Boxster Project 29 : Coolant Replacement

[Wayne 962]

Anyone got any questions on Project 29 - Coolant Replacement for your 986 Boxster, 987 Boxster, Cayman, Carrera 996, or Carrera 997?

Here's a back link to the original article: Pelican Technical Article: 29-WATER-Flush

-Wayne

[mitch48]

I've just finished reading your project in the book again, I need to do a flush on my '06 Cayman S but I'm a little overwhelmed by all the hoses in the system. I surmise from your article that I could just take off the hoses at the engine mounting points (radiator and heater) and drain as much coolant that way as possible, and then re-fill? I really don't want to remove the front bumper cover just to flush the coolant. I guess this would eventually flush all the old coolant out if I did it a couple of times over a 2-3 month period? Sort of like flushing the auto tranny by just draining the pan 2-3 times to get it out of the torque converter? I've done that on some of my BMW's. Thanks for all the articles, I love the book.

[randy_k]

Bill, I didn't pull the front bumper cover on my Boxster. What I did do was. Pull the hoses with the car up on jack stands in the back. Let it drain. Then lowered and jacked it up in front. And let it drain. It seemed to help some doing that. I just disconnected all the hoses at the engine.
Randy

[Wayne 962]

Yes, if you pull off the hoses from the engine as detailed in the book, then you should get most everything out of the front coolers too.

-Wayne

[faverymi]

Hi there.

I would like some tips on removing air pockets-bleeding the system after refill.

Scares me to leave some air in the block and ruin the engine in the boxster. On the other cars I just run them and open the bleeding screw and wait. I don't know why the boxster gives me PTSD after a coolant change.(LOL)

Thanks again.

[mitch48]

I am in the process of flushing and refilling my Cayman with coolant. I drained almost all out of it, and I put in about 1 1/2 gallons and started the engine to warm it up. Before it got to operating temp, while I was holding about 2000 rpm, I heard a muffled "whomp" from the engine, so I shut it off, and white smoke started pouring out of the right engine exhaust vent on the side of the car. A small amount of coolant was evident on that side of the engine. I let it cool off and eventually got about another 1/2 gallon in the system. I've run the engine twice more, bringing it up to operating temp (145-180 degrees). It will take a small amount of coolant every few minutes but I still have at least a gallon to go based on what I drained out. Any idea what the noise was? I have seen no leaks from the car since the incident early on.

[mitch48]

This morning I went out to the car and put in some more coolant, as it had gone down some overnight. The rear is still on jackstands at this point. I then started the car and after a minute or two revved it to 2000 rpm. After another minute or two the "indicator failure" light came on with the coolant symbol. I shut it off and waited a few minutes, then lowered the car, started it again, and the indicator is still illuminated. Can I reset this light with my DuraMetric? Could the sensor have possibly been in an area void of coolant for long enough to set it off?