Time for the Water Pump, 2 wrench job...
 

Sitting in the drive-thru and started to hear a fairly loud urethane / plastic type of noise...slight rev of the engine and the noise went away only to return. Not happy at this point...and I'm stuck in line with no way out...

Make the drive home (less than 2 miles) and don't see any abnormal indications. Sound seems to have stopped. Driving home, I see nothing on the road behind me as far as fluid leaks - and no unusual exhaust (smoke / vapor).

Pulled into the drive way and no sound?! So I pull into the garage and let it idle to see if I can hear the noise again. Nothing - but now the temp is creeping higher above the usual needle on the "0" of the 180deg marking. Temp fans come on and it keeps going up very slowly so I shut her down...

Hop out and then I see a small spot coolant on the driveway - similar to an air conditioner spot. Now in the garage, I can see (and hear) coolant leaking from the engine compartment just behind the passenger seat...

So - my guess is the impeller is toast - hopefully a ceramic impeller. I'm searching the previous owner's records for any replacements...any other thoughts if I'm headed down the wrong path?

A couple of searches about water pumps on the forum where helpful. Nice recent discussion on the types / brands as well as a good discussion on thermostats. The kit has a 160deg stat so that will get done at the same time. Water pump kit is now on the way from Pelican.

Might not make it by the "Labor Day" weekend...should give me time to tear out the old pump and have things prepped...

This is a perfect DIY job - hard enough to make it worth the effort and impress the mistress but easy enough to get it done in one Saturday morning. :)

Here is my post about replacing the water pump and t-stat: http://986forum.com/forums/general-discussions/43198-new-waterpump-t-stat-today.html

Good luck!

By now, my mistress does no longer gets impressed (by me anyway)...

Actually whenever I mention that a job will take me about two hours, she replies back "do you mean two hours or two days" ..? :-(

...LOL

.

Did you also lower the engine to do this job? I just looked at the tutorial in Pedro's Garage, and that's what he does. If so, 4 hours is a crazy fast! It would take me that long just to figure out how to lower the engine.

You don't have to lower the engine, but a couple of U joint sockets would be very handy. Sorry, I can't remember which size/sizes I used.

You might want to consider doing the engine mount at the same time, both jobs together makes each one much easier. I'm assuming the car has significant miles, i.e. more than 75K. If so, the mount is probably bad and there's really no way to check it other than taking it out. In any event, its pretty cheap.

Why do both? If you are doing the pump I'm assuming you are going to drain and refill with new coolant. To do so, you have to disconnect the big hoses at the engine block. With those two hoses disconnected, dropping the engine to get at the engine mount is a breeze. And once you drop the engine, all the bolts on the WP are easily accessible. I was able to use a torque wrench on all the wp bolts when I put it back together.

Lower the engine? Really? That's like removing the windshield to replace wiper blades. :)

No, I did not lower the engine, I did it with the car on jack stands. Everything is accessible from underneath or through the front engine access panel behind the seats.

Also, I did not drain, flush, and refill the entire volume of coolant (no reason to do so). I simply refilled the gallon or so of coolant that was lost when the water pump was removed.

And the 4 hours included a good amount of screwing around and wasting time - for me, working on my cars is kind of a zen thing and I'm never in a hurry and take way more time than needed just to enjoy being out the workshop. Should only take 2-3 hours.

Take a look at this DIY from our Forum owner: Pelican Technical Article: Boxster Water Pump & Boxster Thermostat Replacement - 986 / 987

If it's not a 10mm, it'll be a 13mm :-)

There is one bolt that is a real PITA -- others are fairly easy.

I do remember trying to get the gasket on the thermostat to stay -- and
to get a good seal on that can be tricky. DON'T over tighten,
the last thing you want to do is mess with extraction tools in such a tight confined area.

Mike

Thanks for the link thstone! I'll roll up the sleeves soon - gonna buy a universal 10mm for the hard to reach bolts. And I wish I had thought about the motor mount! The car just rolled past 88K and I don't see that has been done in the past. The only related item to the cooling system was the coolant tank was replaced at 33K for a leak. I will probably drain as much coolant as possible and start fresh - not cheap from what I understand. Since I will use Porsche coolant, I might just grab the engine mount from the dealer if it's not ridiculously expensive so I don't have to wait extra days to get this job done...lest my wife start asking me when my "2-week" project is going to be finished....

Seriously? All you do is disconnect the front mount and lower the motor with the scissor jack that you put there to support it with the mount removed. It does make access easier.

Well, new pump arrived today. Not too bad of a job. Having a flex 10mm socket is mandatory. Lol. Old pump bearing must have let go. You can see from the pic that the impeller isn't centered anymore, and several fins were chewed up as it wobbled / failed. My concern is having lots of small pieces in the system. Any thoughts on a power flush at this point? Pieces are not metallic so that's a small consolation...http://986forum.com/forums/uploads01...1409781561.jpg

Your biggest problem now is the plastic debris lodged in the cooling passageways of the cylinder heads. Some of the passages are small and if they get blocked or even partially obstructed by the remnants of your impeller, it causes localised overheating of the head. Not a good thing!!

Remove the thermostat and see if there is any debris in the housing and try and back flush the cooling system. I don't know how easy that is going to be, use the search function above to get more details. Perhaps JFPinPA, Jake Raby or someone who has already back flushed or cleaned out the cooling system can give you some tips.....

Well, went back thru some threads on the topic. Found this a few years back:

http://986forum.com/forums/general-discussions/42978-water-pump-impeller-tips-chips-your-cooling-system.html

Nice discussion on the process. Unfortunately, the gent that experience the failure was unsuccessful in finding any extra parts from his impeller despite the labor to back flush the engine. Perhaps they made it through and are lodged in the radiator - maybe they are stuck in the passages. Jake Raby added the commentary that he frequently finds parts of impellers in the passages during the rebuilding process in cracked heads...also the good advice to PM the water pump every 3 years regardless of mileage to prevent this type of failure.

Since I'm past the PM stage - I guess at this point I'm stuck as back flushing doesn't seem to produce good results. I will strain the fluid I collected to see if I can find any chunks. Earlier I think I found some pieces the size of ground pepper...but nothing substantial. After that, I think I might back flush the engine as a hopeful measure...that's about as far as I can go at this point. After that, I'm on borrowed time if the passages are truly clogged...I guess Jake will be in business down the road with me...tough to get my mind around pulling the engine early to find these pieces vs the consequences of not pulling the engine...I would defer to Jake / JFPinPA and the other seasoned wrench turners what they would do after a back flush in this situation...