Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

Hi, I seem to be having a problem with my 944 and wondered if anyone has any ideas as to what the problem might be. I'd not driven it for a week or so because of the snow then the other morning I started her up and set off to work. I noticed the heater wasnt working which has never been a problem before but it was just blowing cold air after about 10 minutes of running. Then as I pulled in to park there was a popping sound under the hood and either steam or smoke came out. Couldnt really tell as it was so cold and dark but it didnt smell much. After that I had no ignition and couldnt start the thing, but later that day when I tried it seemed to start and drive fine, although the mpg gauge seemeed to be playing up and still no heater. However after another 10 minutes driving it started smoking from under the bonnet again and the temp. gauge looked a bit higher than normal so I turned it off and left it it to cool.
Anyone got any thoughts on what the problem could be? Any help would be much appreciated.
Cheers, David.

You did have lots of antifreeze in it didn't you! It has been exceptionally cold. Check your coolant level when cold then look for signs of leaks. Any puddles of coolant under the car? System pressurizing ok? Condition of hoses not forgetting the two heater hoses at the back of the block. If the heater doesn't' work thats symptomatic of coolant shortage. Not good.

Difficult to diagnose at a distance but does it have enough coolant in it? Either the coolant is low and/or if not enough antifreeze then it could be the frozen water pump slipping in the cambelt. This could be very serious as if the belt breaks it will be toasted engine. Have a look under the bonnet & check all the belts & levels are OK.

Don't use it until you've done all the checks - you don't want to end up with serious problems.

Just had the same problem with my daughter's Fiesta. Fortunately she was sensible enough to tell me right away. There was no water in the cooling system header tank. I filled it up with a weak anti-freeze mixture and searched for traces of leaks - nothing. Ran the engine to warm it up and get some pressure into the system to see if there were any leaks - nothing. Left it to stand overnight in my garage - no leaks. I then flushed the system out and filled it with the correct anti-freeze mixture, she ran it for seven miles, checked the level and telephoned me. As expected it had dropped as the air had been worked out of the system. I topped it up and it's been fine since. I did check the oil and the oil dipstick for traces of water, but again everything was fine - I guess she was lucky this time.

By the way, when you're doing your checks you may have the white / cream gunge that looks like 'water in oil' on your oil filler cap and at the top of the dipstick tube, but don't be concerned as it is just condensation caused by short journeys in the very cold weather we have had.

Hope that has given you some pointers.

it does sound like frozen coolant or a valve doesn't it
Its been -13 down here for 2x weeks so I'm leaving my S2 for a few days to completely thaw out just in case as it had low antifreeze and no protection from the elements.
Although its extremely mild here now like a spring day there are still huge mounds of solid ice here and there !

My father who had run cars in the days when you drained the rad & engine & overnight on cold nights & then refilled in the morning, because he couldn't afford antifreeze, used to say that if it stays icy on the ground beyond mid day then the engine was at risk. I checked mine over very carefully including squishing the hoses to check for no ice crystals. I then topped up with teacup full or so of neat antifreeze before I started it.