Do Boxsters hate sitting in traffic? - Page 2 - Boxster/Cayman - PistonHeads UK

Almost every issue I've had with the car and people I knew, the problems caused mostly engine overheating due to sitting still in traffic for a long time. If you are from London, you might have realized the serious congestion and roadworks in the last few years, even in less central areas it's extremely difficult to drive nowadays. One might think that, a healthy engine and its circulation system should survive long waiting times in traffic, but looks like it gives a serious damage in the longer term if you are living in a busy area?

I live in central London and have had no problems with either my 987 or 981. Sitting in traffic isn't great for fuel consumption (I can think of a couple of journeys where I've averaged 14mpg or so) but I've never had any issues with the car over-heating.

987 S has cooling issues if not moving much. It's mid-engined and needs airflow over the radiators. I got stuck in horrendous traffic (roadworks and accidents) 2 or 3 times in my 987.2 S, and it didn't like it much. I would be amazed if it's not a well-known problem with mid-engined cars.

ORD said: 987 S has cooling issues if not moving much. It's mid-engined and needs airflow over the radiators. I got stuck in horrendous traffic (roadworks and accidents) 2 or 3 times in my 987.2 S, and it didn't like it much. I would be amazed if it's not a well-known problem with mid-engined cars. Surely the same could be said of front engined cars sitting in traffic? Does the 987.2 not have cooling fans? 981 just sits at 90 degrees no matter what (when up to temp).

ORD said: 987 S has cooling issues if not moving much. It's mid-engined and needs airflow over the radiators. I got stuck in horrendous traffic (roadworks and accidents) 2 or 3 times in my 987.2 S, and it didn't like it much. I would be amazed if it's not a well-known problem with mid-engined cars. The radiators are at the front, and have electric cooling fans for when sitting stationary. I have a 986 and it has no problems in stationary traffic.

anonymous said: [redacted] Indeed - the only time things aren't great is when the ballast resistors for the fans fail and you only have Stage 2 - as mine did. It never overheated as such, though, just got quite warm. I chucked some new radiators on it in January as one was weeping and the other would surely follow. An 82 deg thermostat really keeps the temperature down too. The worst possible time would be after an extended heat soak in traffic and if you were to then really accelerate hard, as it'll take a minute or two before any cooling effect is 'felt' back in the engine with the extended coolant runs.

not sure if this applies to Boxster - the tech I was talking to was referring to 991's; anyway, he stated that the temp display in the car was engineered to show a temperature lower than the car was actually running at. He stated that the 991's (NOT GT models) idled at 105C, yet the display was always sub 100 - to stop the owners panicking ! GT models have a true display of temp.

Never had a problem with my 986s or my current 987s Ref. buffered guages - totally understand why these exist after having an Elise with a digital engine temp guage. I'd sit there in traffic watching it creep up until (IIRC) 110 when the fan would (or should) have kicked in. Given the angst around K Series and HGF I would end up having kittens if ever sat on the motorway in chugging traffic.

anonymous said: [redacted] correct, buffered gauges are ridiculous, what is the point in it even being there, may as well just have one light which tells you whether car is ok to drive or not ok to drive, in fact wouldn't surprise me if that's where we are in a few years, just another example of how useless modern cars are

All this talk about buffered gauges. My VW gets to 90 degrees when the coolant is 75 degrees (I can see this via my Polar FIS). So based on that between the ACTUAL coolant temp of 75 and 105 (15 degrees either way) the gauge will always display 90. 105 is not hot enough to cause problems but at the same time no point worrying the casual driver because the gauge is creeping up slightly in traffic.

Some would argue if you are that bothered, fit an aftermarket gauge. :-) I'm sure you can get something similar to a Polar FIS for your Porsches! I understand what you're saying but for the 5% who want to know exact temps vs the 95% who would react if the gauge went too high or the buzzer went on...

Ohhh, a diesel jibe. Aren't you funny / original. As I have mentioned I have a Polar FIS which integrates completely into the OEM Multi-Function Display and displays the values I want as digital values. I would be very surprised if such a similar device did not exist for a Porsche, or one of the many OBDII Bluetooth / Phone apps.

I disagree with you. The gauge only needs to indicate when something is wrong. Many cars don't even have temperature gauges.. Corsa VXRs... Fiesta STs... etc? And the only one being b hy here is you. Straw man my arse, frankly. I simply entered a discussion. Heaven forbid a non-Porsche owner enter such a sacred area! Edited by xjay1337 on Monday 4th April 15:26

Quite finished?

I actually wonder whether we could sue porsche or indeed any other manufacturer. The gauge is telling me 80 but it isn't 80 at all, I think that's fraud, at the very least misrepresentation. I don't think that explaining it in the driver's manual rectifies the situation either.

No, it doesn't necessarily. Besides, water temps are not that important. Oil temps are arguably more important. Water temp is only taken at a specific point within the coolant system as opposed to a peak within the cylinder heat. At BEST it's an approximation of the coolant temperature at one specific point at one specific moment in time. anonymous said: [redacted] Wow, get over yourself you intolerable oaf.

Mate, just move on! wooleyjoe: I can't help you regarding Porsche GT cars, but I would imagine being part of the VAG group they would follow similar programming. However Polar have released firmware for Audis so if your car is compatible you can find your true values out. My coolant normally sits between 75 and 85. Audi support is quite new to the Polar stuff, so it's quite limited to 2003-2008 A/S 3 (8P) - A4s / A6s not supported at the moment. It is in development. The Canbus system is old/weird on these so that's why it's taking a while!

Sometimes depending on model you can display diagnostic info (coolant temp) on the heating display if you have digital dual zone

The coolant level light on my wife's bmw came on, and she told me. Where was the temperature gauges needle? I asked. I don't know, she said. That's the problem with most drivers, they don't even look at the basic information in front of them. Personally I want precise information. I don't want to know if something is wrong, I want to know if something is out of the ordinary (eg coolant leak, fan broken, thermostat stuck), so I can investigate before something big goes wrong (eg engine overheats and seizes). I can understand damped gauges so the needle doesn't wobble around. I had no idea damped could mean giving a single reading within a range of actuals. Does my 996 have a damped gauge?

I agree on the problem with a buffered gauge, and actually that was a bit my point with the thread. Most owners have no idea, about the delicate water coolant system in 986s so they barely look at the temperature. And when something goes completely wrong, it is really wrong. I even witnessed official services that do not take some necessary actions as they only follow tick and box procedure while inspecting cars during major maintenance. (Ballast resistors, radiators state in terms of cleaning and etc..) My second point, about the reliability of the system in the long term. Yes, a really good clean system should able to survive long stops at a busy traffic by kicking of fans on different stages. But how often? If a car like 986 or 987 being exposed to this sort of driving more than twice a week or even more, I think it is an issue that probably even designers did not estimate. If the gauge is properly indicating what actually is the real running temperature, one might respond it and fix it much earlier.

anonymous said: [redacted] Thanks for that information, I had no idea that was happening. But... I think I'm in the camp that would rather not know what the precise temp was. In a BMW 5 series 15+ years ago my temp gauge shot up into the red so I stopped, saw the coolant pissing out the front of the radiator, and figured I had a bust rad. If today I had an accurate display which rose or fell a few degrees from "normal" I'd be worrying all the time. When I bought my 981 I was a little disappointed to find it was too early to have TPM whereas the (later) brochure I had said it was standard. However, I then thought what a pain it would be to see one tyre down 0.5 BAR whilst driving and have this playing on my mind until next the tyres were cold and I could properly check them. Driving my son's 2010 Mini Cooper recently, the tyre pressure warning light came on, warning me of a sudden pressure loss. When I checked it, there was a nail in the tyre causing a slow puncture. In both these cases the change from "normal" to "warning" was correct and sufficient to stop me doing any damage. If the manufacturers have set the "warning" parameters correctly then they keep me out of danger but don't make me worry all the time. They know what the water temp should be in every circumstance, but I don't and I don't really want an accurate gauge which causes me to have to refer to an even thicker manual when worried so as to work my way through some kind of flow chart... "Water temp: (e.g.) 106 degrees; ambient temp: 31 degrees; traffic speed: 25-30 MPH; Running time 31 minutes; Passenger present yes/no?; Luggage weight?; Last service?; etc... Those of you who DO want an accurate temp gauge... how would you know if the read out was good or bad in any particular circumstance? Those of us not "in the know" as to what each degree of temp means to our car's health would perhaps be having it towed in circumstances where the manufacturer isn't worried one jot.

I would guess it is less of a problem in the 981 due to stop-start. I really thought I would hate stop-start but it seems like second nature now to just go to neutral and let the clutch out when queuing.

Krobar said: I would guess it is less of a problem in the 981 due to stop-start. I really thought I would hate stop-start but it seems like second nature now to just go to neutral and let the clutch out when queuing. Yes, plus in stop/start mode you get the wonderful "coasting" mode too (with PDK). Great for cooling and economy.

yes, the GT cars display true temps (well, the 991's do) - Porsche Tech verified it to me

red997 said: yes, the GT cars display true temps (well, the 991's do) - Porsche Tech verified it to me I've definitely seen the digital temperature gauge on my 991 GT3 go up to 105 in a traffic jam during hot weather last year - I was very pleased to see it come down again once we got moving!

me too