FRUNKenstein wrote: ↑Mon Oct 25, 2021 1:22 pm
BTW, we never changed the coolant pipes on either of our Cayennes. I never bothered to stick an endoscope down there to see if they had been changed by a previous owner, so maybe they both had been changed already. But, at the prices we paid for them (both bought at dealer auctions, one for ~$8,000 and the other for ~$6,000), I figured I'd drive them and deal with the issue if it broke. Not fixing sh!t that's not broken is the nice thing about driving cheap cars.
Generally I agree, but the problem (and what many people skip which is why you need someone that knows about the problem to really check it over) is that when the pipe goes it dumps all the coolant on your alternator and xfer case. As it either dies or it doesn't, the alternator is generally safe to assume it's ok from a simple power check. If the pipes go on your watch, however, and the alternator does go it is really expensive as it is water cooled.
The more insidious issue is the seals on the xfer case. In all cases that I'm aware of it is just a matter of time before the seals fail and there is no indication until your xfer case shits itself and that is quite an expensive repair (on a 6-9k car, just tow it to the junk yard). When the pipes let go you are supposed to replace the seal on the xfer case, but that isn't exactly cheap so many people opt to skip it to save the money. This is why someone that knows the 955s and 957s well should look it over as it is apparently easy to tell if there was a leak previously or not. If there are signs of a leak and no documentation on the xfer seal being replace, you should walk away.
I haven't seen prices in awhile, but it used to be around $1500 for parts and labor to have an Indy replace the part with the metal version. While not pleasant on a <$10k car, it's better than it failing and either junking the car or shelling out $6k+ in repairs. Doubly so in my opinion if you are towing with it as that will generally make things run hotter and hasten the plastic coupling's demise.
), oil was changed by miles rather than time (which hit 2 years a couple of times), and never specifically avoided the red line before the engine was warm. When I had the bores scoped a couple years ago they were nice and smooth with no signs of scoring top or bottom.
