Before crawling under my 07-turbo, checking to check if worth effort to see if something simple like a blown coolant hose or best just call a tow truck.
At 54K mileage, on passing with a lot of acceleration, heard a pop, white smoke started coming out . Engine ran fine, but temp guage said needed coolant.
On stopping, noticed antifreeze spread across bottom of engine with some very light oil film (not coolant) on back bumper and body piece above license plate. Some antifreeze leaked on pavement, but there was still some antifreeze down in coolant tube attached to engine. So not much coolant was lost.
Anyone with such experience?? These 997 turbo's seem to have 4-6 achilles heels like mass air sensors, clutch slaves and batteries-in-tires going bad at 45-50K miles. Wonder if this break-down is another of these expected issues??
Just checked with dealer, it is extremely doubtful that factory warranty covers these rubber hoses that require costly engine drop. Interesting piece of info.

 

Most of the coolant pipes are press fit from the metal tube, into the metal housing. Porsche installs a glue to keep it tight there. I have read up on this and it seems that this is a weak spot to say the least. Some companies offer pinning them into place, and others weld. To service all of them, it is an engine out process... Here is hoping the one you popped does not require an engine r&r.

Mike

 

Are you saying that with these turbos, that rubber hoses connected from radiator outlets to metal housing bolted to engine outlets/inlets is not the case Can that be logical with all the track use these cars get.....seems like a real dumb idea on the part of Porsche.

 

Read all about it. This is one of many posts dealing with this issue.

https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...ipe-break.html

 

Its a common failure...i ve seen it at several 997TT...

 

Good grief, always hindsight on these gross failures. Strange the Porsche tech's don't mention changing hoses etc when the engine is out for the routine 40K mile sparkplug change. More cash in their pocket I guess. Would put a stop to some of these multiple expected failures for these turbos. That clutch slave failure was bad enough. Have a feeling such a hose/pipe expense will not be covered under an extended warranty....they will say a maintenance fix item.
I asked 6speed drivers before to start such a expected-list, but this AC hose/tube failure was never mentioned.
Beginning to think going back to M3. M3 had issues, but nothing like this 977.1 turbo. The M3 for early 2013 looks good with its v-6 turbo. The one thing missing is is AWD.
I see the Audi RS5 has it, but this GT-car with all its goodies won't be available until very late 2013 from what I gather. Not so sure of the C63 AMG Merc. Some owners of those say they are even more prone for multiple routine-failures than these Porsches, and sadly no AWD.

 

Engine doesn't have to come out for spark plugs - it may just be dropped slightly or not at all if the tech has small hands. The coolant pipe fix you read about is more precautionary for those who track. Not that it's any comfort, but failure doesn't happen often.

 

Its a common failure...i ve seen it at several 997TT...

 

Its been reported many times on Turbos and GT3's. The danger of spilling coolant on the road is huge, be sure to report this issue to the NHTSA https://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/ivoq/ , IMO this should be a recall by Porsche to address a potentially deadly scenario.

 

I had the main coolant feed line on the passenger side leaking, it was the joint to the right side of the engine that was slowly leaking. It wasnt the pipes that gets pinned or welded.

They had to drop the engine to replace the pipes.

 

Got an estimate of $3K to day to drop engine and replace $90 "coolant hose for turbo return" that had blown. With this hose popped, best to also replace the other $90 'coolant line for turbo return' along with 6 other rubber hoses in an area reachable only with pulled engine. Extened warranty said no payment because hose is rubber, they don't do rubber. All hoses ~$800 and rest of cost is labor.
Sounds rediculous that Porsche would put rubber hoses in high temp areas which can be reached only by costly engine pull.

Could have saved $700 getting only broken hose repaired but what a shame not to fix all rubber hoses while engine is out and to not dump crap like this on the next buyer.
Such a stupid set-up, Porsche should be ashamed, but again it is money in their pocket unless complaints get into the car mags which they never do. Just think all those 977.1, 997.2 and 2008/09s must have this threatening-very-high-cost problem once 50K miles is reached. The 50K-slave issue is understandable, but this heat sensitive-engine pull hose fix issue is not.

Thinking of getting clutch checked, but not sure this car is worth even that extra $200. No telling what other Achilles-issues (non-warranty coverable) are going to start raising ugly heads

 

It's a sad but true nature of the 911 beast. I know quite a few people who had issues such as this or, clutch and etc. and while the engine was out ended up doing about $8-15K worth of work just to save on the repeated cost of the engine take out.

An Achilles heel indeed my friend.

 

Somewhere in the links posted in a few of the replies to your post you'll see it's just not replacing hoses that is the "fix" - the fix requires welding or using bolts (or some other more permanent fix) to attach the metal parts of the hoses to the engine. If you're going to pay to drop the engine and replace the hoses, probably should go the entire fix route. Good luck.

 

Has this issue been addressed by Porsche at all in subsequent years?

 

Does your tech have photos of the component that failed? Is it the hose or the metal adapter? If it is the hose itself, this may be the first reported case of the problem. If it is the adapter that has worked free from weakened adhesive, replacing it with another OEM part will not solve the problem as it will happen again.


This is a problem with the adhesive that Porsche chose to use to hold the adapter to the hose.





There are two solutions - either pin the adapter (ie Sharkwerks solution)



or weld it:



I also understand the GT3R/RS and RSRs use threaded pipes:



Any solution that only addresses the adapter that has worked itself out is inadequate. There are multiple sites where this could happen. Likewise, replacing the part with another OEM unit is also inadequate - the design is flawed. If you have a good relationship with your dealership, ask them to help cover the costs...this is a very well known problem and has been documented in the past by hundreds of owners. I'm actually surprised no one has challenged Porsche in litigation. A coolant dump on the freeway or track could lead to a fatal accident.

I would take photos of the adapter that has popped out - send it to the company that covers your extended warranty. As I stated earlier - if this is a true hose failure, it would be the first that I have heard of. If this is similar to other events - it is an adhesive failure, and may be covered by your extended warranty (and should not be fixed with replacing the OEM part - having it welded or pinned will permanently fix the problem.)

Read this thread completely - it is very informative and links other threads and sites on solutions.

https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...t-fitting.html