If I were in your situation I'd be pretty upset too. After all that work I would expect far more longevity. These turbo water lines are nothing like the ones that came with my Tial Alpha turbos. They were stainless braided hoses with high quality screw on fittings and I never had an issue with them. From the looks of this thread the 997 has a few more issues with coolant lines than the 996 because Porsche has added their own water cooling to the turbos and used the same crappy glue-in fitting design known to fail. It's strange that they over-engineer something like the cupholders to death but can't get simple water cooling fittings to stay in place. Hoses I can forgive but fittings just shouldn't fail.
Oh well, the flatbed shows up Monday to take my baby away.

 

Hmmm... On my kid's A4 there is a rubber to metal turbo coolant connection that wraps around the front of the engine right near the EM. It has some kind of fabric heat shield snapped around it right where it passes the EM and if it's not in place properly, the hose starts to smoke (ask me how I know).. I think that would do wonders to protect that little piece of rubber at the end of the passenger coolant line.

I'll have to do some looking and see what part number it is and if it or something similar is available elsewhere. My guess is that the rubber just gets cooked from the outside and that weakens it since it sits right on top of the engine. If it is getting cooked from hot coolant on the inside, the only thing that will solve that is a better hose. My UrS6 has a special kind of hose that runs under the IM around a metal line to the turbo to provide it's coolant. A regular hose placed there will fail in a very short time. I will also find out what that is, since I could do the same surgery and replace that small piece with something better (if I can find the right ID to make it work). Of course no one is making many parts for a UrS6 anymore, so that may be an issue.

I never knew that line was a consistent problem on a 997 TT. I wonder how many others have had that little piece of rubber rupture? We know about pinning coolant pipes, spinning cams and cracked plastic elbows, how many of these things have popped?

Bogg, you said yours was replaced and popped less than 2 years later? That is concerning.

Ed

 

Yes that's correct...it was just replaced as part of my "replace everything" plan but there was no problem with the original pipe. I will check my parts list to confirm that it was actually replaced but looking at the attached picture it looks like a relatively new pipe and it has a hole in it...the original one survived 11 years with no issue.

 

That hose looks new.

Mine was nasty looking:



You can see the thread sticking out from part of the tear. Your pipe does look new and frankly that hose does not look like it was old enough or damaged enough to fail. I wonder if it got cut on install or some other defect allowed it to split like that. The cut does seem oriented like mine and in about the same spot, just without the bulge.

Ed

 

I wondered about a clamp cutting the hose on install or something but who knows. My shop said the problem with this particular hose is that it has 2 different sized ends since one end goes onto the Sharky adaptor so I'm not sure how easy it would be to come up with a fab solution like you did with the driver side hose.

 

I've been hesitant to hand my car off to a shop and I have most of December off so I think I am going to just lower the engine a few inches and attempt the repair myself. I found the procedure for replacing what is called the "additional cooling pump" and it covers all the steps to access this hose. Combined with all the photos in this thread and the instructions for splitting the hose and replacing the rubber portion with standard clamps and properly sized heater hose there is nothing too difficult here.





Here are the condensed steps listed in the manual:

1. Disconnect battery.
2. Remove pressure pipe.
3. Remove air cleaner housing

Danger:
Risk of engine failing down.

• Danger of fatal injury, material damage.
• Support the engine with the prescribed tool.

1. Lower the engine.

Lower the engine by max. 40 mm.

Support the engine using a jack and retainer plate P9592.

Loosen and screw off M12 collar nuts on the engine mounting. Carefully lower the engine using the jack.

1. Remove fuel filter.
2. Remove secondary-air pump.
3. Remove oil-filter console.
4. Remove intake-air distributor, side 1-3.

This will give me full access to the hoses in question on the driver's side. Sound right? Any tips for avoiding unnecessary headaches from those experienced with this job?

 

That sounds right. You will still have the IM to deal with, but I think the pipes run between them. I would probably removed the generator to really clear the view there:



That will make pulling the oil console easier. Here is a shot of the driver side and the things in the way:



And what you would see from the side if the SAI and Intake Pipe are off:



So the only thing I would add is pulling the generator and maybe some of the wiring out of the way in addition to what you have.

The line runs between the the rear two IM ducts, but I think you will have access to it from the rear (front?) of the engine once the generator is out of the way.

I forget what I got for ID on the replacement hose, but one was very tight and the other slipped on more normally. I looked at me PDF and I did not go into detail. It's probably buried in my Engine Drop thread on the other site. You can do what I did and measure the hose once it's off to use when scouting around for a replacement.

Good luck!

Ed

 

The visibility with the engine outside the car vs inside is night and day. I did get access to the leaking fitting. It's circled in red in the photos. The hose is intact but the fitting is actually loose enough to move slightly by hand. My plan is to take out the fitting, clean/scuff it, JB Weld it back in place and then pin it with a stainless steel screw so it can't back out in the future. I am hesitant to make any more changes. I don't see any other areas I can do preventative pinning with the access I have and I will likely wait until the engine needs to come out for another reason to have the rest of the pinning done. I really hope this is the only source of leaks after all the time I spent!

 

That's the pipe that started my whole Xona upgrade project, lol. I don't know if the original shop damaged it but they substituted a crappy bit of plastic hose with 2 clamps and that finally blew out a couple of years ago. Then the second shop dropped the engine and we changed EVERY hose...

 

Supposedly you can pin all the glued connection while the engine is still in the car, but that same fitting fell out in my hand was I was doing my disassembly. The others were solid and fought me on the way out.

I think your judgment is sound. Wait until a drop to do the rest.

Ed

 

My engine is now out for plastic elbow leaks...

 

If not already done, pin the pipes and replace the rubber.

If you're feeling really adventurous, pin the cams and replace the chain guides/tensioners.

Ed

 

Yeah, thanks...all of those are on my radar. Sharkwerks elbows are on the way and I actually went and got the drill/tap and bolts for pinning yesterday. I'll do them when I'm bored...Still at a crossroads on what to do now that engine is out...rods and studs...or just studs for now? Engine out job isn't as bad as everyone says, so doing it again next year isn't the end of the world.

 

Ha that’s funny. It’s the same hose the led me to drop the engine and replace everything and upgrade the turbos, etc.

 

Well, things didn't work out. I repaired the turbo water line fitting and reassembled the engine. Went for a drive and the water is still leaking from somewhere on top of the engine. It ran great and never gave a CEL or temp warning / coolant low so that was reassuring but I had it towed to a well known Porsche shop called Renn haus in my area. They're dropping the engine and installing Sharkwerks elbows and using their pinning procedure. I also asked to have the water pump done along with a good engine cleaning. I can't wait to get it back and not have to worry about any more leaks.