zcacogp Posted October 1, 2020 Report Share Posted October 1, 2020 Chaps, I've just had the waterpump go on my 987.1 2.7 Cayman. Funny rattling noise from behind which was linked with engine speed, which went away after a few minutes. 20 minutes later and I noticed a HUGE amount of white smoke from the back of the car, pulled over and had my finest moccasins* widdled over by the car as it unladen-ed itself of coolant. 90 minutes waiting and 50 minutes in a breakdown truck (they travel more slowly than 987's) and I had the thing back in my garage being stripped down. Plus points are that the temperature didn't go up at all on the gauge and it was running very sweetly indeed when it happened so I doubt there is any engine damage. Old waterpump was a plastic impeller type, which I am grateful for. However there are chunks of the old impeller which are missing, precise whereabouts unknown but likely to be in the coolant system somewhere. I've googled until my eyes have gone funny and can't get a straight idea of whether this is a major problem or not. I've strained the coolant that came out and there are a number of small flakes of plastic that look very like they've come from the impeller. I've removed the oil/water cooler from the top of the engine block and flushed the water side through under the tap and seemed to wash out a quantity more of some similar flakes. I've removed the thermostat but it was entirely clean. Do I think that the sum total of the flakes equates to the amount of plastic missing from the old impeller? No I don't, I think there is still material in there. The next step is to back flush the coolant system with a hosepipe; I won't be able to see what comes out as the flakes thus far have been very small indeed and I don't intend to strain the large amounts of water that will be used in the back flushing but if I can wash any more out then that's a bonus. Enough of the story of how I spent my afternoon, onto the reason for this thread. It seems that this is not an uncommon problem but does anyone have any direct, first-hand experience of it? Has this happened to your car and what did you do about it? There may have been threads on this topic here before in which case then please point me in their direction. Google has thrown up a number of people on forums who will talk about it and the views range from "It happens, it's nothing to worry about, fit the new waterpump and keep driving it" to "it WILL cause hot spots in the cylinder heads and they WILL crack and you WILL regret it". Most of the stuff I have read is from the US sites where opinions are held more firmly and certain people get quite shouty about it. So, over to you - in your experience, is this likely to be a problem? Thanks, Oli. * - That's a lie, I was wearing Converse Allstars. Get me - the mid 40's hipster who drives in shoes that were trendy when I was a teenager! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zcacogp Posted October 2, 2020 Author Report Share Posted October 2, 2020 Anyone? Anyone at all? Here are some photos so people can see what's what. Waterpump. Note missing bits. Bits filtered out from coolant (ruler for scale): Pragmatically, I think my options are to either take the whole engine apart and see if I can clean the waterways in the head, block and radiators OR I can put it back together and keep my fingers crossed. The former option would be a huge amount of work which I am not able to do myself, so I think it will have to be a case of fitting a new pump and keeping my fingers crossed. Has anyone else trod this path? (There must be others, surely!) If so then what is your experience? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boxstercol Posted October 2, 2020 Report Share Posted October 2, 2020 Wow! That impeller is properly shagged!! Can’t say I’ve ever seen that before, has the bearing collapsed? I’ve read of bits of plastic blocking waterways following the impeller breaking up, but never on this forum. Difficult decision to make.... If it were me I’d flush it as much as possible & put a new pump in, then keep my fingers crossed!! Good luck with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobbie Posted October 2, 2020 Report Share Posted October 2, 2020 When mine went I found a lot of debris was still in the hole the pump came out of. I did a basic flush by running a hosepipe through the expansion tank. No problems since. The US folk do seem to get their knickers in a twist about most things Boxster related. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bally4563 Posted October 3, 2020 Report Share Posted October 3, 2020 Build it up , bleed it and drain it down again see if it flushes more out, just you use water for the first attempt, anti freeze is expensive!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulQ Posted October 3, 2020 Report Share Posted October 3, 2020 10 hours ago, Boxstercol said: Wow! That impeller is properly shagged!! Can’t say I’ve ever seen that before. More common then you might think. Metal impeller anyone.? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zcacogp Posted October 3, 2020 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2020 Chaps, Thanks for the replies. Boxstercol - yes, the bearing collapsed. There could have been odd noises from the engine on Wednesday when I took it for a short drive (a test-drive to make sure that the new disks and front ARB droplinks were OK!) However there wasn't anything enough to make me concerned. At the start of a longer journey on Thursday it started briefly to make some more noises and 20 (brisk) miles later the white smoke appeared. My assumption is that the bearing collapsed progressively and the edges of the impeller were ground off producing the finer pieces found in the coolant. However things progressed and the bearing collapsed more catastrophically (possibly a ball bearing came loose) and the eccentricity of movement increased and bigger bits were broken off. Nobbie, thanks. Interesting that you found most of the bits of yours in the waterpump housing - there was nothing there in my case. Your experience however gives me confidence. Interesting comments also about Yanks and Boxsters! Bally - that's exactly what I've done; flushed out the thermostat housing (nothing there), flushed out the oil-water cooler (quite a few fragments), backwashed the whole system with a hosepipe (some bits came out, I'm not sure how many as there was a lot of water spilling all over the drive!). I've reassembled with a new (Meyle) pump with a plastic impeller and will see what happens next. It's been on a couple of brisk drives this afternoon (15-20 miles each way) and all was well; temperature gauge came up to the usual point and stayed there. No nasty noises, nothing untoward. What happens next? Wait and see, I guess. PaulQ, thanks for your comments about it being more common than one may expect. It does strike me that if the choice with a collapsing pump bearing is between a metal impeller that grinds the block away and a plastic impeller than clogs up the waterways with debris then it's a hard one to make. Changing it frequently is the sensible answer. I don't think that the one on my car was the original but there's nothing in the history about it so I have no idea how old it is. Maybe I need to put a note in my diary for October 2024 to order a new pump ... Thanks for your help chaps. I'll keep this thread updated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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