Boxster Coolant Leak

[Bobiam]

With a little patience and a good flashlight you might be able to see the source of the leak from below without removing anything. Of course with such a low car, you would need to jack up the front end and use jackstands for safety. You may need other parts as I mentioned earlier.
Perhaps the garage should get it onto a lift, remove the bumper skin and get a good look at it before ordering parts. The car can be driven into a yard for storage for a few days without the skin.
There's good slide show instructions somewhere on this forum if you need them.

[emohawk11]

The radiator was out yesterday evening. No obvious cracks or damage to the exterior.

Just the bottom corner which was yellow from the coolant and appeared rotten. The metal honeycomb crumbled when touched in this area.

So remains a bit of a mystery..photo attached. New radiator now in place. Cost £125 OEM.

[Bobiam]

Originally Posted by emohawk11

The radiator was out yesterday evening. No obvious cracks or damage to the exterior.

Just the bottom corner which was yellow from the coolant and appeared rotten. The metal honeycomb crumbled when touched in this area.

So remains a bit of a mystery..photo attached. New radiator now in place. Cost £125 OEM.

Attachment 16773

No mystery.....Your radiator was ready to start leaking and you footballed it over the edge. You never mentioned the yr of the car or the miles on it. Do you KNOW about the coolant that was in it? If some replacement coolant not designed for the car, it could lead to early rot. Also, organic debris stuck in the radiator could possibly rot it from the outside. I hope the mechanic checked that out on the opposite side while the bumper skin was off. You got away easy....could have been worse.
What kind of coolant was installed with the repair???????

[emohawk11]

Thanks for your comments

year 2003 - 93k miles.

There was plenty of damp rotting vegetation in the leaking radiator.

Mechanic charged 3 hours labour. He did clean out the other radiator while the front skin was off.

The coolant previously in the car was yellow.

The coolant now used is a Pink colour - apparently its the most expensive stuff.

Im looking to change the car but cant really decide what to go to. The Cayman is nice, but more costly for essentially the same car. A newer Boxster is kind of the same again, and an Aston Martin v8 Vantage is 30k! plus running the thing.