987.1 Cayman AOS removal stuck hose

I was working on replacing the air oil separator on my 2007 Cayman and ran into a roadblock on just step 2! There is a hose going into the middle (from top to bottom) of the AOS that is hooked in with a clamp (see photo attached). You should be able to squeeze on the ridges of the clamp (above and below it) to disconnect the hose from the AOS . I am able to squeeze on these ridges with a pair of pliers, but I just cannot get the hose to disconnect; it seems to be stuck. Any tips on how to handle this? I'm a DIY noob so please don't advise me to remove my transmission or swap in a 3.8L.

As is usual, I fixed this issue soon after posting here for help. I went back and got some coffee, dumped the pliers, warmed up my fingers with some grip exercises, and attacked the “squeeze” clamp with my bare hands. After some wiggling and pulling, it disconnected! \m/ It required a significant amount of force. For reference, my car is at 95K miles and this is likely the factory AOS . There’s quite a bit of oil in this hose, egg yolk-like at the hose tip and now slowly dripping onto the floor after the hose was disconnected. Some oil got onto the engine harness cables (?), would this be OK given that the insulation appears fine? Not sure how to clean all the leaked oil up, seems like this has been going on for a while.

I do not suggest using any form of pressure wash.. that will get moisture into the electrical connections and cause havoc down the road. What I would use is electronics component cleaner in a spray can. It's safe with most plastics, and does a good job of removing oil. It might be a bit costly if you have a lot of area to clean. Your experience with the stuck clamp is a pretty common one - pliers just don't seem to do it - it needs fingers, strong fingers to compress the lock mechanism at the same time as you're pulling it off whatever it's connected to. I hope the rest of the job goes smoothly for you..

Thanks @deilenberger ! I’ll get some WD40 electrical contact cleaner and spend this week carefully cleaning up the engine bay.

Engines are designed to be waterproof within reason, and a good rule of thumb is "anything in the engine bay that stops working when you get it wet needed fixing anyway". So don't be afraid to wash down the engine as long as you don't use any significant pressure. A plain old open hose works perfectly for a gentle rinse. Gunk Heavy Duty Gel is quite effective at removing oil, but on engines with plastic parts I've found it can leave white residue (the remaining emulsified oil) on the plastic. It wipes off easily after the engine is dry but it's kind of annoying. So I'd start with the Gunk Foamy stuff and a brush, see where that gets you: if it's still oily after that try the HD stuff. Or just start with the HD stuff if you don't mind having to apply a little more elbow grease, it won't hurt anything. Obviously also make sure all the hoses, etc, are hooked back up properly before you do this given you don't want to get water inside the engine, and follow all the instructions on the can.

Great advice @gubi , I started by spraying the wires and insulation with WD-40 electrical contact cleaner after removing the AOS, I'll do the engine bay hosedown once I have the new AOS installed. Adding to the 987.1 AOS removal knowledge base, I found these steps/parts essential: For the final hose at the very bottom of the AOS, disconnect the U-shaped hose from the engine and pull the AOS out with this hose attached. Much easier than trying to get at the AOS end of the U-shaped hose. To loosen the clamps on that U-shaped hose, these "remote control" hose clamp pliers save a ton of time (much cheaper on Amazon, but this one worked for me). For the "pinch/squeeze" clamps on the upper 2 AOS hose connections, you have to use your hands and significant force to separate the AOS from the hoses. Pliers did not work as well. The next time, I might try using the LN Engineering Notta Wrench . I liked this video by FCPEuro for reference. To replace the AOS, I ordered these parts from FCPEuro (about $115 total): The AOS itself: 99610702602 The U-shaped hose at the bottom: 99610717550 (I was afraid my old one would be brittle) 2 hose clamps for the U-shaped hose: 99951268309 2 E10 M6x20 E-Torx bolts just in case I considered the Porsche Motorsports 987 AOS for $1600 but felt the money was better spent elsewhere since I don't track this car. The LN Engineering 987 Ultimate AOS for $740 (+$175 for the high mileage / extreme track duty auto-drain) was also tempting, but I skipped it because I found very little reviews or installation resources outside of ********. I would have tried this if I was more experienced at wrenching.

So - it might be time to ask yourself how much of a "purist" you are? I found that if you're willing to compromise a little (and some might not be - to each their own) swapping out the pinch hose clamps for standard "screw" on clamps made for a significantly easier reassembly. While pulling the pinch clamps off was relatively easy, trying to maneuver them back on in such tight spacing, even with pinch clamp pliers, was an exercise in masochistic futility. Rather, sliding the hoses on and getting the AOS in place then using a socket on a long extension with standard hose clamps, and they went right on... easy. On top of that, should I need to redo the AOS at any point in the future, everything is easy to access and lined right up. That being said... some might say: don't mess with the Porsche aesthetic. I threw that out when I bought the car: so many things modified... so many great changes.

Haha not a purist, and I considered this. What I read was that the hoses expand and contract with the temperature, and that the Porsche clamps maintain constant pressure on the hose ends even as the temperature varies. Love your mod thread by the way, I'm planning to replicate your work once I acquire a safe way to get under my car.

Hmmmm... I can literally hear the Porsche engineers explaining why the car MUST have those clamps... but then I think about the literally billions of applications of "regular" hose clamps in highly variable temperature conditions - and feel just fine about using them. An acceptable risk for me against the frustration, knuckle damage and contributions to the swear jar otherwise!! Glad you're enjoying my project - it's been so fun to do, so fun to share... but the highlight is just how bats*&t good it is to drive. I couldn't recommend it more. I have a set of QuickJacks - they were absolutely up to the job - that being said, I've been looking at my garage and trying to figure out how to modify it to fit a lift in. A lift would have been even better, no question. Good luck - let us know how things go!