Manifold/header/muffler/tail Pipe Problems of Porsche Cayenne

Owner operates a 2004 Porsche Cayenne turbo, 4. 5l v8 engine. This vehicle, with just over 61,000 miles began to overheat four days prior to the incident (detected by fluctuating temperature gauge). The engine coolant was found to be low in the service bottle by appx. 2 quarts when checked and was refilled. The evening before the incident owner's spouse reported a low coolant alarm message had displayed on the instrument panel, coolant was about 2 quarts low in the service bottle and was refilled. The next day the vehicle was being run at 1500 rpm (fast idle) in a parked position in the owner's driveway for a test when a flood of engine coolant was observed coming from the underside of the vehicle. Vehicle engine was immediately secured to avoid damage. At this point the vehicle would not be considered drivable and would need to be towed to a service facility. An investigative teardown revealed a ruptured plastic cooling pipe inside the valley of the engine, this failure required removal of the intake manifold to diagnose and is not a roadside-repairable event. The event caused loss of more then 50% of total coolant volume as only appx. 1 gallon was recovered from the vehicle prior to teardown. A prescribed repair kit for this failure (replacement cooling pipes kit) was obtained from sonnen Porsche, san francisco CA and installed by vehicle owner. After filling of coolant and test driving, no further problem was noted.

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The Porsche Cayenne (and other Porsche models) have a coolant leak problem. My vehicle's "low coolant level" light came on. I checked the coolant level and found it to be severely low. The Porsche dealer service (and on-line forums) report that Porsche Cayenne engines are encountering a coolant leak problem that appears to affect all Cayenne s, Cayenne turbo and Cayenne turbo s engines built from 2003 to 2006 (my vehicle is a 2004 model). The coolant leak problem is located in the plastic coolant pipes located under the intake manifold of the engine. According to the Porsche dealer, this is a common problem due to the plastic material used by Porsche (which has since been changed to a metal material) and the plastic fittings. The lack of coolant can cause the engine to overheat, or even blow an engine, which can be extremely dangerous if this occurs while driving. In order to correct the problem, Porsche service says that the coolant pipes must be replaced, which is a very labor and parts intensive service costing well over $1,000.