Coolant surprise!!

Hi all, I hope you’re all enjoying your Porsche ’s 👍🏻 I got a little surprise today from my 987 Cayman S when I started it. It came up check coolant level which I did and I was shocked to see that it looked bone dry (see pictures). If it were below minimum which it certainly looks like, shouldn’t the message have come up a lot sooner? I will hold my hands up and admit that this is the first time I have checked the coolant in over a year. I will need to add that to my regular check list along with the oil. Thoughts?

All that white looks like crust formed due to a cap leaking. So I'd either get a new cap or see if you can just replace the O-ring on the bottom of the cap. I'm guessing you are in the UK and have a fairly mild winter. Try adding some distilled water, but don't add more that a couple liters. You don't want to dilute your anti-freeze too much. If you still can't see the level above minimum, get some compatible (pink) anti-freeze and mix 50-50 with distilled water. It might be helpful to remove the engine cover to see how low your expansion tank it. You can also fill it directly from there. It is easier to get trapped air (if any) out of the system from that cap.

Just ordered a new genuine cap for £26 which isn’t bad. Concentrate coolant is also on order and I’ll do 50/50. How often do you check your coolant levels?

I check mine at least twice a year, if that happened to me then I'd check it more often, so far so good.

Totally overlooked it. It went in for a full service March 2023 and I’ve only done 2,700 miles since. So not a lot of driving has happened 🤷

Unless you got a message that the engine was too hot it likely has not hurt your engine. For most driving the coolant system is more than adequate.

The temperature gauge has never gone past the middle operating temperature thankfully 👍🏻

It has factory PSE

The dashboard message system used on these cars does seem to have a weakness, in that there is no way to test whether the message will become active when required. Unlike the individual message icons on the dash, which at least you can check to see if the bulb is working when you activate the ignition before startup, I don't know of any way to verify the functionality of the messages in the LED window. This bothered me enough for Low Oil Pressure that I hard wired a test switch (to ground) from the sending unit so I can test the continuity of the circuit. Even then, I am not testing the actual sending unit. I did this on my track car. It may be possible for the dealer to activate the various messages with PIWIS , I don't know. It is interesting that at initial startup, before cranking the car, you don't get a Low Oil Pressure message. I suppose Porsche put in software logic to avoid what some might feel to be a "false" message but I'd be more than happy to see that message when I started my car, just to confirm that the circuitry, including the sending unit, was working.

56k miles is exactly when the water pump should go out. Just sayin'.

My 2008 Boxster base needed a water pump at 48k. Not a complete failure, but was making some low grade noise and when I pulled the engine cover behind the seats and took off the serpentine belt I could feel some slight play in the pulley so decided to replace it and the t-stat.

Nice. What signs should I look for?

I owned a Boxster S Black Edition ( 987.2 ) and for some reason, it "consumed" coolant. On one occasion, driving in very hot weather (over 40ºC), most of it evaporated. I subsequently purchased another Boxster 987.2 S and it too appears to use up its coolant. So, I actually monitor the coolant level more frequently than the oil.

I’m deffo adding this to my frequent check list.

Update*** I added the new ready mixed coolant on Friday and I changed the coolant cap (OEM New) as well yesterday. It looks like I don’t have a leak which is positive and strangely enough the drive feels a bit different when I accelerate which is positive. I don’t think we can trust the coolant sensor to tell us when it’s running low. I have learnt that a visual check will be needed to keep an eye on things in the future.

If it's the water pump you'll see leakage around or below the water pump. I replaced my water pump at 70K just because it was old and because I was concerned about what I'd read on here, but after inspection the old one was perfectly fine. So unless you see coolant leakage or hear noise that's not where I'd start. My 2010 has been doing the same thing since I bought it in 2015, I'm assuming it's just evaporation out the vented pressure cap. Every once and again I check it and it's below the min line, and I top it up: only takes a few cups. The seal on the coolant fill cap in the trunk can also get old and you can lose coolant there. After a couple of mine went bad I just replace that on a schedule every five years. If you just buy the seal and not the whole cap it's like a $4 part. Porsche 98710617000

Typically, you may see some drips of coolant under the car or hear some noise from the engine compartmen. In my case the indicator was a low frequency sound, almost a droning noise. When sitting at a light, I was starting to hear an increased sound at idle. Since it came on slowly, it took me a while to realize that the sound I was hearing was not a normal engine idle sound. I finally removed the engine cover behind the seats, thinking it may have been an idler pulley. I removed the serpentine belt and started spinning and wiggling each of the pulleys; both idler pulleys and the tensioner pulley. All seemed smooth, quiet and solid. When I got to the water pump pulley, it had some lateral movement when wiggling it, and when I rotated it I Immediately knew it was the culprit when it didn’t feel smooth and made a low grade sound. Once it was replaced and I picked it up and started it, the absence of the previous sound was like night and day. It was so much quieter that I thought to myself, “that’s the way it’s supposed to sound”.

thanks to an incident where I accidentally popped a windscreen washer tablet into the coolant tank (Blame the late nights at the office and trying to do maintenance while exhausted) - my indy detected a coolant cap issue while doing the flush. a full check of the coolant system from time to time is recommended as our babies get older...