Replacing the Coolant Reservoir on a MY99 996

[Damien McGrath]

All sorted now, just tried starting her up the following day and all was good, thinking may have been air stuck in the fuel lines.

[Ahsai]

Thats good news!

[Qhuy]

Thank you, Loren, siddharth and everyone for a great instruction for replacing the coolant reservoir. My 1999 996 coolant reservoir had a line hair crack on top. It was an hour and half job. After installing the new tank I noticed a small amount of coolant drip close to the bleeder valve when open. When bleeder valve close there is no drip.

Is my new coolant reservoir defect? When I lifted up bleed valve, coolant started to drip (please watch YouTube attachment:

). Thank you

[Ahsai]

Is that a genuine Porsche coolant tank? Looks like the leak is from where the hose connects to the tank? Maybe try to reseat that hose and hose clamp.

[Qhuy]

That's what I thought at the beginning, come from the hose. But turned out the leak is only happen when I lift up the bleeding valve. When I close there is no leak.

Edited April 22, 2016 by Qhuy

[Ahsai]

It's going to leak because that valve will be pushed to the UP" position by the pressure once the coolant is in operating temperature.

You need to id the leak and if it's not the hose, your tank is bad. If it's an aftermarket tank, I strongly recommend swapping it out for a genuine one as the aftermarket ones don't last.

[Qhuy]

It's going to leak because that valve will be pushed to the UP" position by the pressure once the coolant is in operating temperature.

You need to id the leak and if it's not the hose, your tank is bad. If it's an aftermarket tank, I strongly recommend swapping it out for a genuine one as the aftermarket ones don't last.

Thank you, Ahsai.

Edited April 22, 2016 by Qhuy

[Qhuy]

Ahsai., thank you. You are right. I swaped out the new after market reservoir with the genuine one. There is no more leak, now. The aftermarket look identical to the genuine one, but what a waists of time. There will be no more aftermarket parts in my car after this incident. Everything will order from sunsetporscheparts.com. I have a great service from them.

[Ahsai]

Glad you got it sorted. Btw, the give away in your photo was the lack of part number on the aftermarket tank :)

Sunset is the best and I've been their long time customer.

[wyovino]

I just did this job and it was a pain, but I knew that going in so I wasn't surprised. Unfortunately it looks like I'll have to go through a lot of it again because the level sensor isn't working. It shows low but the expansion tank is between min and max. Also, I was interrupted while buttoning it up yesterday and today when I took it for a drive I got PSM, ABS, and Check Engine lights. I have a WiFi OBDII reader in the port so I was able to check it quickly.  In my haste I had forgotten to reconnect the MAF wire. Doh!  Other than the level sensor, all is now good.

 

Porsche really didn't have to design such a weird shaped tank for that job.

 

Update: Basically had to do the entire job again just to install the new level sensor (which is working). In the process of wrangling the tank back into place, I leaned on the oil filler tube and broke it. I taped it up with Gorilla tape as a temporary measure and it seems to be working as I'm not getting any codes. I'll probably wait until next year to replace the tube when I bring the car in to have my AOS and LNE IMSB replaced. Those jobs are above my comfort level.

Edited June 20, 2018 by wyovino

[wyovino]

It's been a little over a week since I finished the coolant tank install and I'm still getting a bit of a gasoline smell from the engine compartment. There was a small amount of gas that leaked out when I disconnected the fuel lines (twice). I've checked and rechecked the connections for leaks but they appear to be dry. I just got back from a 300+mile round trip and the gas mileage seemed about right. I'm not seeing and drips on the ground.  Is there something else I should check or is it reasonable that a little pooled gasoline would still be detectable after nine days? The car is garaged.

[Ahsai]

That does sound suspicious. The gasoline should have evaporated with the engine heat and 300-mile round trip of driving. Since you have checked all the connections and they appear to be dry, I can't think of other things to do other than keeping an eye (and nose) on it.

 

Which exact part of the fuel system did you disconnect during the coolant tank job?

[wyovino]

The two fuel line connections just to the right of the coolant tank (looking from the rear). One is vertical and the other horizontal.

[wyovino]

I'm starting to think that it's the exhaust that I'm smelling. When I shut off the car I don't get that gasoline smell.  The car is running great but the gas mileage around town is terrible - around 14 mpg. On the highway it's around 20 mpg, maybe a bit higher.

Edited July 1, 2018 by wyovino

[wizard]

Gasoline smell and poor mileage.

 

You might consider looking at your spark plugs for possible fouling.

 

Just a thought.