Puddle under my P Car today

[Pdwight]

The wife and I took a 200 mile trip this past weekend to the Space and Rocket center, it poured rain every step of the way. My Boxster always stays inside a garage with heating and cooling so I know it is not drainage. I was getting ready to start a sparkplug job and looked under the rear trunk an d there is a large puddle of orange liquid #%^##&

I raised the trunk and the area above the coolant tank had a lild layer of condensation .....guess it's time for a water pump job

I cleaned the floor and will see how much water is there tomorrow....the car never ran even a little hot on our drive.

[NewArt]

Why do you think w.p.? Where was the puddle located? If from overflow tube, it could be cracked bleeder valve ou just bad o- rings under same. No wetness under carpet near coolant tank?

[particlewave]

Condensation in the fill area is typically bleeder valve o-rings or bad cap. Based on your puddle, I'd say it's the o-rings.

[GTsilber]

Couldn't the coolant reservoir be a culprit as well?

Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk

[particlewave]

Could be the reservoir, but you'll typically have water in the trunk under the liner if that's the case (and a significant pool of water under the car instead of a puddle).
Any water under there, Dwight?

[Pdwight]

This might sound stupid....but where do I find the bleeder valve o-rings ?

[particlewave]

Take the fill area tray off and you'll see the bleeder valve.

See here: http://986forum.com/forums/diy-project-guides/9195-coolant-flush-step-step-pics.html

[Pdwight]

I will dive into this tomorrow as soon as I get off work

[dghii]

Make sure to check under the trunk carpet just to see if the coolant tank is leaking.

[Pdwight]

Will do

Sure hope it is just the O rings......rare I get to fix something on this car for less than 5 bucks

[kk2002s]

Dealing with this issue now, condensation on truck lid, few drops puddle from overfill tube(just in front of Right Rear Tire)
I isolated Bleeder valve issue from Cap by putting plastic sandwich bags over cap and Bleed valve and drove around at operating temp.
I only had condensation form in bag for Bleeder.
There is a drain hole in Expansion tank between Bleeder and Cap area and the condensation eventually goes down there and ultimately on floor
I just order 'O' rings from ******************************************** (They are back-ordered but only place I see that sells them). So hopefully that's the cure. Some here suggest you can find 'O' rings from hardware/Plummer stores. I didn't want to to take chance I could not

[dghii]

Excellent idea with plastic bags! I've r/r o-rings before with local hardware stock. Worked fine for awhile but have condensation again.
I don't really care. That whole coolant tank area is isolated from the trunk and I don't experience any coolant loss.

[Pdwight]

I removed the cover this afternoon and looked into the coolant tank, it was not empty. My O rings will not be in for a few days so I decided to add some water, to my surprise it only took a few ounces to bring the level up to the "Min" mark...surprising small amount. I left the covers off and of course the car will not be driven, so if the fluid remains at the "Min" mark it should rule out a split coolant tank ?? right ??

We will see tomorrow if the water has dropped..I did find a few drops under the water pump area, so a preemptive water pump looks to still be in the future (I just 80K miles)....but as I understand from reading the water pump is easy compared to the coolant tank.

[NewArt]

WP is not very difficult. Use a piece of cardboard to keep your bolts in order because they are different lengths.
Coolant tank is a PITA, but do-able. Check the write-ups on this forum for some good hints.
Bleeder rings are easy peasy. Just be gentle with all those little bolts anchored in plastic, they're easy to strip. Check the condition of the bleeder cap and replace it if it is cracked.

[dghii]

Originally Posted by Pdwight

I removed the cover this afternoon and looked into the coolant tank, it was not empty. My O rings will not be in for a few days so I decided to add some water, to my surprise it only took a few ounces to bring the level up to the "Min" mark...surprising small amount. I left the covers off and of course the car will not be driven, so if the fluid remains at the "Min" mark it should rule out a split coolant tank ?? right ??

We will see tomorrow if the water has dropped..I did find a few drops under the water pump area, so a preemptive water pump looks to still be in the future (I just 80K miles)....but as I understand from reading the water pump is easy compared to the coolant tank.

It MAY tell you something but when running, your coolant is under pressure so any small crack or pin hole will be more easily discovered.

[Gelbster]

Here is a diagnostic for the tank:
http://986forum.com/forums/performance-technical-chat/64817-coolant-tank-condensation-debugging.html
and some chat about coolant tank prices:
http://986forum.com/forums/general-discussions/31255-suncoast-vs-pelican-coolant-tank-price-2.html

[Pdwight]

Well checked on my P Car today , after bringing up the coolant level to the "Min" mark two days ago with distilled water it has not budged...of course the car has not been driven or even started. This gives me hope that the O rings might just be the problem........Now if Atlanta Porsche would just ship my O rings I ordered the middle of last week.....if fact they have not even processed my order or charged my card ??

I chose them because they were so close geographically . Today after the mailman (Actually a Lady) did not deliver I ordered some more O rings from an O ring supplier made of Viton....I had to buy 10 of each size ( 4X47 and 4X17) to make the minimum order of $20....so in the future if any of you folks need an O ring just let me know.

[Pdwight]

I pulled the Coolant relief valve and replaced the O rings today, the ones that came out did not look bad....but it was out and I had brand new ones. I used Parker O Ring Lubricant on the new rings and it went back slick and easy. I start to get an inkling of how bad a design the coolant tank is now, I was fortunate to have a 70+ degree day (in January) and I am sure this helped to some degree with elasticity of the plastics involved.

After I realized this thing was asymmetrical and I got the bolt orientation correct it went back pretty easy.I left the little cover off and took the car out and got it up to temp and put a few miles on it, got it up to 6K a few times and brought it back and parked it in my garage and no coolant got passed the valve....time will tell the real story.

Thanks for everyone's help

Dwight

[dghii]

Best of luck.
These cars are weird! Not long after purchasing my 2000 Box in 2008, I returned to work after lunch and went to my office. A coworker friend of mine came in a few minutes later and, In a voice just loud enough for others to here, announced that "Your new Porsche is puking fluid everwhere". Since this was a new to me car, and my first P car, my first thought was "Oh crap, here we go".
]
Anyway it was middle of a hot FL Augiust. The coolant must have been too high or the cap was crap, can't remember. All I know is the car started fine, wasn't running hot and required no further attention.

I did replace the water pump and thermostat....7 years and 50K miles later (at 128K miles).

These cars are so unreliable!