We found the following complaints for PORSCHE 911 GT3 (2004)
Read complaints for PORSCHE 911 GT3 (2004)
Coolant lines came loose where they were glued to the motor.i have seen catastrophic failures, and did not want to have an accident. Had the motor removed, and repair shop said some of mine were loose and showed signs of leaking.had all welded at an independent shop. Porsche would not fix unless there was a failure, and would only re-glue those that were loose.
Experienced sudden coolant loss while driving on public roadway. A bonded-in aluminum tube (spigot) on the coolant distribution manifold popped off, resulting in a massive, instant coolant loss. The coolant dumped all over the rear tire, causing the vehicle to go in to an uncontrollable skid, rendering the vehicle inoperable. Luckily myself, my passenger, and no one else was injured. My vehicle is currently at a porsche independent shop in seattle, wa where the engine is being removed from the vehicle to address this failed fitting as well as address all coolant line fittings to prevent future glue failures. The shop is welding all coolant fittings as it seems the factory glue is not sufficient at holding the aluminum tubes together.total out of pocket cost to me is estimated to be more than $4500 for parts and labor. The following article written by a porsche tuner does a very good job of explaining the problem in detail: http://sharkwerks.com/porsche/technical-articles/327-the-gt1-coolant-pipe-prevention-fix-on-gt1-block-gt3-gt2-turbo-cars.htmladditional information ascertained from research and discussion with reputable porsche independent shops, race teams, race shops: in these engines, coolant/anti-freeze circulates through aluminum castings and rubber hoses. Hoses are clamped onto aluminum sleeves that are inserted into the bores of the castings and held in with adhesive.problem: adhesive eventually fails, which allows the sleeves to "blow" out of the engine, resulting in a sudden loss and spillage of slippery coolant/anti-freeze onto the vehicle rear tires and road surface. This causes an immediate and dangerous loss of traction to any vehicle driving through the spill, including the one spilling the fluid.
On very hot day, over 100 degrees f, after having just exited a freeway onto a city street, while accelerating from red light, a glued-in water coolant pipe/tube popped out from its cast housing, causing catastrophic loss of all cooling fluids which spilled onto the roadway, immediate increase in engine temperature from 185 to over 260 degrees f, and loss of power. Car needed to be towed to repair shop.
I purchased my 2004 porsche gt3 in may of 2009.it had just under 20,000 miles on it.in august, 2010, i was driving on track at texas motor speedway and one of the coolant fittings came loose from the engine.the epoxy that holds the press-fit coupler to one of the heat exchangers had lost its ability to retain the fitting and came disconnected.all of the engine coolant was lost in a single instance.[catastrophic coolant loss].i had that fitting replaced by the porsche dealer in dallas under aftermarket warranty.i can provide info regarding the on this at your request, and i have some pictures of the offending part.i had a second (and separate) fitting fail in january 2011 at 35,000 while driving on track at motorsport ranch houston.they same symptoms were found - the press-fit coupling had come loose resulting in complete coolant loss.this was also repaired with a factory replacement part under aftermarket warranty at the porsche dealer in houston.i believe there are 8 known press-fit couplers on the gt1 engine block in the 996 and 997 model gt and turbo cars.each of these is known to fail based on the press-fit coupler and poor design (use of epoxy on a high pressure component).i understand that this is a known problem on porsche gt/turbo cars and has been discussed on the internet (e.g. Rennlist) for many years.25% of mine have failed, and almost every other gt driver i know has had at least one fail.
A coolant line fitting that is epoxied into the block became suddenly and completely disconnected.the coolant all flowed out of the leak nearly instantly.the pool of coolant created a hazard for following cars and the motor needed to be shut down immediately and the car towed to a service facility.
I bought this car brand new from porsche and although it only has around 14,000 miles on it, i feel i must limit use of the car until it gets the glued coolant lines repaired.i have not had a failure yet but the risks of waiting until that happens are high and could easily go beyond the financial aspects and result in physical harm to myself, a passenger, or other motorists.the problem of catastrophic coolant line failure is well known with this model due to the use of glue rather than mechanical or welded connections.as an interim solution i plan to run the car with only water as the cooling liquid but due to winter freezing temperatures in my area, this will have to be undone in the fall.my biggest concern is that a coolant line failure on a public road and on a curve can lead to a multiple car accident for anyone following.
A coolant line came loose then i was driving the car.i was very lucky i did not spin in the coolant, and get in a serious accident.this is a very serious safety issue.the lines were originally "glued" in from the factory.this was a poor design and is a weakness of the car which could have been catastrophic in terms of destroying the engine, and getting in a serious accident.in order to properly address the design issue i was quoted over $3,000 to resolve the issue.this involves taking the engine out and welding the lines.i believe porsche should pay for the repair.
The coolant lines on this car have well known and documented failure problems.i am very concerned for my safety and the safety of my passengers and as such am going to have the repairs completed as a precautionary measure.with the failure rate of the coolant fittings on these cars, and the usually catastrophic results i do not feel safe driving this vehicle.i'm going to spend my own money to correct a problem that should have been fixed by porsche.
Engine has press fit (and glued) couplings for coolant lines. When coupling fails, there is rapid coolant loss which is a toxic hazard as well as potentially dangerous to traffic.
Went to streets of willow driving event. During 3rd run session i noticed steam coming from behind as i was taking a 180 degree turn. I immediately stopped the car when it was safe to do so and shut the engine off. Steam kept billowing and the car seems to have lost all it's coolant in a few seconds. 5(!) cars behind me all spun in the 180 degree turn because of this failure. Fortunately none of them crashed. After examination it turns out one of the coolant fittings that porsche glued into the motor block with epoxy had popped out. This appears to be a very common problem with all of these gt engines. Not only is this dangerous (every gt2/3 on the road is a ticking time bomb, street or track) but it is also costly to have it fixed properly. Needless to say i had my car towed to a shop that is very familiar with this problem to get it fixed right. The solution is to weld these fittings into the motor block. There are 8 of them and the engine needs to come out of the car, the fittings all removed and cleaned from the epoxy before they can be carefully welded back into place again. It is the only valid fix. I have a receipt showing $2750 to have this done. I feel this was my only course of action to make the car safe to drive again and i think porsche should recognize there is a problem there and reimburse owners that had this done and offer it under a recall to owners that still need to get this done.
Early coolant pipe leakage at one of the fittings. Unable to repair without engine removal.i chose to repair all coolant fittings at that time.
I had pro-active repairs performed on my 2004 porsche gt3 coolant system due to known issue of coolant pipes separating from the engine. I had the repair performed because i was afraid of losing control of my vehicle (it is my daily driver) or causing a crash behind me. The repairs cost me $3900 + ca state tax (7.75%) for a total of: $4200+.
This is in response to my awareness of nhtsa pe13-009.i am the third owner of a 2004 porsche gt3 that i use primarily for track driving days and occasionally for street use. When i purchased the car in 2010, i was aware of many reports from owners of similar cars that had experienced sudden coolant loss from any of eight glued-in tube-like aluminum fittings to which coolant hoses are attached. The reports described the catastrophic effects of coolant loss, primarily on the track, that in some cases resulted in loss of control to the affected car and/or loss of control to cars following that car. A number of crashes were reported. These reports are contained in various online forums, including rennlist.com. Because i was concerned about the possibility of this failure occurring to my car, i prophylactically had my engine removed and all eight coolant pipes welded into the aluminum manifolds that they had originally been glued into. I did this at a cost of $2500. I think it would be prudent for porsche cars north america to recognize the issue created by this poor design and correct it by recalling cars that have not been repaired, and reimbursing owners, like me, who took it upon themselves to correct the problem before there were any consequences. It is interesting to note that various similar-engined factory race cars made by porsche during that era, including the 2001 gt3 rs that i own, used a completely different (and more robust) threaded means of attaching these coolant fittings to the coolant manifold.
While participating in the one lap of america in 2012 i had a coolant pipe fitting (behind the alternator) come loose causing the car to dump all its antifreeze on the track.3 cars behind me ran into the antifreezeand had off road excursions but luckily no damage occurred to any other vehicle. Upon further inspection of my vehicle after the incident i observed another coolant fitting to be on the verge of failure.these fittings are glued into the engine block and as the car ages the glue is failing to hold the fittings in place causing catastrophic cooling system failure. I subsequently had the engine removed and all of the failure prone fittings welded instead of glued to prevent this from happening again.
While driving the car on track, a coolant fitting broke loose and dumped all the antifreeze down onto the track surface. A vehicle on track behind me ran over the antifreeze, lost control and skidded off the track. The driver of the other car wasn't injured and there didn't appear to be much damage to his car, except perhaps some scuffing of the paint on his front bumper. The fitting that came loose is one of 8 fittings that porsche glued into place when they originally built the engine of my 04 gt3. When the glue gets old it lets go, and that's what happened to me.i had to flat bed the car from the track to a repair shop, pay them to drop the engine, completely disassemble all the coolant manifolds that use these glued-in fittings, bring the manifolds to a welding shop, have the welding shop weld all the fittings into place, and then have my repair shop reassemble the entire engine and re-install in the car. This resulted in a considerable expense, and the loss of use of my car for a couple of months while this work was being performed, waiting on parts to arrive, etc. I have pictures of the fittings that had to be welded, while my engine was still in pieces during the repair process.
Previous owner stated that coolant lines disconnected due to failure of the fittings. Coolant was spilled all over the road behind him. Another driver barely missed the coolant but there could have been a major accident. Porsche fixed the problem under warranty, but the fittings were not welded as the fix recommends, merely re-glued. I'm afraid this will happen again.
The car was being driven when suddenly the coolant system failed and coolant spilled from under the engine causing my car to skid out of control. The coolant also posed a hazard to other cars on the road due to the extremely slippery nature of the liquid.the car had to be towed to an independent mechanic.the coolant lines had to be replaced and welded rather than the epoxy glue that was used in the original coolant fittings.porsche dealerships would only use epoxy to seal the fittings which would only eventually lead to another failure.
The epoxy holding an aluminum elbow that connects a coolant hose to the water pump (i believe) let go, the elbow worked its way loose from the pump and emptied the coolant from the system out onto the road surface.i became aware of the problem when i noticed that the engine temperature needle had pegged at the high end of the gauge range, after which the engine temperature warning light came on.prior thereto, the engine temperature gauge had been reading at normal levels and responding normally.i was able to stop without an accident, but i noticed after stopping that the right rear tire and wheel well were wet and slippery with coolant.
Failure of factory glued in coolant fitting caused an instant dump of coolant onto the rear tires of the car causing loss of control and a spin.this is a well documented problem in all porsche gt3's and porsche turbo's and porsche refuses to identify the design flaw of having these fittings glued together.
Coolant pipes leaking after drive.
I was driving at miller motorsports in tooele utah in drivers education event when my engine temperature gauge started to increase from 180 degrees up past 200 degrees. Asthe temperature gauge went to 250 degrees, a coolant failure light came on. I pulled off the track and shut down the car within 2 minutes of the failure light and i had to be towed off the miller motorsports track. I had lost all of my coolant from the car. The next morning (sunday) i took a rental car back to miller motorsports along with 9 gallons of distilled water. I poured 2 gallons of distilled water into the car, and then started it. About seven minutes later, water started spurting from an aluminum coolant line attachment that had come unglued. This aluminum attachment was in a place on the top of the engine that was readily determinable as the water was shooting straight up from where the fitting had come unglued and slipped off. I do not currently know whether i got the car stopped in time for the engine to be ok. I am afraid to drive it before i get all of the aluminum fittings reglued or welded. Because this happened on the top of the engine, the coolant did not create a situation that was a safety risk to me, but if it had been a different aluminum coolant attachment that let loose, i could have crashed at 115 mph due to coolant on the tires or someone behind me could have crashed. The miller motorsport personnel said they noticed a plume of steam at the end of the front straight. At the end of the front straight, i had slowed to 115 mph. I am the original purchaser of this car and did not think i was at risk for this type of safety issue on a car that is not driven in stop and go traffic. It also only has a little over 28,000 miles.*lnupdated 1/8/2013
While driving at a drivers education event at watkins glen race track, a coolant fitting came apart and out of its housing releasing about 3-4 gallons of coolant onto the track. Luckily no accident occurred. Since the car was still under warranty porsche agreed to cover the failure under good will and a new housing (same design) was installed by the local porsche dealer. However, in october, 2011 while driving at another drivers education event, the same fitting failed. This time 3 cars following me slid off the track due to the coolant with one crashing into another. One car was totaled and the other seriously damaged.
Pressed fittings for the cooling system failed dumping coolant on the rear tires causing the car to crash. The replacement part failed the same way three weeks later.
Porsche gt1 engine press fit coupling for coolant lines.when coupling fails, there is rapid coolant loss which is a toxic hazard as well as potentially dangerous to traffic.also, without coolant the engine is in jeopardy of overheating.
Porsche gt1 engine press fit coolant coupling failure.high pressure coolant coupler fails causing rapid loss of all coolant.this is not only a toxic hazard, but a safety concern on the road.further, loss of coolant jeopardizes engine life.the gt1 engine has 8 press fit couplings.so far, 2 different couplings have failed on my car.1 on the heat exchanger, and 1 on the steering pump housing.
Driving in a high performance driving event on a hot day going around a fast right hand turn and felt the car being a little loose then noticed the on board computer flashing low coolant. I slowed down and pulled in to a safe place to check the motor and saw a coolant j shaped press fitting completely popped out and dumping mass amounts of slippery coolant on the engine and rear tires.i popped the fitting back in and safety wired it so hopefully it will not come back out. Replaced coolant fluid with new and burped the system.
A coolant line came loose then i was driving the car.i was very lucky i did not spin in the coolant, and get in a serious accident.this is a very serious safety issue.the lines were originally "glued" in from the factory.this was a poor design and is a weakness of the car which could have been catastrophic in terms of destroying the engine, and getting in a serious accident.in order to properly address the design issue i was quoted over $3,000 to resolve the issue.this involves taking the engine out and welding the lines.i believe porsche should pay for the repair.
I had pro-active repairs performed on my 2004 porsche gt3 coolant system due to known issue of coolant pipes separating from the engine. I had the repair performed because i was afraid of losing control of my vehicle (it is my daily driver) or causing a crash behind me. The repairs cost me $3900 + ca state tax (7.75%) for a total of: $4200+.
I was driving around a corner about 40 mph when the car suddenly spun around. I then saw steam coming from the engine. Upon further inspection there was coolant on the ground. One of the coolant fittings had come completely loose, and all the coolant had leaked out. The only real fix is to weld all the coolant fittings. There are 9 of them and the engine has to be removed to do the welding. It cost me $2500 to fix this defect. This is a safety issue as i was lucky i did not hit any one or any thing. Just pure luck. When you dump large quantities of slippery coolant on to the rear tires it is just a matter of time before someone is killed. This problem is so prevalent that most race tracks won't allow a 996 or 997 gt3, gt2 or turbo on the track until the coolant lines are fixed.
I was driving at miller motorsports in tooele utah in drivers education event when my engine temperature gauge started to increase from 180 degrees up past 200 degrees. Asthe temperature gauge went to 250 degrees, a coolant failure light came on. I pulled off the track and shut down the car within 2 minutes of the failure light and i had to be towed off the miller motorsports track. I had lost all of my coolant from the car. The next morning (sunday) i took a rental car back to miller motorsports along with 9 gallons of distilled water. I poured 2 gallons of distilled water into the car, and then started it. About seven minutes later, water started spurting from an aluminum coolant line attachment that had come unglued. This aluminum attachment was in a place on the top of the engine that was readily determinable as the water was shooting straight up from where the fitting had come unglued and slipped off. I do not currently know whether i got the car stopped in time for the engine to be ok. I am afraid to drive it before i get all of the aluminum fittings reglued or welded. Because this happened on the top of the engine, the coolant did not create a situation that was a safety risk to me, but if it had been a different aluminum coolant attachment that let loose, i could have crashed at 115 mph due to coolant on the tires or someone behind me could have crashed. The miller motorsport personnel said they noticed a plume of steam at the end of the front straight. At the end of the front straight, i had slowed to 115 mph. I am the original purchaser of this car and did not think i was at risk for this type of safety issue on a car that is not driven in stop and go traffic. It also only has a little over 28,000 miles.*lnupdated 1/8/2013
I was driving around a corner about 40 mph when the car suddenly spun around. I then saw steam coming from the engine. Upon further inspection there was coolant on the ground. One of the coolant fittings had come completely loose, and all the coolant had leaked out. The only real fix is to weld all the coolant fittings. There are 9 of them and the engine has to be removed to do the welding. It cost me $2500 to fix this defect. This is a safety issue as i was lucky i did not hit any one or any thing. Just pure luck. When you dump large quantities of slippery coolant on to the rear tires it is just a matter of time before someone is killed. This problem is so prevalent that most race tracks won't allow a 996 or 997 gt3, gt2 or turbo on the track until the coolant lines are fixed.
On very hot day, over 100 degrees f, after having just exited a freeway onto a city street, while accelerating from red light, a glued-in water coolant pipe/tube popped out from its cast housing, causing catastrophic loss of all cooling fluids which spilled onto the roadway, immediate increase in engine temperature from 185 to over 260 degrees f, and loss of power. Car needed to be towed to repair shop.
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