It happens to me; I don't worry about it; car drives normally

 

When you all are hearing this sound, do you also feel a (soft) knock in your steering wheel at the same time?

 

No.

 

I have to admit with all the weird and odd sounds these cars make, I’m worried I’m not going to know what’s normal and what’s not lol.

 

That is what a warranty is for.

 

Always remember the age old P GT proverb "If its not making strange noises it's probably broken"

 

+1 to that.

 

This thread has me concerned considering the trouble I went through to solve a “strut clunk” on my M3.

Here’s my thread in Bimmerpost about how I solved it. (It wasn’t the suspension)

The noise on my M3 was a heavy, low clunk, like a loose sway bar or strut a completely different sound than the metallic twang of coil bind.

I don’t care what any service department says, clunks aren’t normal . . . not for an M3, not for a GT car. There’s zero chance Porsche engineering was aware of this problem during development and said “yup that’s normal, I don’t see the problem.” That said, it’s also unlikely that anything real will be done about it at this point even if they are made aware of it.

I can deal with an occasional coil bind twang on a car like this but if it clunks over every bump it’ll be for sale before too long.

 

I think you'll be fine if you only drive perfect roads and never pull into a driveway. Expect clunks on half the driveway transitions based on my car.

 

Trust the countless Rennlist members with many miles in the seat, me being one of them. If there was a problem with design or function we would know about it as this thread would be the hottest thread on RL since the dealer allocation thread was first posted back in the day. Not saying anything may not be wrong with fellow members rides posted here. Things do happen, that's what the warranty is for thankfully.

 

Not sure what you’re saying here. I’m a suspension engineer, and I can tell you unequivocally that suspension clunks are not normal on a road car. The design methodology is meant to ensure that noise issues like this don’t happen. But, the design and function of parts like this is complicated so occasionally something gets missed or an issue occurs during production that’s causes these noises. Dampers are basically the last thing that’s finalized before production so there’s lots of opportunities for issues to get missed in normal testing. I’ll say it again, clunks aren’t normal. That’s not to say the issue is fixable in the field or that it’s high enough on Porsches priority that it’ll get fixed.

 

What is not clear? How much time do you have in the GT4 seat? The above is normal stuff check the thread https://rennlist.com/forums/718-gts-...ion-noise.html btw some can equate a boing to a clunk welcome to layman blah blah world.

 

Ok, so lots of people have clunky suspensions. I guess that fits some definition of “normal.” If you’re happy with it, great. But it’s not a normal or necessary trade off for a car like this.

Certain noises or trade offs are unavoidable because they are directly opposed to GT-level performance. Rocks hitting the underbody can’t be avoided unless you reduce tire trip or add sound deadening. Some oil consumption is highly likely in a high revving engine with these kinds of tolerances. Driveline and road noise will be louder because the suspension and transmission mounts are designed for response rather than NVH. These trade-offs are inherent and due to the physics of the situation.

But there’s nothing about a performance suspension that inherently causes clunks. It’s entirely possible to design and tune a suspension that performs at this level that *doesn’t* have clunks or coil bind or any of these issues.

These issues are entirely the result of an incorrect design calculation, and out of spec tolerance, or a design feature that doesn’t properly account for wear over time or temperature fluctuation.

So you asked how much seat time I have in my GT4? Not much to be honest. Mine is sitting in my heated garage with single digit miles on the odo until the weather warms up.

But I should ask you how many production car dampers you’ve designed and tuned? That’s probably more relevant in this thread.

 

Yup your the expert,, I get your point more blah blah for RL thread thx for adding!

 

IMO, he has a valid point and it is arrogant of you to discount it just because others have experienced it.