I removed the drain plug in the rear bottom of the engine and got 2.5 gallons of coolant to come out. I refilled with a 12oz bottle of Red Line Water Wetter concentrate and 2.5 gallons of distilled water.

I watched a video on youtube and learned how to pull the bumper off, remove the ducts and get access to the front condensers and radiators, they were a mess of filth, leaves, cigarette butts and even a flip top off of a can of soda. Put it back together and went for a long ride in the 106 degree heat today. The temp went up to 215 using the HVAC center trick I can get a readout of the coolant temp in celsius.

I'm happy, the temp gauge hangs on the edge of the zero in 180 and not on the 3/4 mark like it was.

It gets even hotter here so the jury is still out on the outcome of my project but at least I know that the radiators are clean.

Distilled water transfers heat much better than coolant. Water Wetter supposedly helps break up air bubbles that stick to the metal surfaces inside the engine and provides the lubricant the water pump needs. More distilled water comes in contact with more metal surface and water gives up the heat much better than coolant when going through the radiator.

I raced SCCA for many years and ran no coolant in my C5 Corvette just distilled water and Water Wetter, I believe in the stuff. There are still about 2.5 gallons of 50/50 coolant floating around in my 996's coolant system. The whole system holds 5+ gallons.

 

Good job and glad it is running Kooler. One thing about Phoenix is you can get the car up to running temp by the end of the block in summer. I ran around there temp wise in the morning today, but with this moosoon humidity not sure what it would run at 4 oclock in the afternoon. What is the HVAC center trick?

 

You can also get a digital readout on your coolant temp by press and
holding the recirculate and the top (arrow up) button on the right
side of the climate control panel for a few seconds. The left screen
will change. Use the + key below that screen until the display reads
6c. then press the center vent button once for your coolant
temperature. Go back to normal; press AUTO.

To convert to fahrenheit multiply the celsius temperature by 1.8 then add 32. Thats it.

 

Can you post a link to this video? I'm looking into doing the same thing. Thanks!

 

MeanRob, Any idea what the other menu items mean? thanks

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um-h2aUJHY4

 

Porsche AC Diagnostics
(undocumented, unsupported feature)

The AC Climatronic unit is actually manufactured by Audi. There is some sort of serial data stream (not CAN) that allows the AC unit to display engine parameters. This works on 1997-2000 boxsters. Same as 996....

To switch from F to C:
Hold down the recirculating button then push both the temperature + - buttons.

To access diagnostics:
Hold down the Recirculating & Air up buttons for 5 seconds. The + - buttons go up and down through the list of "c" codes. The center vent button switches the left display between the "c" code and its actual value. Press the Auto button to exit.

I have yet to verify all these, this info was copied from wonderful people on PPBB!
Here is a list of what can be seen:


0c - ERL
1c - Oil Temp?
2c - Inside temp. Sensor mounted in the aspirator assembly at the side of the dash.
3c - Outside temp. Sensor located inside the air inlet of the A/C unit.
4c - Outside temp. Sensor located in front grill of the radiator. The data is fed to the Climatronic from the instrument cluster. When not moving, the instrument cluster OBC temp display retains it's last setting until moving. This is to prevent heat emanating from the radiator affecting the temperature sensor. The A/C unit uses the lower of the two outside air temp values in determining fresh-air temp.
5c - Outside temp. (matches OBC outside temp display)
6c - Coolant temp.
7c - Footwell discharge temp.
8c - Sun sensor (dash top)
9c - Sun sensor.
10c - Passenger compartment fan speed.
11c - Passenger compartment fan voltage.
12c - Temperature mix Flap command 1=COLD, 100=HOT
13c - Temperature mix Flap position
14c - Central Flap command
15c - Central Flap position
16c - Footwell/Defrost Flap command
17c - Footwell/Defrost Flap position
18c - Recirculation Valve command 1=OFF, 100=RECIRC
19c - Recirculation Valve position (feedback)
20c - Vehicle speed in kph, updating only once per second. (real speed, not speed+safety margin as in the speedometer)
21c - Engine RPM in hundreds. This too only updates once per second.
22c - ?
23c - ?
24c - Sun sensor, exterior lights switch & panel lights control (term. 58 & 58d voltage) - used for A/C panel display illum.
25c - ?
26c - ?
27c - ?
28c - Fan speed?
29c - ?
30c - Engine run time in seconds (255 max.)(=0xff)
31c - Timing counter
32c - Displays test
33c - Software version? Mine states 3.4
34c - ?
35c - Outside temp. from inlet sensor (filtered?)
36c - temp?
__________________

 

I'm disappointed because the car ran at 224 degrees F. It ran at 230 F before I changed out the coolant and cleaned the radiators. This is my first summer with this car and maybe this is normal in this intense heat.

Here's pics:

 

I'm not sure what the "normal" temp is but in 99-100 temp at highway speeds, my temp sits at the right edge of "8". When I'm sitting in traffic, it sits at the center of "0". Now my Boxster's temp were a little lower than my 911. Both had a 3rd radiator but still had a 10-15 degree difference.

 

Good video thank you fore sharing.

 

Power washing the radiators will help out a bit. Water is WAY better than coolant so long as you don't live in a cold region. Anyone know how to get oil temp out of the car, if at all available?

 

Have you thought about your thermostat? Maybe it's not opening properly - or it is opening properly and that's simply insufficient for AZ.

I know LNE has a low temp thermostat that opens at a much cooler temperature.

http://www.lnengineering.com/lowtemp...hermostat.html

 

I'm new to the Porsche world, but in Bavaria the thermostats fail stuck open, and that's the only way to function aside from normally.

 

Well, it's an easy test. Take the thermostat out, put it in a pot of water on the stove with a thermometer (high temp thermometer!) and turn up the heat. Measure at what temp it begins to open, at it is fully open and where it closes.

There's also a 3rd radiator option if it turns out that the thermostat is behaving properly/appropriately.

 

I just had a chance to take a look at the temps on my car. I live in FL and while not quite as hot as AZ, it was reading 97 outside temp in the car today.

Anyway 97 degree day, after letting the car warm up, I drove the car rather spiritedly to the interstate. About 5 minutes down the interstate bumper to bumper traffic. Sitting in traffic the needle on the thermostat never moved hotter than right between the 8 and 0 in 180. It may have just started to cross onto the 0 at one point, but just by a hair.

I got home and sat at idle for a while trying to get the digital readout on the a/c controls to work, but could never get it (holding recirc and up arrow on right). Anyway even sitting at idle in the sun, the needle never crossed that point between 8 and 0.

I have an '02 C4S which I am pretty sure comes with the 3rd radiator standard, but I wouldn't see that extra radiator doing a great deal in bumper to bumper traffic, or at idle with no air moving over it....

Just my 2 cents, but I would take a quick look at the thermostat... on traditional engine cars, you can hold the upper radiator hose, and feel it get hot as soon as the thermostat opens up, maybe someone can shed some light on which hoses would heat up first on the pcar? This would save you the trouble of tearing out the thermostat preemptively, but dropping it in a pot of water and letting it boil is the sure test.

I put a low temp thermostat in an old 2l 16v Jetta I had years ago and was fairly happy with the results...