coolant flush...step by step with pics - Page 3 - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

i flushed my coolant today for the 2nd time, used prestone the 1st time, well not a good idea turns out so i redid it, some people asked me to take some pics along the way so here they are, hopefully they help someone out when they are doing this. this time i went with Zerex put the car on ramps if you dont know by now, this is what youre dealing with, in rear trunk make sure that your cap is ending with this number, this is the updated cap take both caps off and take the plastic cover off lift the bleeder valve up get under the car and take this cover off, beat up from road debree use allen wrench to remove the bolt to coolant. make sure u are flushing the right stuff out, if you are unsure make sure its either greenish color, or just give it a little taste and if its sugary then youre good it will all just pour right out there is a lot of it in there, i had another bucket underneath there when i took this pic, this coolant is lke month old. what a waste lol

this is the Zerex used then after its all out, close it and top off with coolant/distilled water mix to MAX turn the car on, and let the engine get to the operating temerature, and every minute or so rev it up to about 4200RPM, this will take about 10 minutes or so. shut engine off, let cool off, then top off to MAX again, put the bleeder valve down, replace the plastic cover, tighten both caps on. some people like to drive w bleeder valve open for a day or 2, this will not hurt the car

What was wrong with the prestone?

to quote Jim: Hi, That was probably not the best thing. The coolant you describe contains silicates and these can form a gel reducing/blocking Coolant Flow, this problem has come up on several Boxsters. In addition, this type of Coolant insulates the metal of the engine (read below) and causes a reduced heat transfer (not a good thing on an alloy engine). If it were me, I'd drain it and flush it ASAP and use the proper Extended-Life Coolant... Happy Motoring!... Jim'99 hope you dont mind Jim, just good info

Exactly where is the plug for the coolant? Kind of hard to tell from the pic, but is that the engine you're removing the plug from?

djomlas: Thanks very much for documenting this procedure. I need to change my coolant sooner rather than later. Did you or have you changed the hoses that run from the front radiators to the rear of the car? Thanks, ddb

Hi, @djomlas: Good Job! Btw, which Zerex did you use? The Green? G-05? DexCool? Happy Motoring!... Jim'99

Jim, i will take a picture of the bottle itself and add it to the original post. but it was Zerex Extreme Life 5/150. funny thing was when i was going to get it in the first time, guy asked me if id like prestone or zerex, i was liek ummm i dont know what zerex is, and ive heard of prestone, and it does say for every car. damn it, but now there wouldnt be any of these pictures or this discusion so its all good

Just a couple of questions as I'm gonna do the coolant system flush soon. In the Bentley manual it says the car has a coolant holding capacity of 4.5 gallons,now that's 100% coolant right? Now as I let the car idle and the coolant needs to be filled the mixture that you put in at that time should be 50/50 coolant/distilled right? Is this the right coolant? http://www.partsamerica.com/ProductDetail.aspx?categorycode=3219&mfrcode=HAV&mfrpartnumber=7994

Thanks for the info with the pics. Very helpful! Nice job!

well depending on the temperature, on the bottle it said if you will have your car in up to -34 degree temeratures mix 50/50 coolant and distilled water, which is what i did. if you will be in even colder cinditions it will show different mixture conbinations. so you need certain capacity, now whichever way yo want to mix up your coolant/distilled water mixture is up to you, or better said the conditions you live in. hope this helps

Hi, A couple of things. Water is the best heat conductor available, so the more water you have the better for this purpose alone. But, the Coolant also provides corrosion and lubrication protection, so you need a certain amount of this in the mix as well. 50/50 (distilled water/Coolant) works fine, but 60/40 is better for heat management while still providing adequate corrosion and lubrication protection. So, check the Coolant and use the smallest concentration of Coolant to distilled water your area's avg. temps call for. Hope this helps... Happy Motoring!... Jim'99

Well, my cap ends in 00. How important is it for me to buy a new one as soon as possible? I mean... Its been good for 8 years, and the old saying " If it aint broke, dont fix it" comes to mind.

mine was fine too from 98 till few months ago. they tend to let go and then ull have some problems....it cost me17 bux, so while ure at it i would suggest changing it so youre clear from that standpoint

How high did the temp get in Chicago today? Looks balmy!

Good writeup! I may have to do this within the year. I've knocked out a lot of the periodic maintenance stuff, but have a few more items I could cross off of the list.

when i saw the forecast i told myself i had to do it, its been cold as hell all week, and that day it was 44 or something like that, and now a day later its 13 and snow btw, posted the picture of actual zerex bottle

dj, How did you ensure that you got all the old coolant out of the system? Since the radiators are all the way at the front of the car and you had the rear end on ramps, it seems to me that there would still be old coolant in the system. In the past, I've disconnected a heater hose and fed the system with a garden hose while the motor was running to flush everything out but it looks like you didn't do that. Probably not a huge deal - I was just wondering if you left out a step or if you really did just drain and refill. I would also add - make sure the car is warmed up fully when you drain the coolant. When you refill, make sure the heater is set to full hot. If the heater valve is not open, you won't get out any air trapped in the heater core. Thanks for the writeup. JV

Still a couple of unanswered questions... What was wrong with the Prestone and is the proper type only sold by the dealer (stealer)? Someone on the list doesn't like the Xerex either...

Hi, Read this related thread: http://www.986forum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9112 Hope this helps... Happy Motoring!... Jim'99

i wa gonn post that thread just now, but yes actually i did bring the car down, and ran the coolant out with a hose. i forgot to add that part

for those of you that have an air compressor... i'm not sure about how it cost but my mechanic has this tool that you screw in place of the coolant cap and use the air compressor to pressurize the system.... after its all pressurized you open a valve and the coolant is flushed out thru an attached hose .... filling it up was just as easy....all the air was sucked out of the system...a hose was put into the coolant and the valve opened and all the coolant was sucked right into the system...pretty cool i thought... my mechanic sd this was the best (and easiest) way to make sure that the system was totally flushed or filled correctly.

Cannot seem to find the instructions & pics for changing the coolant. can someone direct me to them? thanks

what do u mean u cant see them?

What I mean, is that there are no pics showing the instructions I'm expecting pics showing me where to find the drain plug, pisc showing how to go about getting a complete flush, may I'm reading this wrong, should there be a link? thanks

for those of you that have an air compressor... Good info and definitely something to think about. It shouldn't be too difficult to fab something up....

on the 1st page there are pictures, step by step. the drain plug is an allen screw, you cant miss it once you take the cover off. go to 1st page, if you have slow connection, wait and the pics will load up

Hi, Just remember to keep the Pressure to 13PSI or lower to avoid splitting any hoses or blowing the Waterpump gasket... Happy Motoring!... Jim'99

Killjoy, Jim, Killjoy!

Doesn't Porsche say the coolant system is maintence free and never needs flushed?

Quote from MNBoxster: Porsche claims their coolant is Lifetime, but don't believe it. It is simply a silicate and phosphate free Glycol based coolant. This s/b changed every 5 years/150k mi. (whichever comes 1st) in order to provide maximum corrosion protection. It is the organic carboxylates which breakdown after this interval. Instead of buying the super-expensive Porsche Coolant, Zerex Extreme Life 5/150, Texaco Extended Life, Shell Rotella® ELC Extended Life Coolant, UNI-GARD 5/150, Mercury Extended Life Coolant Anti-Freeze, all meet or exceed Porsche Coolant requirements and are much cheaper. Use of any other type coolant is not compatible with the system and can form a gel-like substance if mixed with the proper coolant which can then obstruct flow, create hotspots, etc. Hope this helps... Happy Motoring!... Jim'99

Hi, That's right - Porsche does state that their Coolant is Lifetime , but they fail to define what Lifetime is, well it's 5yr./150k mi., which to them (for marketing purposes) is Lifetime . But, Porsche doesn't produce their own Coolant, they re-label someone elses, Pentosin I believe. There is currently no available Coolant, Consumer or Industrial, anywhere, at any price, which is chemically stable for a lifetime . If there were, every Car Mag and Enthusiast Forum would be touting it and the Mfr. would make a fortune. Also, over time, metalic oxides, in form of scale, and bits of deteriorated hose, etc. will accumulate in the system, reducing it's efficiency. It's a good idea to flush the system regardless of the stability of the Coolant to rid the system of these particulates. Hope this helps... Happy Motoring!... Jim'99

or say its lifetime, and make cooling ststem be very ****************ty, so when it goes bad u have t fill it up w thier allroved brand for a small fortune, that works too. its lifetime, too bad other stuff associated with it is not

Now this whole using a hose and running water through the coolant lines,can it be done while the car is off do I have to turn the car on?

Bump,MNBoxster,John V or dj your input is needed.

If the rear of the car is on jackstands, would there be alot of left over old fluid stuck in the front radiators that wouldnt have poured out?

I do not care what Porsche says about "lifetime cooolant". Did mine today (52K) and it looked prety dirty. Now maybe looks have nothing to do with performance, but I do not want that crap in my car.

Are any of you guys changing the washer to your coolant drain plugs while you are flushing the coolant?

I did because mine was a crush type washer, and I did not want to go through all that only to undue everything and go back and put a new 50-cent washer in.

Do you happen to have the part #?

once i drained a lot of it out, i just rolled car down on flat ground, and some more came out. its not that low so u can still tighten the bolt once on the ground.

Since we have a well we use a water treatment system that includes an iron and sulfur filter, a softner, and a reverse osmosis system (for drinking water only). Is reverse osmosis produced water clean enough for our cars?

Where are all the bleeder valves located for the coolant?