So I took the advice of some of you on the boards about the coolant tank cap replacement since I live in hot and humid Miami..

So the car was sitting for about an hour when I opened the engine compartment and unscrewed the old cap, the fluid spilled over and a bunch of air was released from the coolant tank... Does this indicate that the old cap was not allowing the pressure to be relieved and if so, does that mean that the old cap was bad?

At any rate, will the new cap help with relieving the pressure a little better?

I haven't driven the car yet but I was curious if this is the cause of the coolant tank cracks...

Thanks all

 

Actually, keeping pressure in is part of its job. Higher pressure = higher boiling point = water cooling the engine instead of steam; i.e. not cooling the engine.

If your old cap wasn't holding enough pressure it might have allowed a little of the water to boil and this could show up as a higher temperature shown on the gauge.

However, now you need to be sure that the cooling system is refilled with the correct anifreeze/water mixture; to replace the amount lost when the old cap was removed plus any that might have previously been lost, etc.

It's also possible that over the next several days of driving you may need to add more water/antifreeze. This can happen becuase air can get trapped inside the engine's cooling system (when it became steam...). You want the cooling system full of water/antifree and not air, sooooo it may be necessary to top off the cooling system a couple of times.

Remimber, add fluid long after you've shut off the engine so that it has plenty of time to completely cool. For example, first thing in the morning is usually a good time.

 

Gotcha... Thanks for the info.. I will need to pick up some antifreeze and mix it up this weekend...

 

if it is just a little topping off distilled/reverse osmosis water will do. some people say that if you need to replace coolant, if you have porsche coolant right now, you need to use only porsche coolant to top off. porsche coolant is insanely expensive however, and some people use dex-cool, which is identical as far as composition goes. however, the same people that say only to use the porsche coolant claim this will cause your coolant system to become stopped up with sludge. if you just dont want to worry about it, top it off with distilled water as porsches come from the factory with a 60/40 coolant/water mixture, and you could get away with up to 40/60 coolant/water i would imagine based on your location

 

Awesome... Distilled water is easier and cheaper to get than Porsche Anti Freeze... It wasn't that much that came out... Maybe 1/2 cup...

 

yeah. i had this problem on my boxster and did a ton of research about a month ago. you can add a ton of water without throwing off the stock mixture to an unsafe level, especially in warm climates.