What did yours cost (just add water!! I would if I could!!)

My car is currently in with OPC in Hatfield for a service and I was aware of a water leak and was fairly convinced it was the plastic expansion tank and also know this is not coved by the warranty and was expecting a replacement cost to be in the region of about £350. However they have quoted me £599.33 this is to remove and fit new tank top up the coolant and fit some kind of switch. 3 hours labour cost of tank £132 Can anyone please tell what they paid and where they got there's fitted? Many thanks in advance

3 hours labour @ 68 GBP /hr at PCT in Coventry. Plus coolant + bottle + vat 2005 prices.

I think that's a bit pricy. It isn't a 3 hour job - more like one and a half if you include having a cup of tea! Probably too far for you, topgear, but Wrightune in Wallingford (£40/hour). I'm having mine done on Monday - given up at last after 76000, although it has been weeping for the last 3 months. Edit: Just looked up the Euro Car Parts prices - the tank is £119 (up to 00) and £52 (01 on). Not sure if that's a misprint for the 01-, but if it is correct, it's cheap!

Jobs like this sound very easy to do, mind you I have seen inside a 996 engine bay not much room. But I am sure with abit of easing here and there it would be a mornings work for a 996 virgin. Clamp the hoses so as not to lose too much fluid and rove the tank waste what fluid comes out replace and then top up.. The hose clamps I have I made but you can buy them from most garage tool places.. I always am happy to buy tools because if you do a job like you are talking about... if I did it cheaper than the dealer and I learn something and get some new tools and still save money..... well it's a winner all round..

any one got a photo of the bottle in place so I can see what would be involved ?

Before you ask - Yes, my car really is that dirty. It's a garage queen - I use it every day, and park it in the garage! (Quote stolen from someone on Renntech). Guess what I'm doing this weekend? The worst thing about the job is the cr*ppy spring clips Porsche use on the hoses - anything to save money.

See here: http://www.renntech.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=8024 It's a reasonably straight forward job. Most difficult thing is actually squeezing the tank out of the engine bay - it is a tadge tight! Did mine myself and I don't profess to be a serious mechanic. Should take you around 2 hours max. A good indi should manage it in an hour.

There should be a standard time set by Porsche for this - I believe all tasks have a time associated with them - ask Hatfield how they estimate the time [ ] Pete

3 hours is there quoted time for this job! Guess what lucky me I'm having a new RMS fitted while it's in there!! (small leak apparently) They are also gonna have a look at the clutch at the same time. C4 99 41,000 (so will probably need the new clutch)

Well looking at that it looks fairly simple.. The air intake it best removed to gain access and then have a look at awhat hoses are attached at best there should only be two, one large and one small. Oh well ok 3 one would be a drain off incase of over filling but the bore on that would be very small. The access to wiggle the tank out is what looks to be the problem.. I wounder if the OPC remove the engine.. but I am sure with some gentle pushing and pulling the bottle would come out.. The clips I can't see to clear in the picture but I am sure they are the usual speed clips and they are easy to move with the right tool. ( just taken a secondlook yep speed clips easy to move with a proper set of pipe grips.. ( double ones not the cheap halfords single ones that take half your hand off when they come off ......[ ] ) I can also see an area that I think might be the area of concern with the leak.. do these tanks leak at the bottom joint there? If so I would say the reason is the tank is bottled very firm and the engine will move some what in driving and as there is very little of hose to the join there is not much room for the hose to take the flexing so it looks like the bottom joint on the bottle takes the brunt of it and hence the leak.. It does look an easy ish job to do for sure...

Good luck let me know how things go, I might have a go at this myself if it proves to be a fairly striaght forward job! Got to let the OPC know on Monday what I'm gonna do about it

tip is when topping up run the engine with the cap off so when the termostat opens it pushes the water round any air will just bubble up in the bottle once your happy it's air free cap back on... looks an ok job to do .. save some money..

If you drain the system completely it is an absolute pig to purge the air out afterwards. The manual takes about three pages to describe the operation, and there are special tools involved. Best bet is to try and keep as much coolant in the system as possible. There is a purge valve on the top of the coolant tank, and it's best to run it for a day or two with the valve open and top up as necessary.

Tower Porsche charged me £120 for the bottle and bits, and completed the job while i waited, in about 45 minutes. Can't remember what the labour charge was, but it wasn't anywhere near the hourly charge of an OPC, and it was any where near 3 hours either!! Oh, and while we're at it......Because of my Gemballa engine cover and wing, the engine cover can't open as far as normal. So Tower Porsche completed the job in a fraction of the time with a lot less access to the tank.

I think as Porsche say 3 hrs in there manuel, they charge this regardless of how long the job actually takes to complete. I feel though that £600 is far to expensive for this fault to be corrected and will have a talk with the opc tomorrow to find out if they would be willing to negotiate a better price for this job, if not I will look into different options including having ago myself Thanks for everyone's input.

OPC Cambridge seam to charge the time it takes instead of quoted time and you can get 10% off parts and 25% of labour rate for being over 5 years old. An Indi would be good to do this job far cheaper i'm sure. Good luck Phil

Just had this done (by an indi). Came in at about £220 incl. VAT.

Just got back from having it done. Normally I would have had a go myself, but I have the remnants of a dreadful cold and didn't fancy grovelling in the engine compartment. Total was £224 inc VAT inc parts and labour, and no skinned knuckles or dirty hands. Makes a pleasant change, but not as satisfying.

Thanks, I called Cambridge today and they quoted £346 for this job almost half the price, then called back Hatfield and they will match it. However on top of this there is still a price for a switch and one another part total £25 Plus upto 8 liters of anti freeze @ £5.00ltr depending on how much they need to top up. So still looking between £370-£415 inc vat Where did you get yours done in the end? Also waiting for an indi to get back to me for a quote

Wrightune, Wallingford, Oxon. http://www.wrightune.co.uk Edit: And if they are careful they can collect the coolant from the header tank. If they want to charge for 8 lites of antifreeze (which is mixed 50% with water) they are taking the Mickey. Mine took less than a litre to top-up. The switch is probably the level switch, which can be taken out of the old tank and fitted to the new one. Unless you have a faulty switch, there is no need for a new one.

clamping hoses where possible is essential to minimise coolant loss, otherwise is takes more time to bleed the cooling system. The 996 engine coolant refill procedure is like no other, read the manual on this because it is not as easy as you would imagine, when warm the engine needs to be run at high speed to purge as Richard suggested. Run a 996 that has not been properly bled at our peril. Coolant is a premixed solution that only Porsche can provide, I personally wouldn't use any alternatives, without sound advice.

Arr.. Now you've thrown a spanner in the works [:-], I spoke with my OPC today and said i'd try it myself and just for them to supply me the parts. Thought this was gonna be a fairly straight forward job.... I'd read the How To on Renntech and looked like I could do this. I've really only got until tomorrow morning to let them know if i'm going to get them to do it now. As they have been doing quite a lot of warranty work including the cars first RMS!! and new clutch.