Nearside lower pipe to radiator, slight joint weep - any advice

[gillbe]

Discovered whilst putting car onto ramp for bumper off condenser work - few drops of red coolant on inside bumper.  

Question is:

bite the bullet and tackle myself now, a little nervous about dropping subframe(have seen 6 pages of comprehensive notes and pics to replace all coolant pipes for this model by Ian Thow Feb 2021) ;

limited repair, leave it and just try temporary jubilee clip add-on (not weeping ordinarily as far as I can see) ;

plan a garage-based repair when time permits (presume local non-specialist inde capable of doing this) ;

car is at 91K on original water pump - replace too now or can I still expect many care free miles?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[horror]

The hose Porsche have designed is great for quick for quick assembly on the line but cr*p in almost every other aspect. The hose is  a male push fit into a female in the plastic radiator tank. The rubber hose has metallic ends that seal with a rubber O ring and are retained by hair clip type retainer. The metallic end rusts and the hose then can weep. By this stage the hose is history, no external jubilee clip so no retightening. Potentially push back in, twist, whatever, at least the plastic can’t rust.

In my case when I bought my car the coolant level needed topping up, no weeps were spotted, I just keep ‘feeding’ the system with more coolant, a minor top up when checked every few months. This continued for 18 months/ 10,000m or so; for me, for my car it was “normal”, I knew no better, I then lost enough coolant to trigger a low coolant level warning. 

As for yourself it’s only a minor drip at this stage, my personal suggestion would be-

* check the coolant level and top up, it’s a minor ‘drip’, then monitor.

* when convenient, get the car booked in to have that hose replaced, say £30-40 ish for the hose, say £100 all in for fitting, hose and coolant loss.

If the rest of the hoses are OK then they are OK. When the second one goes then perhaps think about wholesale replacement.

Be aware - that should the low coolant level trigger, the temp gauge is programmed to go into the red; the coolant isn’t necessarily over heating - it’s merely low - read the warning message. As for the handbook’s suggestion to remove the radiator/coolant cap to top up - dream on - wait until everything in the system is cold then check.