It is not directly below the pump. If you are facing the windscreen, it is at about the height of the base of the HPFP, but a couple of inches to the left.

 

I just checked mine out with a cheap $15 camera. Took forever to find! I used a welding rod (coat hanger would work) and bent the end 45 degrees. I then attached the camera with some tape. The fitting was right below the HP pump. Mine looked good and did not look like it was coming out at all.

I'm wondering if I should goop up the fitting now and put some wire around the nearest hose clamp to secure it or just wait till it starts to pop out a little and do a complete repair?

I thought for sure this would be the cause of the coolant smell I am having. I had to top off my coolant last week. I tried pressurizing but my tester leaked. No visible coolant anywhere.

 

When you are testing for coolant leaks, remember that it is vital to do it with the block warm and up to normal temp (coolant: 180 deg F) before you turn it off and perform the test. The reason is that you might have a small crack or broken seal that expands at operating temp and causes coolant to weep out.

Also, I recommend adding UV dye to trace down your leak.

 

Having been through a sudden coolant loss from total failure of this part, I would suggest the tether as it could buy you some valuable time and safety.

 

Hi All. I'm new to the board and it looks like I'll be tackling the Coolant pipe replacement as my first project on the car.

Could I please ask if the coolant pipe failures and fitting failures tend to happen at a certain mileage? Or are they just bound to eventually fail after a certain amount of time? Reason I ask is because I was able to find a very low mileage 2008 CTT (29,000kms). Garage kept. Never exposed to the elements. Well maintained. But I know the plastic coolant pipes were not replaced to new the aluminum ones. There also isn't any coolant loss that I notice at this point but I do smell coolant when the motor is running. I live in a very warm climate but I'm not really sure that would add to the potential problem. At least it is consistently hot all year round with no extreme changes in temperature.

I am just worried that at any given moment I can go from zero leak to catastrophic failure of the pipes and/or fitting. Is this like a ticking time bomb or do I have a cushion since my mileage is so low? I know many factors add to the failures but I was hoping for any additional input anyone could give.

Thanks so much to all the contributors of this board. Truly a wealth of information.

 

Hi Renaissance Man. I will be upgrading the coolant pipes to the aluminum ones on my 2008 CTT. Reading many of the horror stories online has made me want to speed up this preventative upgrade. I don't have any coolant loss at the moment but I'm afraid of sudden failure of the parts in question.

I noticed when you did the permanent fix on the water distributor your entire tranny was out and it looked like you had full access to the water distributor. I have a couple of questions regarding this.
1.) Does the replacement part for the water distributor have a threaded barb now? Or is it still the same part with a glued one?
94810606106

2.) Would it be advisable for me to replace the water distributor from the rear by dropping the tranny or more advisable to drop the engine to do the replacement?

Thanks for all your info.

 

I can tell you that when I was quoted a new water distributor replacement by the dealer, they stated the new part had a threaded neck insert.

 

Beautiful. Thanks for the info. I'll be ordering one then.

 

You're most welcome.
Note that I repaired mine so I never got to personally see or confirm the new design, but my service adviser at the dealer is usually very good at providing accurate info.

However, if I were going to order the part and go to the expense of dropping the engine, I would request something in writing from Porsche that confirms/describes the new design, as I am sure that even if it is threaded, they would use threadlocker, so you may not be able to validate yourself that the design has changed.

 

I replaced the plastic pipe under the intake manifold and secured my fitting the other day. My CTTS has 90k miles on it and as far as I can tell, it has the water distributor. Mine was in there quite solidly though, and I wasn't able to budge it with moderate effort, so I safety wired it and applied a little JB weld for the hell of it.

Intake manifold off





Close-up of under the intake manifold area.





Fuel rail off





It turns out that this is where my slow coolant leak was coming from. Notice the coolant residue at the bottom of the vee.





New coolant pipe installed.





This is what my water manifold fitting looked like. No evidence of a leak and could not budge it.





Water distributor fitting safety-wired to the water distributor casting.





Make sure to order the camshaft stopper and a new HPFP o-ring. Mine disintegrated upon attempting to pull it out. I was very worried that I wouldn't be able to get it out of the camshaft, but a pick with a 90 degree head was able to coerce it out after a while.





This is looking at the back of the camshaft with the HPFP drive installed along with the new, plastic camshaft stopper.

 

Would anyone know the part number of the coolant hose that attaches to the end of the aluminum T pipe in the picture? The one that goes downward from the T. I'd like to change mine while I'm in there doing the aluminum pipe upgrade.

If anyone would have the part number for the rubber hose and the clamps that would be great!

 

Update on my cooling pipe fix, water pump and water distributor replacement.

Like loxxrider, my plastic cooling pipe was showing signs of leaking. Glad I got in there when I did.



Some good news with the water distributor. We were able to remove it without having to loosen the fuel pump or drop the engine or drop the transmission. We did have to remove parts of the catalytic converters to access the hoses attached to the rear portion of the cooling pipes and the water distributor.

Here's a side by side comparison of the water distributor. The original one on the car is the one on the right side. The new one with a new and improved threaded hose fitting/barb.


I'm glad I'm doing the replacement right now. After removal of the original water distributor, I gave the original fitting a tug and it was indeed moving. Although the car is a 2008 it only has 29,000km on it and the fitting was moving and the plastic pipe was showing some leaking. I'm thinking if I left it alone, it wouldn't have been much longer before a catastrophic failure occurred. Notice the left side has a fitting that is now threaded and needed a wrench to be installed, rather than glue. This will allow me to sleep better at night.

 

Great post and great job!
How much time & effort was required to get the water distributor out and back in?

 

You probably don't need this anymore, but I damaged this hose slightly on removal (brute force, haha), so I imagine others might want to order this when doing the job.

 

From the day I started removing engine parts/covers to the point where I removed the distributor took 5 days. A bit long for many people but it took a lot longer than it could have taken for a number of reasons.
1.) This is my first time working on this car
2.) Wasn't familiar with many parts due to number 1
3.) Wanted to be as careful as possible removing hoses and clamps
4.) Wanted to be able to remove the least number of items as possible.
5.) Tried to get the plastic main pipe out without breaking it. (this proved futile and we ended up sawing it in half to get it out.
6.) Wanted to be able to remove the distributor without removing the engine or tranny or fuel pump. (this was a success!!!)
7.) Replaced the water pump while it was exposed after removing all other hoses and fuel rail above.
8.) Had to remove downpipe and cats to access the distributor from underneath.

With respect to effort, a few people on this board have posted their experiences in replacing or remedying the distributor fitting issue and their descriptions are pretty spot on. It does take a great deal of patience AND effort to say the least. Along with effort, there's also bruised knees, bruised and scraped knuckles, lots of curse words and an aching back. But once you get the distributor out, it is well worth it for the potential headache-less motoring miles you can enjoy after this job. That's how I felt about it at least :-)

Funny you mentioned this because I had to order the exact same pipe as well as some clamps and a few others not pictured. I said I "tried" to be careful but some of these pipes didn't come loose without a fight and some plastic parts did break.

The main one I broke which I am waiting for in the mail is this piece below. I broke the white t-connector which apparently is sold as a complete set. This delayed my putting the car back together by a few days.