Add Water w/ Coolant?

Hi all, The 996 Owner's Manual is a wee bit unclear regarding topping up coolant. Am I supposed to be adding water with my Porsche-certified coolant? Or, is water only used in conjunction with antifreeze as a substitute for Porsche-certified "coolant?" [I have been topping up with 100% coolant. No water.] Thank you. Dave

dave-i am pretty sure that you should be adding a mixture of water and anti-freeze (or coolant). if the porsche certified coolant is straight coolant, i would add water with it. if it is a mixture, i would add just that.

Not sure what year yours is (or if it matters) but the owners manual for my '04 Carrera says to use a mixture of Porsche antifreeze and water in equal parts.

Do yourselves another favor, use only distilled water to mix with the coolant to avoid calcification and deposits to form.

If my memory is correct -- you should not use distilled water in the system. It is a recomendation that mercedes benz has made for years. Distilled water is not in a natural state. They normally talk about using regular water -- unless you live in a area with very high minerial (normally iron) or if you treat the water in you house with a system. Some storage batteries still call for distilled when you first mix them. But I am going to reread the Prosche directions just to make sure

Rats! You guys are absolutely right. I inspected the label for any pre-supplied water content and then noticed that the bottle is actually labelled "Coolant / Antifreeze." I wasn't aware that these were the same thing and had taken the instructions (which use the terms interchangeably, but never together) to mean EITHER supply "coolant" OR supply "antifreeze" + water. I guess this pretty well shows my ignorance around a garage. So, what should be my corrective action? I have twice topped up from MIN to MAX with pure coolant (no water). [This may explain my previous thread re blinking coolant light.] Thank you all VERY, VERY much. Dave

I would not worry too much about topping off with pure antifreeze. It will only make your mixture a little richer. So instead of 50/50 you might have 60/40. For most cars the antifreeze mixture should be between 50/50 to as high as 70/30. The stronger mixture will give you a little better boil over protection which is ok in NV. Just from now on mix water. As far as distilled water is preferable, see the antifreeze is a lifetime coolant and tap water has impurities that may reduce the life of the coolant.

i agree that you can top off with only antifreeze and it won't be a problam, but the antifreeze is NOT lifetime. NO antifreeze is lifetime! the pink stuff is long life, the green stuff is short life. to relate them to how you think about oil, i would compare them like this: synthetic oil=pink stuff and conventional oil=green stuff. the pink stuff can last 100K miles, the green stuff generally 30K miles. but refer to the owner's manual for the replacement interval and follow that. as for the mix, i'm not really sure! i don't remember what i used when i changed my coolant!

I have answered the lifetime coolant before. Porsche claims its limetime, but I agree the coolant in my opion is only good for 5yr/150,000 miles that the dexacol fluid last.

Hmmm. My "Porsche Antifreeze / Coolant" is green; not pink. Does Porsche also offer a pink variety that my dealer failed to mention? If not, why is Porsche branding a less-than-optimal coolant for its cars? Thank you. Dave