rbeggs

Got into the garage tonight and while idling there for a moment heard an arrhythmic, loud click clacking from the area of the left rear quarter panel. There was a fair amount of smoke pouring out of the deck lid and a very acrid odor. All belts are intact. I could see nothing amiss with a cursory flashlight check.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

rbeggs

jstyer

Hmmm... Check distributor? Then valves? All that I can think of in that area, though an exhaust leak would be easy to rule out while you're looking around.

Did you see where the smoke appeared to be coming from?

rbeggs

Couldn't pinpoint the source of the smoke. It seemed to be coming up from under the pulley area. If the distributer was an issue wouldn't there be some running issues? It idled smoothly while all this was going on.

OverBoosted28

Alternator fan desintergrating?

rbeggs

Could be, though a new fan and bearings went in about 3 months ago.

If I can get it to the shop in the morning I'll know then.

Thanks guys, for your interest.

P-daddy

Either fan bearing or your alternator bearing is going south.

jstyer

Yup, could certainly be fan bearing or alternator if that's where you saw smoke... Though neither would cause sound from the left side quarter panel.

P-daddy

Me guessing here but bearing went bad causing the fan to wobble. That noise is probably the fan scraping the housing.

ble2011

Are you able to see scrape marks on the inside of the fan caseing from the fan blades? The results of that inspection should help narrow things down.

rbeggs

Very mysterious. Started it up this AM to decide drive or tow to shop. Nothing, nada, runs smooth as silk. There is no audible change to its signature noise profile. I drive it for about 15 minutes, stop listen, everything appears to be absolutely fine. No scrape marks inside the fan housing. Tonight, started it up, drove home, no problemo. I don't trust it though. No out of town driving till the problem presents itself again. Then it may be more diagnosable.

I think it's related to the fan bearing. We'll see.

Thanks.

-rb

mpruden

Crazy idea, but could your aux fan have failed in a mess of electrical smoke? Roughly in the correct spot on the car, and could make a noise if failing. Also, it could appear to be intermittent, as it only runs under certain conditions.

rbeggs

Interesting idea that. I'll figure out what I need to do to force operation of the aux fan and see what happens. If it should run and doesn't that would be the answer. Not crazy at all.

-rb

Wheel Dynamics

I know that this is in LEFT FIELD however dealing with as many Porsche cars through the years, critters like to get inside the warm deck-lids and hunker down for the evening. It's possible but just food for thought.



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mpruden

Aux fan is a quick test. From Tore's page:

6: Rear (AUX) fan low speed/resistor: Set fan speed to 1 and minimum temperature. Slowly increase temperature setting. The rear fan should start at low speed approx. 20 deg. C.
7: Rear (AUX) fan high speed: Set fan speed to 3 or more and minimum temperature. Slowly increase temperature setting. The rear fan should start at high speed at about 20 deg C.

Alternatively, you can remove the relay and jumper the terminals (see under rear aux fan here).

jstyer

Could definitely be the heater blower fan... I didn't even consider that... It was the first thing I removed when I got my car.