Leaks from the hoses

[StephenM]

Hi All,

I will be grateful if anyone knows what these pipes are and presumably to fix them I need to replace them.  What is the best manual to use please?

 

[Tony Daniel]

These are coolant hoses, unfortunately looking at the state of those it is likely you will require the rubber hoses and the aluminium cross pipes they join to. About £200 in parts and will require dropping the front sub-frame but doable for the average DIY're .

 

[Boxstercol]

Following with interest as the 987’s are now at the age where this is becoming a common issue.

Mine looking ok but probably one of those jobs that’s going to need doing sooner or later.

[Davey P]

I had all coolant hoses and pipes replaced in one go at an independent Porsche garage (TWG Motorsport in Peterborough) and it was... er... pretty expensive   

Here's a pic of the old ones, so as you can see, there are quite a few parts to the coolant system:

Probably all original parts though, so I guess if they lasted 13 years that's not too bad... 

[PaulQ]

P1ss poor really for a car that costs 40k.

[StephenM]

5 hours ago, Davey P said:

I had all coolant hoses and pipes replaced in one go at an independent Porsche garage (TWG Motorsport in Peterborough) and it was... er... pretty expensive   

Here's a pic of the old ones, so as you can see, there are quite a few parts to the coolant system:

Probably all original parts though, so I guess if they lasted 13 years that's not too bad... 

Do you mind me asking how much ....er.....expensive was please ?

[Davey P]

9 hours ago, StephenM said:

Do you mind me asking how much ....er.....expensive was please ?

The total bill came to just over £1800, but that also included replacement of the exhaust hanger bracket on the gearbox, shown in the centre of the pic.  It was broken, so definitely needed replacing, and the part alone was approx £350.  I don't know how much labour was added to fit that, or what was involved, but the total labour was 10 hours @ £55 ph and they had the car for two days.  The coolant parts were not individually too extortionate, probably not a lot dearer than most other cars, but there was a long list of them!   

I hope that helps anyway mate.

[Tony Daniel]

That's a ridiculous price 🥴

[Menoporsche]

Tony you missed out on a couple of days to fund next year's ski trip there mate...  

[StephenM]

Thanks @Davey P that sure was a big bill !! - I wonder could anyone on here recommend someone who could do this for a reasonable price please??.  I live in Billericay (Essex - and yes all the jokes are true !!) ??

[Davey P]

3 minutes ago, StephenM said:

Thanks @Davey P that sure was a big bill !! - I wonder could anyone on here recommend someone who could do this for a reasonable price please??.  

Yes mate, I spent just over 4 grand in the first couple of months after I bought the car, with various other items needed to get it properly sorted (battery, full set of N rated tyres, and a full service...).  I made the mistake of buying a car with no service history, which of course was totally my fault, and wanted to make sure it was mechanically sound.  All good now though, and I'm really enjoying it.

[Glosrich]

On 5/24/2020 at 2:43 PM, StephenM said:

Thanks @Davey P that sure was a big bill !! - I wonder could anyone on here recommend someone who could do this for a reasonable price please??.  I live in Billericay (Essex - and yes all the jokes are true !!) ??

Hi Stephen,

Was it a private sale or a dealer? As it looks like it needs a fair bit of work doing to it, especially those coolant pipes, if its a dealer you should take it back.

Not sure how exactly you stand in a private sale,  but you could just ask to return it or  some contribution towards the repair costs.

Hope it gets sorted out.

Rich

 

[sa utah]

“Return a private sale car or ask for money to fix it”  ???

is this actually a thing ?    I’ve bought a lot of cars of the years and you expect them to need fixing.  It’s a chance you take and hopefully when you’re buying a car privately you should know what to look for.  
the coolant pipes in the 987 are a well know week spot so if there’s no history of them being done you should escape t to have to do them.  
 

it’s worth doing all the rubber hoses and aluminium parts when you’re in there and if you need any suspension work on the front (which you will be the looks of it )  then do that as well as the alignment will  need doing when the sub frame is lowered to do the pipes

 

 

 

 

[Topbox]

On 5/24/2020 at 10:51 AM, Tony Daniel said:

That's a ridiculous price 🥴

Interesting, being down south always keen to keep tabs on prices. My Indy charges more than that labour rates. Do you think time taken is over the odds or the price the parts must have been. Or maybe your comment was just more an  exclaimation of shock from a confirmed DIY er 😃

[Davey P]

2 minutes ago, Topbox said:

Interesting, being down south always keen to keep tabs on prices. My Indy charges more than that labour rates. Do you think time taken is over the odds or the price the parts must have been. Or maybe your comment was just more an  exclamation of shock from a confirmed DIY er 😃

I must admit, I was a bit shocked at the time when I got the final bill.  However, I took the view that I didn't buy a Porsche for the cheap running costs, so what did I expect?   Also, to be fair it was quite a major job, and now it's done that is one less thing for me to worry about.

[½cwt]

50 minutes ago, Glosrich said:

Was it a private sale or a dealer? As it looks like it needs a fair bit of work doing to it, especially those coolant pipes, if its a dealer you should take it back.

Not sure how exactly you stand in a private sale,  but you could just ask to return it or  some contribution towards the repair costs.

 

@StephenM If a trader have a word, if a private sale it depends where the ad was placed as if the car was misrepresented on their site and could cause the site reputational damage you might get some backing from them vs the seller, but this is like are Facebook et al responsible for the content or just the platform?  Otherwise sold as seen would apply. Caveat Emptor!  (buyer beware)

I was miffed by some of the issues I found on mine when I bought it but I took the risk of no inspection and agreed at point of sale with the trader that the car was sold as seen.  Fortunately not too costly (well about £5-600) in my case.

[StephenM]

To be fair it was a private sale and I was not aware this could be a problem when I bought it, but that is my own fault.  I relied on it being low mileage too much, but you live and learn.  However I am still really pleased with the car overall and I think I will try to find someone to carry out the work for me as whilst I am happy servicing a car for the regular things I have not attempted anything like this before and no doubt will require all sorts of tools and equipment I have never heard of not to mention how to remove the sub-frame?

If anyone has any recommendations for someone near to Essex Who could do this, I will be very grateful.

@sa utah you mentioned that it also looked as though it needed some work on the suspension, could you tell me please what you believe is required?

Many thanks to you all for your help with this, it is really appreciated 

 

[Tony Daniel]

5 hours ago, Topbox said:

Interesting, being down south always keen to keep tabs on prices. My Indy charges more than that labour rates. Do you think time taken is over the odds or the price the parts must have been. Or maybe your comment was just more an  exclaimation of shock from a confirmed DIY er 😃

Every 987 has this problem, the steel collars on the coolant pipes react with the aluminium cross pipes, rust and leak. Sometimes the two pipes come apart other times they are fused so you never no how big a can of worms you are opening up when you start. Indy's must see this every week and be replacing them faster than you can say 'coil packs'.

I had a rough quote of £6-700 at a local indy. In the end I decided to have a go myself and replaced all the front pipes for under £200. I did it on my back on axle stands with just a little help from google in probably 4 hours, plus a bit to get the air out of the system. The garage would have used new coolant where as I re-used and probably charged for alignment as you need to unbolt the subframe where as I had mine checked for free (I'd just had new lower springs fitted and they had spotted the leak) and it was exactly the same before and after. 

I was also shocked at the £350 exhaust hanger, not every indy will offer this but for non important parts like that I would have thought they would have sourced a second hand one for a quarter of the price. its not a common part to brake so breakers yards must have a skip full.

[Topbox]

Thanks  @Tony Daniel that does give useful perspective. I was suprised by the cost of that bracket too. I had a leak in that location but my indy fixed it without having to replace anything at almost no cost.  I keep my eye on that area as the car is now nine years old, and as you point out, its a Boxster weak spot.

[Glosrich]

This is an example of how risky it is buying these cars without an inspection.

A lot of the jobs are more complicated than the average car and take more time, due to the layout of the engine, coolant pipes etc, and some of the parts are expensive.

If you dont get an inspection, then its very easy to end up with a bill for several grand, as Davey P did. Money which could have been used to buy a better car in the first place.

I'm having the same on my Cayman. I've had to replace front control arms (tuning forks), exhaust clamps (rusted to hell), fog lamp cracked and rusty (£200!) and now I need to do the top mounts, bump stops and track rod ends, so getting on for £1500 worth already.

Had I known this I would have spent another £2k on a younger lower mileage car. Power of hindsight...

 

 

 

[PaulQ]

You don't really need an inspection, just look through the service history to see what has or has not been replaced. 

Obviously you need to be aware of any potential issues in the first place, but there is plenty of information on here and elsewhere that lists the common failure, and wear items on these cars. 

[Glosrich]

17 minutes ago, PaulQ said:

You don't really need an inspection, just look through the service history to see what has or has not been replaced. 

Obviously you need to be aware of any potential issues in the first place, but there is plenty of information on here and elsewhere that lists the common failure, and wear items on these cars. 

Very often cars dont have anything more than a stamp in a service book, which doesnt tell you much. If you can buy privately and find a car with a stack of bills for items changed that would be best.

[½cwt]

39 minutes ago, Glosrich said:

This is an example of how risky it is buying these cars without an inspection.

A lot of the jobs are more complicated than the average car and take more time, due to the layout of the engine, coolant pipes etc, and some of the parts are expensive.

If you dont get an inspection, then its very easy to end up with a bill for several grand, as Davey P did. Money which could have been used to buy a better car in the first place.

I'm having the same on my Cayman. I've had to replace front control arms (tuning forks), exhaust clamps (rusted to hell), fog lamp cracked and rusty (£200!) and now I need to do the top mounts, bump stops and track rod ends, so getting on for £1500 worth already.

Had I known this I would have spent another £2k on a younger lower mileage car. Power of hindsight...

Which in a year or two could well have developed the same problems leaving you with a bigger overall cost.....  

As is often repeated about 986 variants, buy well with good documented history but make sure you have about £1.5k to do the work that will almost certainly be required in year one.  A lot of the time someone is selling because a big job is coming up or a lot of small jobs are accumulating.

[Davey P]

44 minutes ago, Glosrich said:

This is an example of how risky it is buying these cars without an inspection.

A lot of the jobs are more complicated than the average car and take more time, due to the layout of the engine, coolant pipes etc, and some of the parts are expensive.

If you dont get an inspection, then its very easy to end up with a bill for several grand, as Davey P did. Money which could have been used to buy a better car in the first place.

Yes, thanks for reminding me mate, I have been trying to forget that little episode and now all the nightmares have come flooding back....  (I'm kidding, it's only money, and I'm not that bothered really) 

[Menoporsche]

Was that the Davey P who got suckered into spending an absolute fortune as he didn't ask the forum's advice first?

 

Edit - oh hi Davey, didn't see you - how's life?