As with most issues ...

Just wondering about the wisdom / necessity for regularly changing Porsche's 'lifetime' coolant? My '01S (only 37k miles) still contains it's original coolant, and has only been topped up once with about a pint of distilled water. The car runs perfectly, and an electrolysis test of the coolant reveals a seemingly 'normal' voltage of .061V. Paranoia suggests I should consider a flush soon, but I hate to undertake such a procedure if it's truly not required. Any thoughts / collective experience?

- John L
Boston
'01 S

Change it out, it is time. I've change ours out a number of times on the families 01 base. I've found, especially with water cooled flat engines(subaru, porsche, etc.), changing out the coolant during normal intervals saves many a headache down the line(ie head gasket, heater core, early rad failure, etc...). Anytime I'm changing the coolant out, I use it has an opportunity upgrade certain components(coolant tank,996 heat exchanger, 3rd rad, water pump, etc....). As coolant ages, it also gets more acidic, and looses it's effectiveness. You might consider testing yours just in case.
regards

... in life, you'll find well-intended but diverging answers to your question.
My recommendation is: Don't change it.
Especially because you've never had any issues with coolant and have only had to top off once.
The coolant system is a closed loop that can only be contaminated from an external source when you have a failure, generally a gasket, pump or cap..
Once you get into changing the coolant, you're opening up the system for possible issues with air bubbles left in the system when refilling which, in my opinion is the biggest culprit of cracked reservoirs.
My personal car is almost 14 years old and has 213,000 miles on it.
It still has the original reservoir.
At 200,000 miles I decided to check the "lifetime" coolant to see what it looked like.
It was clean and clear. I saved it and it looked like I had just mixed a new batch.
I would however, make sure that you have the latest version (04) of the coolant cap. Older versions have been known to leak and let air into the system causing coolant to dump and/or cracking the reservoir.
Happy Boxstering,
Pedro

Pedro Bonilla
1998 Boxster 986 - 311,000+ miles: [www.PedrosGarage.com]
PCA National Club Racing Scrutineer - PCA National HPDE Instructor - PCA Technical Committee (Boxster/Cayman)

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Racecar spelled backwards is Racecar

"Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting" ... Steve McQueen as Michael Delaney in "LeMans"

"If you wait, all that happens is that you get older"... Mario Andretti

"Being second is to be the first of the ones who lose" ... Ayrton Senna

Pedro:
Somewhat related--did you ever do a water pump on your old engine?
I've heard comments from others about preemptively replacing it in the 40-60K range--especially if you track your car, because this is a weak point.Thoughts..?

... not replace the water pump on the old engine.
When I replaced the engine at 207,000 it still had the original pump.
Happy Boxstering,
Pedro

Pedro Bonilla
1998 Boxster 986 - 311,000+ miles: [www.PedrosGarage.com]
PCA National Club Racing Scrutineer - PCA National HPDE Instructor - PCA Technical Committee (Boxster/Cayman)

---

Racecar spelled backwards is Racecar

"Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting" ... Steve McQueen as Michael Delaney in "LeMans"

"If you wait, all that happens is that you get older"... Mario Andretti

"Being second is to be the first of the ones who lose" ... Ayrton Senna