[flash]

dan and i were out for a spin yesterday to run an errand - i was letting him drive it so he could feel the clutch and compare - all was right with the world - he was enjoying how planted and responsive the car is, and feeling the power and just generally having a good time

on the way back from our errand, suddenly the big red light comes on - what the heck? a quick look at the oil pressure gauge and i knew what had happened, which was confirmed by the immediate smell of oil

oil cooler line blew - i had one made last year and the end blew off the poorly made porsche fitting - i pumped all of the oil everywhere in a matter of seconds - we were a block from the house, so i ran home, grabbed a couple of quarts - dumped it in, fired it up and hopefully didn't do any damage - it was clacking away when we rolled in though - i'll know as soon as the repair is done

now i am going to have the fitting brazed on so this won't happen again

i get to spend the next 2 days with a case of brakekleen and a box of rags

i am just hoping that the clackity clack don't come back

the upside is that i wanted to change my oil anyway - i just didn't think the car was going to do it for itself

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[biotechee]

That completely sucks!

Hope no damage was done....

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[Darryl]

Now you just have to figure out how to make it go fill itself up with gas...

- Darryl

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[banditsc]

It was revolting, it's not use to going more the 500 miles without an oil change.

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[rhudeboye]

Do you suspect that your car being driven so rarely is the problem? You had both your belt and oil line go within a couple of months and they were much newer then mine. Perhaps the tugging of the belts and the fluids in motion keeps them somewhat flexible and conditioned.

.02 or .00

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[flash]

no - it was definitely the construction of the line - the barbs on the porsche connector are tiny - the crimp was not sufficient to hold on - they said they are going to braze on the connector this time, rather than rely on a crimp and those tiny barbs

the belt went because it was old and got loose - there is no doubt that it was due for changing at 4 years old - i also had contis in there, which ticked me off when i found out that was what they had installed, but i let it go as i was already so frustrated with the shop that i just wanted out of there - if my belts were newer than yours, then you really need to change them

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[rhudeboye]

<!--quoteo(post=75021:date=Jul 6 2009, 02:54 PM:name=flash)-->QUOTE (flash @ Jul 6 2009, 02:54 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->if my belts were newer than yours, then you really need to change them<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

My mistake. Thought both your belt and line were under 2 years. my belt was done at IMA when all that tranny work was done back in 2007.

Your almost ritualistic with your maintenance and upkeep so this doesn't apply to you. But there's something to be said about a sitting car being more prone to problems then an active one.

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[flash]

nope - belts were at least 5 years old - had them done right after i got the car - no miles on them relatively speaking, but plenty of age - visual inspection showed them to be "fine" - retensioned a year ago - didn't matter - it's not something you can see or feel

certainly you don't want to let a car sit - if you aren't putting at least 2k on it a year, you're very likely headed for trouble - lol - i had planned to be driving it a lot more - the problem is that i don't drive anything much, and sometimes it just isn't practical to take out the 968 - errand runs aren't even enough to get it warmed up - working from home, i might drive once a week, for a total of 10 miles - we have to take road trips just to keep the cars running - that's why i think we are going to let the M3 go - that car sits almost as much as the 968 - it's a total waste to have it

at this point, low mileage all original cars are the worst and most susceptible to issues from age and non-use - given that every rubber part on the car is long overdue for replacement, letting them sit only exacerbates that condition - i've seen some really clean low mileage cars that need new suspensions - it's usually sad, because the owners tend to think that it's a good thing that they have such low mileage, and never had any work done on it, and consequently think that raises the car's value - in reality it's the exact opposite - right now, if a car popped up that had less than 25k on it, i'd probably pass - it would be another few thousand dollars to get it back up to snuff - i just had to go through this with the white car - i fell into it with the blue one - it took a while to get all the old stuff out of there

very soon i'll be putting together a concise list of things to inspect and look for and putting it into the buyer's guide

back on topic - i'll be cleaning the car for the next day or so, and then putting it back together wednesday or thursday - then i can see if i hurt it or not

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[wiseman]

Flash,

Your absolutely right about low mileage cars. The shop that works on my car here in Tampa specializes in 944's,968's and 928's and races most of them. When looking into the possibility of buying a Boxter or Cayman, he said the same thing.....stay away from really low mileage cars becouse the gremlins may yet be lurking, high mileage cars may bring you back to the garage before you want to be there................about 40K cars seemed to be the majic number or about 8K/year for the life of the car.

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[rhudeboye]

<!--quoteo(post=75049:date=Jul 6 2009, 10:05 PM:name=flash)-->QUOTE (flash @ Jul 6 2009, 10:05 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->very soon i'll be putting together a concise list of things to inspect and look for and putting it into the buyer's guide<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Looking forward to it.

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[ds968]

With so many of these components prone to failure and possibly leaving you stranded pretty soon we'll need to tow an entire "spare parts" 968 behind our 968 everytime we drive [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/dry.gif[/img] I already keep a spare DME relay and a spare HCV in my car, I know that others even carry a spare clutch line
( I have the SS installed, otherwise I might have carried an extra one of those also ) but after experiencing Bob's incident first hand, I'm now thinking about keeping an extra oil cooler line in the trunk, though where does all of this stop ?!

In any case, I think that list will be very valuable and looking forward to seeing all the items that warrant ( at least..) inspection.

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[flash]

the problem with that particular part is that of course porsche did not use 2 identical lines, and they are STUPID expensive

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[Cloud9...68]

<!--quoteo(post=75070:date=Jul 7 2009, 09:53 AM:name=ds968)-->QUOTE (ds968 @ Jul 7 2009, 09:53 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->With so many of these components prone to failure and possibly leaving you stranded pretty soon we'll need to tow an entire "spare parts" 968 behind our 968 everytime we drive [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/dry.gif[/img] I already keep a spare DME relay and a spare HCV in my car, I know that others even carry a spare clutch line
( I have the SS installed, otherwise I might have carried an extra one of those also ) but after experiencing Bob's incident first hand, I'm now thinking about keeping an extra oil cooler line in the trunk, though where does all of this stop ?!<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Reminds me of the time I was driving my 1965 Austin Healey BJ8 while moving, with my full tool chest, which fit perfectly between the back seat and the folded converible top, sticking up about two feet above the deck lid for all to see. A guy pulls up next to me, and says, "They're not <b>THAT</b> unreliable, are they?"

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[ds968]

[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif[/img] Classic !

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[S_Cal968]

Bummer, sorry to read that..
Do you recall manipulating or tweaking the line? Typically a high-pressure line will fail early in it's service life if it has a poor/questionable swage.
If the line is original and has lasted this long I doubt it was a swage. At < 80 psi the barbs may not need to be as aggressive as what's typically found on a 120psi
shop-air fitting.

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[Ryan]

Good one Cloud.....it's a British thing.

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[flash]

as i said in the first post, i had one made a while ago - that is the one that failed

also, i am putting about 85 psi through at peak - i would not have expected it to fail, but the porsche fitting is not up to the job - it was a swaged fitting - it slid right off - it took a while, but it finally did it - i would guess i had about 1200 miles on it - the crimp spec was not enough

the new one should be much better than stock, and won't have the clocking issues

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[Cloud9...68]

<!--quoteo(post=75143:date=Jul 8 2009, 08:26 AM:name=Ryan)-->QUOTE (Ryan @ Jul 8 2009, 08:26 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->Good one Cloud.....it's a British thing.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yeah, I love those old bumper stickers that read, "The parts falling off this car are of the finest British manufacture." Haven't seen one in years, though.

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[flash]

lol - i have one of those here somewhere - i think it's in the same place as my "lucas, prince of darkness pin" and my bumper sticker of a lucas 3 position switch (off, flicker, dim)

back on topic - car pretty much cleaned up now - should see the o-rings tomorrow morning and know the story tomorrow afternoon

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[S_Cal968]

Oh - I wasn't clear on which line you had done when.
I'm sure Porsche does/did extensive testing on something as critical as an oil line. And, at even 85 psi that's still a relatively low pressure in the world of swaged fittings. If this was a common sub-standard manufacturing issue, I think we'd see a lot more members chiming in...

On a side note I thought peak top pressure was 73 psi or 5 bar, [unless of course you've changed something][?].

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