Help!!.. water pump gone?? engine killed??

Bought my 911 C4S a week ago, its had a slight coolant leak which i have not bben able to trace.. no drips, just loosing coolant.. Done the pressure test, all ok, done the sniffer test for head gasket, all ok... Figures in may be a slight leak in a rad that was impossible to see.. Went for a long run today, low coolant light came on again, went to top it up only to see drips coming from underneath the engine, roughly in the middle.... Any way, the header tank still had fluid in, so topped it up and drove off... about 30 mile later, low coolant level again.. this time there was a lot of water dripping again, same place, unfortunatly i was in the middle of dartmoor, no phone signal, but 3 bottles of water... Topped it up and drove very steadily to get off the moors and back to civilization... keeping a very close eye on the guage... Sure enough, low coolant... but the temp was steady at about 85 so i carried on watching the guage intently.... Then, I got a message saying engine temp too high, at which point i turned the engine off and coasted to a stop only to find steam coming out of the engine vents and lots of water below... After manageing a call to the recovery services I sat for 2 hrs waiting to be rescued... The engine had cooled down to below 40, so i topped it up again and tried to start it, It runs, but quite noisy.. water pump i hope.. So, is the engine dead, or is it just a case of replaceing the pump... if its just a pump... any idea on prices? availabitly? can i get it from eurocarparts, GSF or the like? Anyone done one before?

There is a plastic water pipe that runs L>R underneath that chafs(leaks first) then bursts, dumping water.....so check this first as its a common fault. If so, get a new pipe but tie-wrap it securely if the clip has gone. As temp repair you can also section in a bit of pipe with jubilee clips where the leak is until you can get a new pipe. Water pumps usually start getting very noisy before they let go, so hopefully yours is ok........but it is easy to cook a 996 if you run it without water.

In both my recent cases of dumping my coolant, I immediately stopped the car and never started it again until the problem was rectified (one is still being sorted). In both cases the Coolant Light came on only a few seconds after an impressive ploom of white smoke billowed out the back of the car as the collant hit the hot exhaust and engine... this was indication enough to me to cease and desist... Hopefully you haven't damaged the engine and you'll be okay with just the water pump or something else less expensive gone.

Sounds like something that happened to a friend recently. His thermostat had malfunctioned causing the engine to over pressure the coolant (?) which then split the reservoir (it's fairly large and goes right down alongside the engine). This then sprayed coolant over the muffler creating steam and also made it look like it was coming from the engine area. The spray also found it's way into a tiny split on coil pack#1 which then caused a misfire. At the time we thought maybe a head gasket had gone but no oil in coolant or coolant in oil. Thankfully it was just a combination of smaller faults that created such a dramatic climax... Good luck with the fix, definitely get it looked at though ASAP... :thumb:

I've just had a water pump fail (spectacularly) on my Turbo and there was no warning at all. Engine sounded horrible when I re-started it, but I think that may have just been the internals of the water pump.

I've just noticed a whining noise at about 2k rpm (yes, I stopped the car and told the wife to get out but it was still there after), indie has told me to wait a while as they can't pinpoint until it gets worse but they're pretty sure it's the water pump. Other than Porsche are there many other suppliers? Porscheshop sell a 'replacement', has anybody used this?

My water pump went a few weeks ago and there was a strange gurgly noise for a few miles (maybe 10 miles) that turned into a strange rattling metallic noise that (about 1 mile further on) turned into the water-pump finally failing and depositing its contents on the floor. Luckily it was as I pulled into my driveway that it let go completely - looked very spectacular but no further damage done. As the pump had been replaced by Hartech last year they swapped it under warranty without a quibble and the service was as ususal excellent and quick.