996 turbo rad replacement
Discussion
just done this on my 997 got oe quality rads from GSF £511 for the two side rads. Did the replacement myself so no labour charge and fitted mesh to the bumper. No corrosion or stone damage visible extremely disappointed that they have failed in 5 years and 11k miles car never used in winter or on salty roads. Crap rads is my opinion failed due to thermal expansion and work hardening of the core where its joins the tank near the bottom hose. Same on both rads appalling Porsche.
Proper job if you don't want to revisit this shortly, is to replace all three radiators (perhaps you could get away with leaving the middle one) and also the aircon condensers. And fit mesh to the grilles so that this does not happen again within 4 years, or less of you are unlucky and something shoots through one of them.
Rads themselves should cost around 800 quid delivered, pattern condensers around £130 from Ebay.
Then you need the labour to remove and replace, a few o-rings for the condensers, and perhaps a rad hose or two may be splitting/corroding, coolant if the old one is not recycled, and aircon regas. For someone with the facilities and experience the whole thing should not take more than 3, perhaps 4 hours tops.
Rads themselves should cost around 800 quid delivered, pattern condensers around £130 from Ebay.
Then you need the labour to remove and replace, a few o-rings for the condensers, and perhaps a rad hose or two may be splitting/corroding, coolant if the old one is not recycled, and aircon regas. For someone with the facilities and experience the whole thing should not take more than 3, perhaps 4 hours tops.
RAWENG said:
just done this on my 997 got oe quality rads from GSF £511 for the two side rads. Did the replacement myself so no labour charge and fitted mesh to the bumper. No corrosion or stone damage visible extremely disappointed that they have failed in 5 years and 11k miles car never used in winter or on salty roads. Crap rads is my opinion failed due to thermal expansion and work hardening of the core where its joins the tank near the bottom hose. Same on both rads appalling Porsche.
I have to question your diagnosis of what's going on. Radiators in other areas do not seem to be failing from this thermal expansion and work hardening.And I've never even holed an A/C condenser with a rock thrown up yet I've replaced one windshield on one car and the replacement could stand replacement and the other car's original windshield is getting close to needing replacement due to pitting and rock chips (which so far have no turned into cracks).
I suspect the real problem is trash is allowed to collect in the radiator duct which leads to corrosion. Periodic cleaning of these ducts keeps the trash out. Every time I have my cars in for an oil/filter service (every 5K miles) the techs remove the trash by vacuum and compressed air. I leave it to their discretion if the bumper cover needs to come off to really clean the ducts.
996TT02 said:
Proper job if you don't want to revisit this shortly, is to replace all three radiators (perhaps you could get away with leaving the middle one) and also the aircon condensers. And fit mesh to the grilles so that this does not happen again within 4 years, or less of you are unlucky and something shoots through one of them.
Rads themselves should cost around 800 quid delivered, pattern condensers around £130 from Ebay.
Then you need the labour to remove and replace, a few o-rings for the condensers, and perhaps a rad hose or two may be splitting/corroding, coolant if the old one is not recycled, and aircon regas. For someone with the facilities and experience the whole thing should not take more than 3, perhaps 4 hours tops.
The mesh grills might keep out the bigger stuff but allow the finer stuff through and this will accumulate and lead to corrosion. The grills give the owner a false sense things are just fine until the steam from yet another radiator begins to waft over the car.Rads themselves should cost around 800 quid delivered, pattern condensers around £130 from Ebay.
Then you need the labour to remove and replace, a few o-rings for the condensers, and perhaps a rad hose or two may be splitting/corroding, coolant if the old one is not recycled, and aircon regas. For someone with the facilities and experience the whole thing should not take more than 3, perhaps 4 hours tops.
Rockster, Definitely not corrosion that caused the failure of my side rads. They look as new and I have looked at the leaking area with powerful magnification. The reason I believe its down to thermal expansion is that we get similar failures on our Caterham radiators again nothing to do with corrosion. On the last failure I took the rad back to the manufacturer Radtec and they said that the failure was due to uneven expansion and vibration that had work hardened the core at the joint with the tank causing a small crack to form. They are now experimenting with a new magnesium/aluminium alloy material for the cores in oder to cure the problem.
Looking into my rads failure which I have ruled out corrosion IN MY CASE I am puzzled by the design of the rads in that the top hose is directly above the bottom hose and then you have the air con condensers mounted in the middle of the rads. As a result of all this I cannot see that the rads would ever get a uniform flow of cold air across their face especially as the far end is likely to have a build up of road debris reducing air flow. Thus un even expansion of the core and excellerated failure. I plan to take my failed rads to a rad manufacturer and establish why they have failed and shall post my results.
I certainly share your view on the mesh still allowing small debris through but it will at least stop large leaves and poly bags and also prevent a direct hit from a stone on the centre rad.
Looking into my rads failure which I have ruled out corrosion IN MY CASE I am puzzled by the design of the rads in that the top hose is directly above the bottom hose and then you have the air con condensers mounted in the middle of the rads. As a result of all this I cannot see that the rads would ever get a uniform flow of cold air across their face especially as the far end is likely to have a build up of road debris reducing air flow. Thus un even expansion of the core and excellerated failure. I plan to take my failed rads to a rad manufacturer and establish why they have failed and shall post my results.
I certainly share your view on the mesh still allowing small debris through but it will at least stop large leaves and poly bags and also prevent a direct hit from a stone on the centre rad.
RAWENG said:
Rockster, Definitely not corrosion that caused the failure of my side rads. They look as new and I have looked at the leaking area with powerful magnification. The reason I believe its down to thermal expansion is that we get similar failures on our Caterham radiators again nothing to do with corrosion. On the last failure I took the rad back to the manufacturer Radtec and they said that the failure was due to uneven expansion and vibration that had work hardened the core at the joint with the tank causing a small crack to form. They are now experimenting with a new magnesium/aluminium alloy material for the cores in oder to cure the problem.
Looking into my rads failure which I have ruled out corrosion IN MY CASE I am puzzled by the design of the rads in that the top hose is directly above the bottom hose and then you have the air con condensers mounted in the middle of the rads. As a result of all this I cannot see that the rads would ever get a uniform flow of cold air across their face especially as the far end is likely to have a build up of road debris reducing air flow. Thus un even expansion of the core and excellerated failure. I plan to take my failed rads to a rad manufacturer and establish why they have failed and shall post my results.
I certainly share your view on the mesh still allowing small debris through but it will at least stop large leaves and poly bags and also prevent a direct hit from a stone on the centre rad.
Would be interested to hear the results of the investigations...Looking into my rads failure which I have ruled out corrosion IN MY CASE I am puzzled by the design of the rads in that the top hose is directly above the bottom hose and then you have the air con condensers mounted in the middle of the rads. As a result of all this I cannot see that the rads would ever get a uniform flow of cold air across their face especially as the far end is likely to have a build up of road debris reducing air flow. Thus un even expansion of the core and excellerated failure. I plan to take my failed rads to a rad manufacturer and establish why they have failed and shall post my results.
I certainly share your view on the mesh still allowing small debris through but it will at least stop large leaves and poly bags and also prevent a direct hit from a stone on the centre rad.
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