mikstew

Hi all,

I have a 986 Boxster 2.5L (1999) with 120k miles.

Ever since I bought it (3k miles ago) it has made a ticking noise coming from the left side of the engine. The noise only occurs when the engine is worked hard after spirited driving, or long highway driving in the summer.

The ticking noise does NOT sound like piston slap. It is more ticky, clicky, tappy than piston slap noise.

Interestingly, the ticking disappears after the car is left to cool down at idle. I have recorded a video below of the ticking right after a spirited drive. During the video, the ticking slowly subsides and by the 2:00 minute mark, it is completely gone!



What do you think this is and should I be concerned?

mikefocke

Thermal. Check tightness of plugs.

Schnell Gelb

Search - "ticking" = lots. Including loose spark plugs and loose heat shields!

mikstew

I've searched ticking, on this forum, on flatsix, on all the forums. Nobody has ever described this problem before on a boxster on the forums. That's why I posted this - to see if anyone has heard of it.
Ticking when cold is different from ticking only when hot. And also only temporarily when hot.

grrrmonster

What kind of oil, when was it last changed?

mikstew

Oil is 10w40, changed 3000 miles ago when I got the car.

mikstew

Mike Focke:

MY noise sounds surprisingly similar to this :P

Macster

I'm with Mike on this being a thermal problem. Plugs is a good suggestion. Or exhaust.

My (virtual) money is on exhaust. I note that Porsche calls for a 2 minute idle time before shutting off my 996 Turbo engine, 2 minutes to give the turbos time to cool down. They do so at idle since that is when the exhaust is the coolest when the engine is operating.

You need to get the car in the air and carefully listen for the noise and try to determine where it is coming from. You need to be careful though and be very aware you are very close to very hot parts and there is a serpentine belt that you have to keep a distance from.

porches

I've seen quite a few cars with the same problem. Always ends up being a spark plug. 9x6 spark plugs in my bay get torqued to spec always for this reason.

paulofto

Please let us know what the outcome is. I too have a 'tick' that seems to be centered on the middle cylinder on the right hand side. It's too cold to work on the thing right now but come spring I'd like to zone in if it is a sprk plug issue or maybe a sticky lifter.

Thanks!

mikstew

I just replaced my entire exhaust system including headers. One of the headers had some oil leaking on it from the AOS (which I also replaced). It looks like that may have broken the seal. MAYBE just maybe that was causing a single cylinder's exhaust to escape once it was very warm.

I tested the replacement exhaust system once under hard driving. The sound did not return. This is promising, but will require further testing to be sure. I will post back in a week or two.

Having said all this, I firmly believe that the other posters here could be correct that a loose spark plug would cause the same problem.

Note that I have watched and listened to a great number of ticking videos. It is VERY difficult to tell ticking noises apart. Piston slap sounds a lot like a sticky lifter which sounds a lot like a loose sparkplug or leaking exhaust manifold gasket. There are differences but you have to have a very keen ear.

terbiumactivated

Listen to Mike on this I chased that sound on the same engine for a long time was surprised it was the spark plugs.