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so, i finally get a chance to squeeze in a round of golf today, taking a break from work, work on the house, the projects on the car, and such - got up early, threw the clubs in the bag, and was off and running at 6 am - little did i know at the time that my perfect day was to be cut short



back story:



about a month ago, i was installing my new 31.75mm hollow front sway bar when i noticed that my power pulley on the power steering pump was cutting a groove into my oil hose - off it came, and i had a new one made that was a tad longer - i further reinforced the hose with a delrin wrap, tied it back, and i was good to go and off to hershey, where the car performed flawlessly - i couldn't have been happier



then, this morning, i decided to take the 968 out for a drive, and was tooling down the freeway at about 80, happy as a lark, beaming from ear to ear because my car felt so good, and i was off to play golf - then i glanced at my instrument panel and saw the big red light begin to flicker, then come on solid - a quick look to the oil pressure guage and it plummeted to zero



thinking quickly (still have a headache from that one), i stepped on the clutch and let it come to idle - this would buy a few precious seconds, as it reduced the oil flow, but left my power steering and brakes functioning - a look over my shoulder and i dove to the right to pull off, and shut her down



as i stepped out of the car and looked down, i saw the lake of oil beneath the car and the trail running back - i opened the hood and immediately shut it - i knew what was in store for me for the immediate future



after getting her back home safely and without further incident, i tore it apart to find that the main hose (the one i had just had made) had blown - the hose itself blew right off of the porsche fitting - seems that the barbed fittings that porsche used had very shallow barbs (probably a cost thing) - they really don't grab well



i'm pretty sure i didn't hurt the engine, but i will be spending the next 2-3 days tearing the car apart and cleaning the gallon or so of oil from the engine bay and underside of the car



so much for my perfect day



the tow was AAA, the new hose will be comped, and i will only have to replace the accessory belts and oil (as well as the half dozen cans of brake kleen and 2 bags of rags), but what a pain



on top of that, i still had to pay for the round of golf i didn't even get to play



the upside is that my engine bay was in bad need of a complete detail - not the way i wanted to get there though

Eww, that sucks <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/sad.gif" class="smilie" alt="" /> Good thing you didn't blow you engine. I have had my fair share of those sickly moments when you're motoring along, far away from home (or a shop), and have the car fail for some reason. Mine were all cooling related actually heh.



What REALLY sucks is when you're sitting there on the side of the road in a nice looking car, while everyone is passing you by. I just know they're thinking "Hah! way to go german engineering!" or something silly like that <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/rolleyes.gif" class="smilie" alt="" />

Sorry to hear 'bout that...but that's what you get for trying to relax and enjoy yourself <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/tongue.gif" class="smilie" alt="" /> Sounds like what usually happens to me!



- Darryl

Always look on the bright side of life.





Well at least everything in the engine bay is well lubricated now. <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/smile.gif" class="smilie" alt="" />



Seriously though, glad to hear no major damage was done.

Wow that sucks...but you'll have her better than new in no time...



Jay

at the end of day one, the oil is now cleaned off of the entire underside of the car, suspension, engine bay, wheels, the removed fender liners, undertrays, splitter, and misc ancillary components



now the real work begins - putting it all back together, stripping the oil off the outside of the car, waxing the engine bay, and then buffing and waxing the car



maybe by the end of the day tomorrow



she will look good when she's done - i didn't get the chance to do any detailing before hershey,and she was really a mess compared to how she is normally kept - i was just too busy working on the prototype parts to give her the detailing she needed



i guess this is a rather happy accident

Sorry to read that...

Did you happen to notice if your temp went up into the red? If you're running synthetic and the temp stayed down, your engine should be o-k, but this may have reduced it's life. That's sad if Porsche doesn't test critical oil lines. Perhaps they farm out their replacement part manfacturing to a lower quality company[?].

[quote name='S_Cal968' post='35858' date='May 22 2007, 09:28 PM']Sorry to read that...

That's sad if Porsche doesn't test critical oil lines. Perhaps they farm out their replacement part manfacturing to a lower quality company[?].[/quote]

No, he had his line(s) replaced; made at a local shop re-using the old ends.

Ah yes - that's what I get for speed reading. If that's the case I wonder if the vendor used a hose with the correct wall thickness. If it was too thin the barb wouldn't get a good bite.

the problem is the barbs themselves - they are almost non-existent - bad design and not well suited to refitting - the whole hose design really is a bad one - o-rings and blocks - they had to reinvent the wheel, instead of just using standard fittings



by the way, have you priced replacement hoses? ridiculous - 10 times the cost of a standard hose



going with a different setup this time

Perhaps you could go with a seel braided hose with AN fittings (if you can find them).

doing something like that, but this is a stop gap step until the second oil cooler package can be worked out - i've been kicking that around for 2 years now, as has pete - it looks like he is a lot closer to getting it done though

It can't be too bad of a design, many [like myself] are still running the original assembly after 14+ years... [knock on metal]

it's a combination of issues - the small barbs work ok on a relatively thin wall soft hose like stock (unfortunately those don't tend to last long), but as soon as you use a better hose, they don't grip well



as for 14 years, like any of the other rubber parts, those are on borrowed time too - they aren't as susceptable as hydraulic hoses, and slightly better than radiator hoses, but are also now beyond their optimal service period



here on the west coast, things tend to last longer because the climate is more moderate - in areas where the temp swings dramatically, and humidity is higher, rubber is much more short lived



i'm pretty sure that in the next couple of years we will start to see them begin to fail

So can we expect to see a new line of teflon lined, braided stainless steel hoses for oil coolers soon? <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/smile.gif" class="smilie" alt="" />

Ouch, thats stinks!



And you had to pay for the round to boot.....terrible. Did you leave you CC when you booked your T time?

it's a gentleman thing - i booked the time - i pay for the time - it's not like on a muni or public course where you can cancel at the last minute and not be responsible for it - it's a country club and they figure you have the money



oh well - day 2 of cleaning yesterday and i am now finally starting to put her back together today - picking up new hose and belts this morning, amidst my errands at the vendors who are making the brace parts for me

Damn.... I finally read this thread (ignoring it earlier thinking it was about golf.....). That's a good catch -- I'm often just day-dreaming and not paying attention to instruments when I'm cruising down the road!