Coolant cap 'pop' + white smoke...

[And.rs1800]

36 minutes ago, iborguk said:

Yes I'd want a flush and coolant change if it were mine and the coolant was that colour.

Same!!

[Medic-one]

 

They quoted £ 335, for a coolant flush and change, does that sound about right? 

[Paul P]

Seems expensive to me. Suggest calling a few Indy’s and your nearest opc. 

[Pinewood]

my son accidently put coolant in his engine oil (VW golf mk6) and that only cost him £100 to flush and replace the oil (he won't make that mistake again) 

£335 sounds expensive. 

shop around. 

 

[½cwt]

A coupe of hours work may be, but running up to temp and bleeding does take time.  Also quite a lot of coolant in these Boxsters.

[Philc]

Geniune porsche coolant would be charged around £12 a litre and could be 10 litres diluted 50/50 with distilled so £140? Plus labour at £80 p/h for a couple of hours, i can see where the 335 comes from.

Its your call, but id wait until it was combined with a pump and/or pipe replacement to get value for money.

[½cwt]

10 hours ago, Philc said:

Geniune porsche coolant would be charged around £12 a litre and could be 10 litres diluted 50/50 with distilled so £140? Plus labour at £80 p/h for a couple of hours, i can see where the 335 comes from.

Its your call, but id wait until it was combined with a pump and/or pipe replacement to get value for money.

You can get decent to Porsche spec third party coolant (Comma) for about £5 per litre.  Try an indy or was £335 an indy price?  If so try another....

Edited May 25, 2022 by ½cwt

[Medic-one]

Went to pick up the car today. 

Garage said when he realised the coolant cap in the boot yesterday there was a tiny 1 second 'psss' like normal, but that's it (like it used to do before I got this problem) and when we opened it just before I left there there was barely any noise as it had been standing overnight.

He said he wasn't too concerned about the coolant as in his opinion it didn't look murky when he checked it, so that made me wonder if it was maybe just my picture. 

So I just checked the coolant in my V8 Jag and it's pink and see through. I then took a photo without flash, and one with flash. And on the one with flash my coolant actually looks the same murky colour, eventhough it's not. 

You can't really see it clear in the photo's, but my Jag's coolant is not murky, and definitely doesn't resemble the photo. 
When I took the photo's of the porsche coolant I had the flash on and was shining on it with my pentorch to try and see it better, so I wonder if it's more then photo/flash that's making it look murky when it's not.

 

 

So I might just leave it until it's due it's next service in a few months. 

The air vents in the front also seem to heat again as before, blowing out hot air without being on the high setting, so whatever issue there was it seems to have resolved.

I also told the garage I'm going abroad by the end of next month, so he'd done a vehicle health check as well, checking the brake pads, suspension, tyres, exhaust etc, and wrote out a report and that all came back good as well so that's reassuring. 

I'm just gonna keep an eye on it for now and hopefully no more issue's.  Thanks everyone for the replies, information and suggestions.

[iborguk]

That’s a cheap fix , turning the flash off 😀👍
So sometimes the camera does lie then…

Edited May 25, 2022 by iborguk

[Medic-one]

So last month that garage that looked at it wrote on their invoice : 

"We have pressure tested the system and found no issues, system holds pressure, we carried out a visual inspection and can find no signs of a leak, there are some dry coolant stains around the overflow pipe, but this is down to pressure release caused when the customer opened the coolant tank whilst still warm. All 3 coolant caps seem to be sealing fully."

Then last week we went to Simply Porsche and Southampton for the weekend which is a 300 mile road trip and I then took the car in to have some new rear tyres fitted.  The place fitting them couldn't do the alignment so took it to a local Porsche specialist to have that done and they found and pointed out this : 

 

So looks like there is a leak, and the waterpump needs replacing. 

They quoted me £ 400, for the pump and around £ 700, to do the job.  Does that sound about right ?

He said that's an original Porsche waterpump but he will have a look around to see if he can find a good non OEM pump if i wanted. 

Do people tend to stick with OEM ones, or are there good aftermarket pumps out there ?

[red rocket]

4 hours ago, Medic-one said:

They quoted me £ 400, for the pump and around £ 700, to do the job.  Does that sound about right

That sounds high! Mine was £715 all in in 2019. Pump was £165 +vat. Labour was 5 hours @ £55/hour. Bill also included gasket, drive belt, tensioning and deflection rollers and half a litre of coolant (apparently I was lucky that when it failed only a small amount leaked out).

[Philc]

9A1 pump is different, i paid £320ish for a genuine pump in 2020 so sounds about right. Cant comment on labour, as i did mine diy (took me about a week in total😂)

[Philc]

Just found a clip i made of mine, there was no leak or loss of coolant, just a constant low level bearing noise, which when the belt tension was released revealed the wobble in the pump.

Then you realise the tensioner pivot arm is seized and needs replacing, may as well get the bearing’s too and its another £250😩 

Edited June 15, 2022 by Philc

[Medic-one]

15 hours ago, Philc said:

9A1 pump is different, i paid £320ish for a genuine pump in 2020 so sounds about right. Cant comment on labour, as i did mine diy (took me about a week in total😂)

Are there different types of waterpump then ? 

I just had a look at that design911 website and they've got a waterpump for £ 133, on there.  

 

https://www.design911shop.com/Water-Pump-Porsche-Boxster-987---987C-Cayman---997-C2---997-C4--non-Turbo-_2_2_2_2/prod138886/?showtax=true&gclid=CjwKCAjwqauVBhBGEiwAXOepkdLjNTYGRUsoJAMuLHtLEjB2s0RuFIxWHQ_lEtmBKfJtjxp3scYMMRoCvrsQAvD_BwE

[Philc]

Yes it’s different for 2005-08 (M97) engine and 2009-11 (9A1) engines.

My thinking was if a  geniune OE pump has lasted 95k mikes /10 years, another of the same will see out my ownership (probably)

[Philc]

Having trouble posting a link, but if you select a 2011 gen2 3.4 from design911 you will see they list the pump as £545

theyre are cheaper non OE if you scroll down the page, but my thinking behind geniune parts is stated in my last post

Edited June 16, 2022 by Philc

[Paul P]

Check my homework with an OPC but I read it as 

Latest Porsche part number ( there have been many supersessions)  0PB 121 035 A ( original version part number was 9A1 106 048 00 )

Porsche Price including 10% discount for PCGB membership and VAT £433.52

Design 911 price  £454.36 + VAT + DELIVERY

Porsche Boxster Cayman 997 Water Pump 9A110604800mp Porsche Boxster 986/ 996 C2/4 (non Turbo) - 0PB121035A | Design 911

Yes - there are cheaper alternatives out there - who know's how good they are or how long they will last, or how well they fit.  Your money, your car, your rules etc, but the bulk of the cost on this job appears to be time - so a false economy if you fit one that lasts a few years.

 

 

 

 

[Medic-one]

29 minutes ago, Paul P said:

Check my homework with an OPC but I read it as 

Latest Porsche part number ( there have been many supersessions)  0PB 121 035 A ( original version part number was 9A1 106 048 00 )

Porsche Price including 10% discount for PCGB membership and VAT £433.52

Design 911 price  £454.36 + VAT + DELIVERY

Porsche Boxster Cayman 997 Water Pump 9A110604800mp Porsche Boxster 986/ 996 C2/4 (non Turbo) - 0PB121035A | Design 911

Yes - there are cheaper alternatives out there - who know's how good they are or how long they will last, or how well they fit.  Your money, your car, your rules etc, but the bulk of the cost on this job appears to be time - so a false economy if you fit one that lasts a few years.

 

 

 

 

Cheers Paul, that sounds about right then. 

Estate of the bill he printed out looks like this : 

- waterpump £ 401,41
- Seal £ 10,72
- Anti-freeze £ 13,95

- Replace water pump, renew anti-freeze and blood through system, 2x 79,50 = 159,

Total £ 702, 

Think I'm gonna stick with that and just let them sort it. It needs to get done before my trip at the end of the month and rather have this indie do it then somewhere else. 

[iborguk]

2 minutes ago, Medic-one said:

Cheers Paul, that sounds about right then. 

Estate of the bill he printed out looks like this : 

- waterpump £ 401,41
- Seal £ 10,72
- Anti-freeze £ 13,95

- Replace water pump, renew anti-freeze and blood through system, 2x 79,50 = 159,

Total £ 702, 

Think I'm gonna stick with that and just let them sort it. It needs to get done before my trip at the end of the month and rather have this indie do it then somewhere else. 

Is that a Porsche original water pump in their quote ? Personally I’d want to ensure it is for that money so you get (hopefully) good longevity for that money.

[Paul P]

14 minutes ago, iborguk said:

Is that a Porsche original water pump in their quote ? Personally I’d want to ensure it is for that money so you get (hopefully) good longevity for that money.

That water pump price is porsche price ex vat, before discount.....

[Paul P]

20 minutes ago, Medic-one said:

Cheers Paul, that sounds about right then. 

Estate of the bill he printed out looks like this : 

- waterpump £ 401,41
- Seal £ 10,72
- Anti-freeze £ 13,95

- Replace water pump, renew anti-freeze and blood through system, 2x 79,50 = 159,

Total £ 702, 

Think I'm gonna stick with that and just let them sort it. It needs to get done before my trip at the end of the month and rather have this indie do it then somewhere else. 

plus vat ?

They seem to have an idea of what they are doing since they found the issue and reported it while looking at something else. 

[Medic-one]

20 minutes ago, iborguk said:

Is that a Porsche original water pump in their quote ? Personally I’d want to ensure it is for that money so you get (hopefully) good longevity for that money.

Yea he said it was original Porsche, and that he was surprised by the price. He said he could look at some cheaper alternatives (non OEM) but he also mentioned they've seem customers with issue's with non OEM pumps.

[Medic-one]

5 minutes ago, Paul P said:

plus vat ?

They seem to have an idea of what they are doing since they found the issue and reported it while looking at something else. 

It's £ 585, plus vat = £ 702.10

[iborguk]

2 minutes ago, Medic-one said:

Yea he said it was original Porsche, and that he was surprised by the price. He said he could look at some cheaper alternatives (non OEM) but he also mentioned they've seem customers with issue's with non OEM pumps.

Yup as Paul said , sounds like they know what they are about. Hope this sorts your coolant gremlins. 

[Paul P]

Just now, Medic-one said:

It's £ 585, plus vat = £ 702.10

Interesting - that price for the pump is EXACTLY the porsche price before VAT - to the penny - so either a massive coincidence and its a 3rd party pump that just happens to be that price vat inc or they have missed something in the estimate - as above - suggest confirm what you are getting for your money - because for 32 pounds more ( if you buy it yourself with discount) you can have a genuine one.....