Left front radiator failure

I noticed coolant under left front wheel. Took my 2009 Boxster to performance shop in Nashville, TN. It was reported that leaves and debris led to corrosion of radiator and it needs to be replaced. Right side radiator is fine. I am third owner and the car has been garaged it's entire life and has less than 36k miles on it and is washed regularly. Has anyone experienced anything like this before? The repairs will cost $1,660. I am going to visit shop today to see for myself

I can 100% buy that the radiator is damaged and as such is leaking. It is surprising Aluminum corroded to failure in TN, where road salt isn't a thing, salt will pit and degrade Aluminum. However, Aluminum is not immune to oxidation, so they are likely being honest. They're going to show you the problem, can't ask for more than that and frankly the price isn't horrible because replacement is going to include front bumper cover removal and replacement. They don't make them for my car but after they do the repair and clean the other side? Consider investment in the screens made in the aftermarket to prevent debris from entering. I have pulled at least five cigarette butts from mine over the years and I don't smoke. I clean them every spring and hope for the best.

I've read from many on the forums that cleaning the radiators should be done, which is why I had it done when I bought my car (used). It should be repeated as needed, of course. My indy specialist recommended it as well. It requires pulling the bumper off, but it's not too pricey... well worth it. I wish Porsche would have put this in the maintenance schedule, but it's a learned thing now I guess. Screens should help, as recommended... I still need to do that on mine. It is surprising to hear you had an issue in TN... that is concerning, indeed. Do take pictures and let us know what you find out!

you can get 80% with fingers and a vacuum tube, I made a special one.

Unfortunately - you can't get the really ground up stuff from between the AC condenser and the radiator, and these are what can cause overheating. Even the stuff at the bottom, cleaning after vacuuming it very carefully, and using a long brush to loosen stuff up - there was still a considerable amount at the bottom in the outside corner where the radiator is very close to the surrounding housing and inner-bumper wall. I did add screens to mine - got them from the Radiator Grill Store: Corvette and Porsche Performance Products | Radiator Grille Store - good people, very helpful when I had a tech question. BTW (edit) - DO NOT USE A PRESSURE WASHER on the radiators/condensors. It's tempting at the DIY car wash to try to clear the radiators, don't do it. If you do - the high-pressure water will tend to fold over the thin aluminum fins, and if you use the soap, it can get trapped in the fins and cause corrosion. You want no more pressure than from a garden hose (maybe 40PSI.)

Don do you know how many people drive these cars and don't even know those spots are being compromised? I am not going to take my BC off alone and risk scratching it for that, someday when I have help? Maybe

While I also have screens on 987, I also have rigged up some flexible tubing, attaching it to my shop vac, and it does an amazing job of sucking out any debris that may get past the screening. Works great.

I removed the bumper on my previous 2004 986 S a few years back and was amazed how much crap was in there...rocks, sand, leaves, dozens of cig butts,etc. The bumper on a 986 is very easy to remove compared to a 987 (based on the write ups I have seen for installing a 3rd rad) I have rigged up a thin hose shop vac adapter which has worked very well along with replacing the factory fogs with "led spars" which provide more protection.

Boris - not everyone is a DIY person or some have stopped doing physically demanding DIY's. My bumper cover was removed by a friend/mechanic when I had to replace the horns (one had gone bad, and the other one was changed to make a matched pair). It wasn't that big a challenge for him. Just a bunch of screws, and it pretty much hangs in place until you lift it out of the recess in the frunk opening. I can't recall suggesting someone DIY.. do you?

Maybe I wasn't clear, I'm saying some of these cars go to 100K with whatever has been scooped up, there's thousands of owners who just drive them. IMO, that number is even higher now that Porsche makes SUV's. Shopping for the 944 I saw a lot of sports cars with cigarette burn holes in the driver's seat, who does that? People do that. This board is fastidious and I wouldn't have it any other way but we are a minority. As for the front cover? It's not the fasters, I changed the 986 see below, it's perfect. I just remember that handling that piece alone leaves room for error and call me stupid (but if anybody would understand it's you guys) the Spyder is like a family member to me, I have coffee with it in the morning. I would have a hard time forgiving myself if I damaged it with a mishap. My friends here are not car guys except for the gilded mechanic and I'm not going to ask him to wrench on his one day off with when he has a family. he would in a second but I grew up with my dad doing that for people all the time. Now if you all will excuse me I have a therapy appointment. 

When I had a 987.1 I installed a set of ZunSport grilles. They are a little pricey but look good and work well. For the 987.2 I have been using a set of less expensive but equally effective grilles. I have also managed to vacuum debris without removing the bumper. As far as bumper removal I've done VW, Audi and Volvo they're all similar, but the most important thing to make the job easier is to have a plan of what you're going to do at the last moment when you finally have the bumper removed. I've used two five-gallon buckets covered with towels as a resting place. Just did a quick search and it appears those radiators are only $300-400. The quoted price seems a bit high even with the bumper removal and re-install, throw in coolant service and I don't see $800+ of additional cost.

I think the point is - if you then removed the bumper cover and separated the HVAC condenser and the radiator you'd realize how much crap is actually left behind even with the best vacuum through the grill job you can do. I would suggest this is possibly a 50,000 mile service sort of job. Combine it with a service and it won't seem as big a job. And that reminds me - I haven't done the Cayenne in 100k miles, I really gotta look at it soon.. it also has the intercoolers to be concerned with.

I just removed my front bumper on my 987.2 to install a gt3 vent kit on it. My car has the metal vent covers and still had debris behind it. I used my shop vac to vacuum all the crap out and even sucked up a dried up dead mouse which appeared to be there a while. I am not an amateur when it comes to car repair by any means but was surprised how easy it really was to remove the bumper cover. It’ll probably become part of my larger maintenance routine. I’ve even had the bumper cover on my Cayenne off to repair the headlight washers and it was fairly easy. If it’s going to save me money down the road I won’t think twice about removing them. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk