What did I do now?
 

Have a habit of reading instructions AFTER.

Poured some Prestone coolant to top off the level - was at or slightly below min level. Might have put in about 1/4 - 1/5 quart. Coolant flush is in the to-do list but, do am I looking at a immediate action item or can it wait? Not driving much as I have to change the plug tubes, sensors etc to get it inspected.

Also do I have to put only Porsche stealership coolant or can I get an aftermarket for less?

2000 Boxster S

Thanks.

If you only needed to add such a small amount, why not just add distilled water?

What kind of Prestone?

Didn't know until I had a bad feeling and checked. Learning slowly. :o

Prestone 50/50 Pre-diluted Antifreeze Coolant
Silicate, phosphate, borate and nitrite free.
Says: For use and compatible with ANY antifreeze, ANY make or model, ANY color coolant.

Contains ethylene glycol, diethylene glycol, sodium 2-ethly/hexanoate, sodium neodecanoate.

I'd flush it, immediately. And make sure what comes out isn't gel in any way.

Call Sunset Porsche 503-641-8600 and order some OEM coolant. It's about $24/gallon. A local dealership will charge you over $40. You will need to purchase 3 gallons of coolant and a couple gallons of distilled water.

And don't forget to blead the system when you done.
Read the instruction first :)

I believe the only difference is the porsche coolant has a defoamer in it, that is why no water is recommended, as it will delute the defoamer. Without the defoamer, its just another coolant.

Porsche uses Elf Glacelf Supra OAT coolant and rebadges it. It's meant to be mixed with distilled water like all other coolants.

It's incompatible with traditional coolants and will form a gel that will not flow and is difficult to clean out.

Dexcool coolants from Texaco are compatible. But I'm not making promises.

Here is the prestone extended life MSDS.....
PRESTONE EXTENDED LIFE ANTIFREEZE MSDS

Here is the label on the porsche antifreeze....

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads01...1324761665.jpg

looks pretty much compatible to me, though the prestone has less chemicals.
As long as your silicate free you should be ok, as siliates don't mix with OAT

I'd flush it well and start over with Porsche (or Prestone) but I wouldn't mix them. The last thing you want is to have a coolent incompatibility and overheat the engine. Not saying that is what will happen, but its definitely not worth the risk.

I'm not saying what you put in is incompatible, but as a previous poster mentioned, incompatibility could lead to gelling, and you do not want to have the cost of having to remove gelled coolant from throughout your system. Not to mention the possible engine damage from overheating...

The Porsche coolant incompatibility issues are fairly well known and documented, and as others have suggested can lead to a major league mess to try and clean up after it gels. But more to the point, the Porsche coolants have proven to be pretty good actors over the years. We have had Porsche cars come in with leaking water pumps that still had the OEM fill in them after 7-8 years and nearly 100,000 miles, and when tested (pH, freeze point, clarity, etc.) the coolant demonstrated it was still in amazingly good condition. We have seen similar behavior with cars that we had previously done Porsche coolant service on several years (4-6) ago that also test out perfectly. But other make cars that we also serviced using aftermarket coolant (that we mixed with distilled water, which is our standard practice) show signs of pH fall off and significant freeze point degradation after 3-4 years, indicating that the coolant is going to need to be changed soon.

Yes, the Porsche coolant costs a bit more than the stuff you can get at your local auto parts store, but experience has demonstrated it holds up extremely well over long periods when mixed with distilled water, a factor that could be a major consideration when you take into account what a pain in the butt a DIY coolant service on a Porsche can be for the average backyard mechanic, so it just might be a better value….

Do you think this is this more an indication of the quality of the Porsche coolant, the efficiency of the Porsche cooling system, or a combination of both?

I think it a reflection of the formula they spec to the company that makes it for them, it really is a pretty good product.

What a pain it was to flush and change the coolant. The hoses refused to come out and I didn't want to fight them too much. But did get the front radiator return hose out on the front side and drained. It didn't look good and didn't look bad either. Tried Napa etc but no one has them. Dealer didn't either. So bought new clamps and tightened it as mush as I could and looks like no leak.

Due to the inability to drain the whole system this is what I did. Removing the drain plug dumped about 1.5 gl. Removing the radiator return hose dumped another gallon. So put the hose and the plug back, filled in about 2 gal of distilled water, ran the engine for a minute, drained, repeated for 5 cycles. For the last cycle the liquid came out very very light green. Yes, it was green. Looks like the PO had used regular coolant and I had added more Prestone. So, glad I did what I did.

In the end I put in about 10 gl of distilled water, removed about 13.25 gl out.

Existing capacity - 6 gl
Added dist water - 10 gl
Drained - 13.25 gl
Left in system at the end 2.75 gl
Added new coolant (unmixed) 2.5 gl
Current capacity in system - 5.25

Tank seems full. So have to run the engine for a while tomorrow and see if it settles and needs more. The book says the 3.2 has a capacity of 6.2 gls. Think there is some air in the system.

You think flushing and draining 5 times is good enough? I ain't doing this for another 5 years!!

I think that you did a fine job and shouldn't have any worries. :cheers:

Don't you have to bleed the cooling system somehow to avoid air pockets? I thought that this was the main reason for not trying to change the coolant yourself.

Keeping the bleeder valve to open and running the engine creates the circulation and removes air pockets. I added almost 1/2 gallon and could hear air escaping out once the engine was turned on and raised the rpm to about 2500. It took a couple of those to bring it to the correct fill level by adding as the level went down.

That's my theory and I'm sticking to it! Like I said I ain't doing this again and please don't make me. :chicken: