My coolant seem to be slowly vanishing. A few months ago I had to put a glass or two of coolant. Then the light came on; I would start the car and drive it and the light goes away after a few minutes once the engine is hot.

I inspected under the engine there is no visible coolant leak.

I got some distilled water yesterday and thought I'd need little, but ended up putting the whole gallon in until it reached the level.

Is it normal that a gallon of coolant evaporated (or vanished) in the course of several months? Or if this abnormal what could be the cause of vanishing coolant, what am I looking at to spend to fix, roughly?

Thanks.

 

How do I check for that, at a dealer or self?

 

Ok, thank you, will check tonight. The engine starts and runs very smooth though.

If it's intermix problem, does this mean engine death sentence? How often does that happen? Scary...

 

I'll let the smart people chime in here. If you don't get any responses, try asking the question on Rennlist.com.

 

Great likelihood of blue cap failure or reservoir failure. These are most likely.

 

What year is your car? Mileage? & has the waterpump ever been replaced?

 

Look under you car at the drivers side, if there are stains under the tail pipe tip the tank is leaking. Probe around under the car near the tailpipe.

 

resevoir is known to leak. you need to get this leak fix asap before you get stranded.

a shop will pressurize the cooling system to id the leak.

could be in the resevoir, hoses, cap. a large leak like this is usually not a sign of engine compression / oil and coolant mix issue.

if you don't know what you are doing, don't mess with the cooling system while the car is hot. the steam can burn you badly. let a qualified tech work on this with original porsche parts.

 

No leak is acceptable. I agree with djantlive...fix it asap!!

 

Agree with the above posts....a leak is not acceptable...start with reservoir and use your hand to feel the bottom of it through the top of engine...make sure your coolant tank cap is the updated one...get on your back and look on the drivers side tailpipe/waterpump area for any leaks or any pinkish crust around any areas...check dip stick. After that, I'd move foward and follow coolant line.

 

Rarely will you be able to actually "see" the coolant in the oil, you would need to send the oil off for analysis to see that.

But oil in the coolant will look like a coffee milkshake. You should be able to see it right away in the coolant overflow tank. It won't look like normal antifreeze or coolant.

For a gallon or more of liquid to disappear more than likely the system has a leak and it should be properly diagnosed with a pressure/vacuum system and repaired.

As pointed out above common reasons for coolant disappearing are coolant tanks cracking and coolant caps. Hoses and clamps rarely blow unless they've been messed with previously, but I have read about a few of these happening.

If none of those are the culprit, there is a corner chance that your system had air in it and it wasn't bled completely for some reason, perhaps it was already low so it started drawing air in somehow (but 1 gallon would be pretty extreme, unless it was way below the min mark already and you brought it all the way up to max level). It might still have air in it, and a drain and refill using a vacuum system is recommended. That could be all that is required to get it back to 100%.

Also, what type of coolant did you add? If it is not compatible with Porsche, it could create a huge gel mess that will make more problems ... although if you are certain it was just a few liters that might not be a problem. Good choice adding distilled H20 to top it off to avoid gelling problems.

 

Have the same problem.

 

hey guys, thanks everyone so much for replies. Lately I barely drive the car, it's garaged. So back then I added a gallon of distilled water. Drive now and then, have not had light come on yet. I very much doubt at this point after doing all the reading that it's intermix problem.

Anyone knows a good indy in or around NJ/NY area? I would still like to have it looked at and fixed. - thanks in advance

 

Coolant cap, coolant tank, AOS, front rad, or intermix could all be the issue. Coolant cap and tank are the cheapest and you should see signs under the car. AOS can also leak coolant and again you should see sign under the car.
A simple pressure test should find the leak.

 

Had the same problem.. I swapped reservoir and cap problem solved... It was cracked on the inside... Would leak only when completely cold... Even kept good pressure, drove me insane...