'09
987.2
CS. Only had the car a couple of weeks. Has happened 3 times now, all times on a fully cold engine. I get a low coolant notice before I even start the car and the temp gauge is maxed out. Typically, driving for a very short while or restarting the car will resolves the issue.
Car NEVER runs hot, even after some very hard driving. My guess is the temp sensor. Looks like ECS has the OEM one for $25: 99760642000 or the updated P/N 99760642001 for $36.
I turn my own wrenches, have plenty of tools and
QuickJacks
, so I'll be DIY this job. I've seen this covered on
987.1
cars searching the problem but not the
987.2
. Is the sensor still on the bottom like the .1? Easy DIY or a project I need to plan for?
Among those tools do you have a code reader? Why not start there to see if information is available confirming your suspicion?
When you get the "Low Coolant" warning the temperature gauge goes to max and the gauge warning light flashes. That doesn't mean it's overheating, if it's overheating you get a different warning message, the temp gauge goes to max, and the warning light is steady on. For the record, I think this is really dumb and confusing.
So it's not your temp sensor, if anything it's the coolant level sensor. But have you checked the coolant level first? Car on level ground dead cold, open the coolant
cap
in the trunk. The level should be between the min and max markings in the fill tube. If not, top up with 50-50 distilled water &
Porsche
coolant.
It seems normal on these cars for the coolant level to slowly drop over time from evaporation, so if it's a bit low don't panic.
As said above, when the coolant goes low, the temp rises to max and the light turns on. It is confusing, but it doesn't mean the car is overheating. Once it warms up, and the fluid expands, it reaches the level sensor and then goes back to normal. I had this happen on my car after the last drain/fill (because a few bubbles still remained). Just top it off and you'll be fine... that's what I did and it's been fine ever since.
Looks like low coolant might be the issue. Maxing out the gauge is weird. Checked and it was low. Luckily I happened to have G12 ++ sitting here from when I did the thermostat & water pump on my wife's S4 a couple of years ago, so I just topped her off.
Boris - going on 3 years now on my '09, and about 12,000 miles since I did the 60k service (2k early) - haven't added a drop of coolant. If it's dropping it's either running too hot, or the cap is bad, or there's a leak. They aren't designed to consume or lose coolant.
Mine isn't losing coolant
I mean, it's not much. Just seems to drop if I try to keep it at the full mark.
It's definitely not my only car that does this, and it's definitely not leaking. It's a "sealed" cooling system, but the overflow tank
cap
will always vent a bit in normal operation: the coolant expands when it heats up, the head space in the overflow [correction: expansion] tank compresses, and the pressure vent in the
cap
opens. Then when it cools down the vacuum relief in the
cap
sucks air back in. So you can sometimes lose some liquid to evaporation over time.
If you've ever got the engine cover off when hot, note the difference in the coolant level in the tank hot vs. cold. That's all thermal expansion of the liquid.
There are two caps in the system. One in the engine compartment, and one in the rear trunk area. The one in the engine compartment is on the reservoir. The one in the trunk is on the filler tube (which goes into the reservoir.)
#12 is the cap in the engine compartment - on the coolant reservoir. When filling the system from drained - that's where you have to connect the vacuum lift...
Right, that's why I specifically said the tank
cap
(I said "overflow tank" but that's a typo, it's an expansion tank). That's #12 with the vents that I was talking about.
The fill
cap
in the trunk is just a seal. You can't pull vacuum from there, because it'll pull air through the vacuum release valve in the expansion tank
cap
.
