posted by Orangebob

not sure if I should replace spring clamps with jubilee ones at same time

Pat Goss from Motorweek made a very good point about the jubilee, worm-drive, or screw-type clamp. He said the spring clamps apply even pressure around the hose, while the screw clamps have a pressure point under the screw which can crack plastic connectors over time. Makes a lot of sense. When you think about it, these things are heating and cooling all of the time. You really want a clamp that can expand or contract with the heat expansion or contraction of the hose and plastic connector. Personally, I'm sticking with the spring clamps that came with the car.

[Orangebob]

Finished was really struggling with the 2 smaller clamped hoses above the overflow until I read another post on this forum, I'd been trying to get the big rubber wiring grommet to come out into the boot with no avail, then I read that it just pops inwards when pushed, before this none of my tools could get the clamps close enough to the firewall to provide a good seal, almost called a mechanic friend for help, then discovered this and was finished in 2 mins with some 90 degree pliers, another top tip is to attach the oil filler neck to the tank before inserting through the firewall, I did this as I needed to replace but now realise taking the old tank out would have been infinitely easier if I'd have left the firewall end clamp alone and undone at the engine end, live and learn I guess, hope this helps others in a similar situation, as stated the furthest I'd gone into a car apart from filling with petrol before was changing a wheel, now I'm ordering tools and parts to do my own oil and filter change to see what state IMS bearing is in, hopefully fine but if not this will be a DIY job also, the joys of a porsche on a budget Apologies to whomever on here recommended the the wiring grommet, I'd give credit but I've read that many posts it could be anywhere

[newBgeek]

Originally Posted by Orangebob

Finished was really struggling with the 2 smaller clamped hoses

I'm surprised you had so much trouble with these hoses. They were the easiest in my opinion. Here a photo I took putting everything back together.



You can see the clamp tool on the Oil fill clamp (the tool was snaked over the wiring harness). All the hoses were very easy to push back on the firewall connectors. You can see there are no obstructions for the hoses on the right, so it was easy to just put the clamp tool directly on each of those hose clamps and move them over. The main coolant hose was pre-attached before I put it in the car and I just attached it at the engine side (3 inches to the left).

Overall, putting it back together was way easier than taking it apart. But now that I've done it once, I would say taking it apart is pretty easy, now that I know what I'm doing.

[Orangebob]

Think my remote clamp tool was too large, couldn't physically get clamps closer than 1.5cm from firewall, pushed wiring grommet through and tackled from inside boot and jobs a gooden, topped with coolant to max yesterday, took for a 30 mile trip and left to settle, noticed today level had dropped about an inch below min, hoping this was just an air pocket and not a pipe leaking, topped up before another 20 moles today, will update tomorrow if it's moved again