Done. Everything works.

Well Pedro, you've created a monster. First I replace my rear pads with your on-line help. Now it's a heat exchanger.

I pulled everything apart no problem. Darned easy actually although I haven't got it back together yet. I am having Pelican Parts overnight me an exchanger and I will put it back together tomorrow. So, my questions:

1 - Will the air bubble pass through the system and flatulate out to the reservoir?
2 - I suspect I will have to top off the antifreeze. What brand/type should I buy and can I buy it in small amounts?
3 - Should I "prime" the exchanger with antifreeze first?
4 - How many hours of labor did I save? I can't use my rookie time as a benchmark as half the time was spent finding my tools.

I just went ahead and disconnected the hoses from the exchanger with a few rags tucked under and got very little spillage. With the hoses aimed up, there was no need to clamp them. This was causing the maple syrup smell I had for the last two years. This is really odd as three mechanics smelled it and didn't know what it was. Two of these mechanics are very experienced guys. One thought it may be the A/C gas as I have heard some mfgrs will put a smell into it (again, so I've heard and others say A/C smells rancid... who the heck knows). Oh, and I vacuumed out the well as it had residue flaked down in there.

If anyone cares or is thinking of doing this, you have to remove the windshield wiper arms, the three plastic cowls, the battery, the wiper motor/arm assembly, and the two struts and their support bracket. If you can use a wrench, you can do this.

[mywebpages.comcast.net]

Quote
Bruce In Philly (175K+)
Well Pedro, you've created a monster. First I replace my rear pads with your on-line help. Now it's a heat exchanger.

I pulled everything apart no problem. Darned easy actually although I haven't got it back together yet. I am having Pelican Parts overnight me an exchanger and I will put it back together tomorrow. So, my questions:

1 - Will the air bubble pass through the system and flatulate out to the reservoir?
2 - I suspect I will have to top off the antifreeze. What brand/type should I buy and can I buy it in small amounts?
3 - Should I "prime" the exchanger with antifreeze first?
4 - How many hours of labor did I save? I can't use my rookie time as a benchmark as half the time was spent finding my tools.

I just went ahead and disconnected the hoses from the exchanger with a few rags tucked under and got very little spillage. With the hoses aimed up, there was no need to clamp them. This was causing the maple syrup smell I had for the last two years. This is really odd as three mechanics smelled it and didn't know what it was. Two of these mechanics are very experienced guys. One thought it may be the A/C gas as I have heard some mfgrs will put a smell into it (again, so I've heard and others say A/C smells rancid... who the heck knows). Oh, and I vacuumed out the well as it had residue flaked down in there.

If anyone cares or is thinking of doing this, you have to remove the windshield wiper arms, the three plastic cowls, the battery, the wiper motor/arm assembly, and the two struts and their support bracket. If you can use a wrench, you can do this.

[mywebpages.comcast.net]

absorbed over time into the coolant.

You might help yourself by trying to prime the heat exchanger with distilled water. I'd not use anti-freeze.

Porsche says the factory fill anti-freeze is life time but adds a note that this is only true if Porsche anti-freeze is used to top up the cooling system.

If you use an anti-freeze other than the Porsche anti-freeze then this could cause problems.

If you have already switched to some other anti-freeze and need to add more then you should add anti-freeze that is compatible with what you already have in the system.

But as I touched upon above, and I'll add to it, unless you lost gobs of fluid the system is probably not that low on fluid and just topping it up with distilled water is sufficient. You can test the cooling system fluid with a test strip, so I've read/been told, but I've yet to try these. Might this weekend just to see how they work.

After reading your brief coverage of the steps to get at the heater core I'm more ready to go at my car's heater core, or more likely its A/C evaporator to deal with a smelly A/C.

Thanks for the update.

Oh how much time did you save? It is not the time you saved, you probably took longer to do the job than a mechanic would have taken but you saved a significant amount of money in labor. Pretty much you can figure you made around $50 or more per hour, maybe way more, because some dealer service departments charge $150/hour.

Oh, let me suggest if you haven't already you might want to consider rinsing the area where the heater core was located to flush away any coolant/anti-freeze residue to avoid a lingering smell of same. Be sure you only get water where it can drain away through proper catch basins/drains.

Sincerely,

MarcW.

No coolant light, wipers work, no problems.

Coupla tips should anyone find this in the archives:

- I purchased an OEM exchanger but not an official Porsche part. It was exactly the same except it didn't have the foam seal at the top. The old one lifted right off and went on the new one no problem.
- Mark the wiper position with a sharpie. No biggie, but it helps.
- I primed the new exchanger by pouring the old antifreeze from the old unit into the new one and so far, it doesn't appear that I need to add any more.
- You need torx bits for the cowl screws, metric socket and crescent set. That's it.

This was a very simple job. Even the wiper assembly comes out with only three screws. I didn't use beer on this project but I could have.