water tank - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

My 1999 boxter has a small leak from the area of the water tank in the trunk. Not enough to see a drip or make the trunk wet but enough to lower the level over say one month. Is it difficult to take out and exchange the tank, I assume its a small crack in the bottom somewhere

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assuming that was a question (didn't see any question mark ), here is your answer: Pelican Technical Article: Boxster Coolant Tank Replacement - 986 / 987

Meir nailed it with the repair article, and to answer your question, unless you are a well articulated midget the reservoir tank is a ******************** to take out. You will scrape your knuckles and curse your dog, but it can be done. DO NOT drink beer before attempting, only after you are done. And don't break your oil filler tube as that is one of the next miserable items to replace if you do.

Yeah, I know all too well what a nasty job that is. I managed to avoid actual blood loss, but it took me about 3 hours to get the old one out and about that long again to put the new one in. I was able to do the job almost entirely from up top, and did not have to remove the aluminum brace as suggested in the Pelican article. If you are gong to replace the tank you might as well replace the cap (there is an updated part, ending in .04) and the sensor located at the bottom of the tank while you are at it. The guide on Pedro's website is also very helpful. Take lots of pictures while you are taking it apart in case you need to jog your memory during the re-assembly. Make sure you have a good assortment of weasel tools - long needle nose plier (both straight and angled), a few rad hose pics, and if you spend the money on one of those remote cable operated hose clamp pliers you will be very glad you did. Another worthwhile investment is the Airlift vacuum evacuator and fill tool, providing you have a compressor to run it.

If you drain the tank, lift the car and remove the alu plate from under the rear of the car and have a extended flex clamp compression tool, you can do the job in just over an hour... use a pair of rubber coated hose pinch pliers on the engine side of the pipes and you wont leak more than a drop :-) Oh and word of advise... careful with the three way passthrough plate for the hoses... the smaller one breaks off easily (ask me how I know ) The other option is to cut them off, drill them out and replace them with 3 brass pipe fittings and get rid of the plastic ones all together - thats what i did, so no more worries if they might break!

I think the Pelican article is very helpful, my suggestion is to buy the remote hose clamp tool from sears, it really helped me with the job. I also loosened 3 or 4 of the various water pipe to body retainers near and on the front of engine bulkhead which enabled me to slide the entire assembly back far enough to get reasonable access to the hoses near the tank and rear bulkhead. It only took a few minutes to loosen these holddowns and it made the job way easier. hope this helps

My initiation to Boxster repair was replacement of the coolant tank. A real pain but doable. I suggest replacing the spring clamps with worm gear clamps. If you are Catholic, you will have to go to confession after you are done because you will blaspheme Jesus many times before you are finished.

I'm not a Catholic, but I had to go and apologise to the next door neighbours wife after I installed mine..... After I showed her my bloody knuckles, she gave me a wan smile as if she understood - not.

I aquired a 2000 BoxterS. Unfortunately today, something hit the undercarriage in front and inside left rear tire causing a marble size hole draining my coolant fluid quickly. I parked in a safe place. Any ideas what I popped please?

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From the front to the inside of the left rear tire is a broad range. Where is the marble size hole? Is that where the coolant appeared to come from? Can you post a picture showing damage? The coolant tank is in the right rear of the trunk. Hoses and metal tubes lead from the front of the engine to radiators, passing along the inside edge of the front wheel wells.