997.2 Cooling System - Airlock?
Discussion
Hi everyone
I've had my 911 for around 9 years and I've always had intermittent problems with the cooling system on my 997.2.
Usually small leaks or coolant depleting over time.
On taking my car into a main dealer for an MoT I asked them to look at the coolant system as it was slowly but steadily leaking coolant even after I'd replaced the cap.
When I got the car back I was told some work had been done under warranty and it was fixed.
On arriving home I noticed the coolant level was about 4 inches below minimum in the tank, and it's a big tank so probably around 3l down.
I contacted them and long story short, we ended up filling the car back up to max at the dealer.
Took about 2.5l and they blamed it on an "air lock". Seemed a bit odd that they didn't detect or remediate this after fixing the system the first time, but what do I know.
I took the car on a trip the next weekend and only when I was leaving to return did I notice the tank had dropped to about the same level again.
Looked like it had dumped another 2.5l of coolant. I stuck 1l back in (as I had a bottle in the front) and drove it home, booked it back into the dealer.
I took the car in Monday, Tuesday they told me they'd found nothing wrong with it but they wouldn't release the car.
Friday they contacted me and said the car was ready to be picked up and again, no faults detected.
I'm left with 2 options here -
1. They're lying to me and they've fixed something over the past 5 days
2. They managed to give me the car back after the first repair with a 5 litre "air lock".
Is that even a thing? Is it possible a main dealer drained, fixed a coolant system problem and only refilled it 1/2 without realising it was full of air?
If something takes 10l and you only get 5l in it before its's hitting max, something is wrong.
I'm not a technician or mechanic but that seems incredibly unlikely.
Either way it's looking unlikely they'll ever give me a straight answer, or I'll ever go back there again.
I've had my 911 for around 9 years and I've always had intermittent problems with the cooling system on my 997.2.
Usually small leaks or coolant depleting over time.
On taking my car into a main dealer for an MoT I asked them to look at the coolant system as it was slowly but steadily leaking coolant even after I'd replaced the cap.
When I got the car back I was told some work had been done under warranty and it was fixed.
On arriving home I noticed the coolant level was about 4 inches below minimum in the tank, and it's a big tank so probably around 3l down.
I contacted them and long story short, we ended up filling the car back up to max at the dealer.
Took about 2.5l and they blamed it on an "air lock". Seemed a bit odd that they didn't detect or remediate this after fixing the system the first time, but what do I know.
I took the car on a trip the next weekend and only when I was leaving to return did I notice the tank had dropped to about the same level again.
Looked like it had dumped another 2.5l of coolant. I stuck 1l back in (as I had a bottle in the front) and drove it home, booked it back into the dealer.
I took the car in Monday, Tuesday they told me they'd found nothing wrong with it but they wouldn't release the car.
Friday they contacted me and said the car was ready to be picked up and again, no faults detected.
I'm left with 2 options here -
1. They're lying to me and they've fixed something over the past 5 days
2. They managed to give me the car back after the first repair with a 5 litre "air lock".
Is that even a thing? Is it possible a main dealer drained, fixed a coolant system problem and only refilled it 1/2 without realising it was full of air?
If something takes 10l and you only get 5l in it before its's hitting max, something is wrong.
I'm not a technician or mechanic but that seems incredibly unlikely.
Either way it's looking unlikely they'll ever give me a straight answer, or I'll ever go back there again.
Edited by D1m3b4g on Friday 20th August 17:35
Pretty sure the coolant fill method for the OPC is the same on the 911 as the Cayman and is vaccum filling. If they did that, there wouldn't be an air lock. I wonder if they did work and didn't drain the system and then just topped it up and air which has escaped the system once it has been driven has caused the level to drop. If there is no evidence of a leak (and they are normally fairly noticable), I suspect they didn't do the vaccum fill and the drops have been due to air. Not confidence inspiring from them, but then that isn't a huge surprise.
Having had the system on my GT3 drained in order to replace a tiny hose that sits on top of the engine, I can confirm that there is no way on God' Earth that you can re-fill the system with any other method, but vacuum. Filling it up the normal way under gravity (like on most modern cars) and hoping for the best will lead to a massive airlock...
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