RE: Porsche 996 Turbo: Catch it while you can

[hot66]

I had the coolant pipes on mine welded when we dropped the engine to replace the long aluminium coolant pipe that runs along the rhs chassis leg .... where this pipe was held by a clamp, it had started to corrode and leak coolant. That was quite an expensive bill that day Thing is , with any performance car there can be unexpected bills so dont expect to run one on a mondeo budget

re CSL, 422 for the UK, but I gather only around 260 these days ( leins will know for sure ) , some exported, some written off, some into race cars etc

[Lost soul]

hot66 said:

I had the coolant pipes on mine welded when we dropped the engine to replace the long aluminium coolant pipe that runs along the rhs chassis leg .... where this pipe was held by a clamp, it had started to corrode and leak coolant. That was quite an expensive bill that day Thing is , with any performance car there can be unexpected bills so dont expect to run one on a mondeo budget

Is this also an issue with the 997 turbo ?

[blade7]

hot66 said:

Thing is , with any performance car there can be unexpected bills so dont expect to run one on a mondeo budget

Exactly, any 20+ year old £100k supercar could throw up a £5k bill occasionally.

[hot66]

not sure about the 997 turbo

here is the offending pipe ... micro pinholes meant the coolant weeped over time. :





new pipe on RHS




regarding welding of the coolant hoses, again not sure if the 997 has the same potential issues. They are not needed to be done, but from the factory the coolant pipe fittings are bonded into the castings ..... these have been known to fail on 996 GT3's & turbos . There are a couple of solutions, I went for welding the fittings in place for piece of mind




turbo motor & box in all its glory

[Mr Whippy]

Lost soul said:

Is this also an issue with the 997 turbo ?

It's an issue with any car that is getting ~10yrs old.

Coolant pipes, brake pipes, fuel lines, anything and everything that is exposed to water, especially salty road water.

Worse still cars that are exposed and not cleaned, and then garaged in the cold/dampish conditions (my dad did this with a rarely used car and it was shocking how quick exposed bits went to crap underneath due to the salt!)


These are not issues, they're just the cost of looking after cars that have been used all year round as they get older... the 996T's whole benefit as being an 'everyday' supercar is also it's weakness because they'll suffer more from this type of wear and tear than other stuff I think.


Dave

[Lost soul]

hot66 said:

not sure about the 997 turbo

here is the offending pipe ... micro pinholes meant the coolant weeped over time. :

Crikey , you would have thought they would have taken more care with
corrosion proofing/material selection on such a critical part

[k-ink]

No offence to any owners, but when you look under the beautiful body of these cars... They look very complicated and a tad rusty. There looks like a lot of gubbins to go wrong!

[Lost soul]

Mr Whippy said:

Lost soul said:

Is this also an issue with the 997 turbo ?

It's an issue with any car that is getting ~10yrs old.

Sure age has a lot to do with it , but its not as if you hear similar stories of a known fault like this on other performance or other type of car .

So to me this seems much more than an age related problem

[hot66]

k-ink said:

No offence to any owners, but when you look under the beautiful body of these cars... They look very complicated and a tad rusty. There looks like a lot of gubbins to go wrong!

the photos from my car .. that was a 33K mile pampered low owner car .

[Spoof]

Wow, didn't realise 996 prices had gone quite so bonkers. Glad I got my GT2 when I did now.

[Lost soul]

Spoof said:

Wow, didn't realise 996 prices had gone quite so bonkers. Glad I got my GT2 when I did now.

[Mr Whippy]

Lost soul said:

Sure age has a lot to do with it , but its not as if you hear similar stories of a known fault like this on other performance or other type of car .

So to me this seems much more than an age related problem

Really?


Maybe it's because I've owned and maintained most of my own older cars so have seen underneath them a lot, and see what fails. That pipe failing wouldn't 'surprise' me one bit... I'd just see it as a wear and tear focal point at that age and replace/repair as necessary.

I'm not sure what it being a performance car means to this issue either. It's just a car and a pipe designed to meet a life/warranty period and flow X coolant over Y time. The engineering needs of this pipe may be no more stringent than that of a people carrier or LGV etc. Being a super-car doesn't mean a 10yr old pipe won't corrode when exposed to salt, road grit, or other chemicals between vibrating rubber(? looks like it) and a relatively soft aluminium pipe.



An everyday used car, super-car, super-price or not, will start to have bits of stuff going like this at 10yr old. Yes it's not ideal, but the design is no worse than the ones that lead to every other corrosion based failure on any other cars nether regions over a decade of daily road use!

[GekkoRules]

I Rock said:

After 6 years ownership I recently sold 993 Turbo , paid off mortgage and bought 996 Turbo . Still not sure if I did the right thing .

Edited by I Rock on Sunday 29th March 23:42

Sounds a great deal. I'm sure the 993 will continue to appreciate but bird in the hand and all that.
Happy days.

[J4CKO]

So, are normal 996's on the way up or can you still get one for eight grand ?

[I Rock]

GekkoRules said:

I Rock said:

After 6 years ownership I recently sold 993 Turbo , paid off mortgage and bought 996 Turbo . Still not sure if I did the right thing .

Edited by I Rock on Sunday 29th March 23:42

Sounds a great deal. I'm sure the 993 will continue to appreciate but bird in the hand and all that.
Happy days.

No one believed I'd sell the 993 Turbo having wanted one since launch . I'll miss it very much and it's sure to appreciate but I console myself with having paid mortgage 13 years early . Thing is the 996 Turbo will probably give me as much pleasure at a ' bargain ' price and I won't need to be precious over it . All my 911s go to Ninemeister who pointed me in this direction and tell me all I want is a Kline exhaust and another trip to Mr Schofield and I'll be laughing .

[Ursicles]

God this is frustrating!!

Need to sell my 2 owner 2004 sub 60k 996 manual x50 in june due a change in life circumstances - and i got a feeling I'm going to look back on it as one of the dumbest things I've ever done.

Damn me needing somewhere to live!!

[Lost soul]

Mr Whippy said:

Lost soul said:

Sure age has a lot to do with it , but its not as if you hear similar stories of a known fault like this on other performance or other type of car .

So to me this seems much more than an age related problem

Really?


Maybe it's because I've owned and maintained most of my own older cars so have seen underneath them a lot, and see what fails. That pipe failing wouldn't 'surprise' me one bit... I'd just see it as a wear and tear focal point at that age and replace/repair as necessary.
!

OK so the performance car part is or should not come into it , but for such a critical section of piping you would have hoped it would have been more durable , or is this fault not as common - typical as i am led to believe ?

[k-ink]

Mr Whippy said:

Being a super-car doesn't mean a 10yr old pipe won't corrode when exposed to salt, road grit, or other chemicals between vibrating rubber

I am surprised cars of this price level are not built with superior quality materials which are less prone to corrosion. Wishful thinking it seems.

[Mr Whippy]

Lost soul said:

OK so the performance car part is or should not come into it , but for such a critical section of piping you would have hoped it would have been more durable , or is this fault not as common - typical as i am led to believe ?

That o-ring could be in a Zonda or a Corsa. It's a critial o-ring but it has a design life.

Every single engine component or ancillary component could be seen as critical because a cascade failure is always possible.



On my Z4, the radiator/coolant pipes can fail. These were built for thousands of cars, across many models (same engine), yet they still fail eventually.

When do you argue it's a design flaw, and when do you just accept that parts eventually fail?


It's certainly a spot to look out for on a 996T I'd say, a design weakness, but not a flaw. Every car I've owned has weak spots that you look out for and do preventative maintenance but I'd not call many at all a flaw, since there are examples of cars on crazy miles at many years old that haven't succumbed to them.


It seems the 996T has well documented weak spots to check/maintain regularly so just another potential bit to add to the list



Personally I'd just chop out that section and put a bit of rubber pipe there with jubilee clips to hold it on. Do a full coolant flush/replace at the time, and check for other such issues while you're there. Job done. It shouldn't have to cost thousands of pounds to fix.


Dave

[hot66]

the coolant pipe that corroded .. that is just one of those things & not a typical fault. As Whippy says, it could have been fixed for a small amount, but I wanted it right ( at that stage I was planning on keeping the car for a long time ) . Also the welded coolant pipes .. wasnt needed to be done & probo would have lasted the next 10 years without having to be done , that was just one of those ' whilst you're in there' jobs .