I pulled into my garage the other day and noticed steam coming from below the air filter housing of my 2004 TT. Then I drove it again the next day, fairly hard, and saw some coolant on my driveway, although none under the car in my garage. I had the cooling system pressure tested less than 1 thousand miles ago because of a funny smell I couldn't place, and they found no leaks.

Any suggestions as to what might be going on? Also, I have not had to add coolant to the car. Do I need to get it special from my Porsche dealer? The owners manual does not specify the exact coolant to use, other than it needs to be from Porsche.



Thanks!

Mitch, if you can tell us which side of the car we can narrow the area of components.

The coolant tank does fail, but you have the updated unit with your 2004. Next would be the "blue" cap. Check for dried coolant. If you have overfilled the coolant it will puke it out the drain tube, which dumps out on the cat (left side).

Area's of concern would be a failed oil cooler heat exchanger seal or seals. The thermostat housing discharge fitting>coming unglued.

Purchase genuine Porsche coolant from your dealer. It's expensive but it is designed to work with the wet cylinder liners and cylinder heads to prevent corrosion and aluminum erosion. Zerex manufactures the coolant for Porsche. The off the shelf stuff does not have the correct additives that Porsche requests. The early 01 to 03 had the traditional green coolant. This should be replaced >>flushed first then re-filled with the new coolant.

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Thanks Keven. I now realize that I'm talking to quite a few of the same people here on your site and on Rennlist! I guess I should have realized that when folks on Rennlist directed me here on previous occasions.

When I noticed the steam, it was coming evenly from the entire length of the bottom of the air cleaner compartment. I do see some antifreeze pooling around the cap of the coolant expansion tank. While I see no obvious cracks or distortion of the cap, replacing it is certainly the easiest and cheapest first go at fixing the problem. It will also get me to my dealer, who I try to avoid at all costs, to buy some antifreeze.

One thing I realized after reading your post was that the antifreeze on m driveway looked green, while that in the expansion tank is pink. To the best of my knowledge the previous owner only had his car serviced at the dealer...but I wonder? Either that or the antifreeze on my driveway was from another car, but that seems WAY too coincidental. If there was a mix of pink and green antifreezes in the car, wouldn't it turn the pool in the expansion tank greenish?

I'll let y'all know how it turns out.

By the way, does anyone have any experience dealing with Pat Williams racing (also does repair work) in Memphis? There are 2 "reputable" independent shops here, his being one of them, and his deals exclusively with Porsche while the other (Memphis Motor Werks) with German cars in general.

Mitch, I "think" there are two different colors of Porsche coolant.. Atleast that's what I've read elsewhere, although the stuff I most recently bought was orange.

Get the cap first, and give that a try. Also, if you suspect that you may have the wrong coolant, I'd do a flush with the correct stuff... It's 8 gallons worth, but worth it to get the right stuff in there.

Mike

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