Bought a 92 968 few months ago and discovered a few flat spots. Took the car to my local porsche dealer who said that the timing belts/tensioners/balance shaft needed to be sorted out so left the car with them for a few weeks. Got the car back back and it runs much better that before aceleration is a vast improvement, the only thing is that it is making a kind of Knocking/Grinding sound between idle and 1800 rpm after which it disapears completely, took it back and the head mechanic said it was the varioram.....can this be right? I cant remember if it made this sound before i had it serviced i dont think it was...............it doesn't seem to affect the performance but does kinda spoil driving it around at low rpm.

 

Could be lifters...

 

I had this exact problem with my 944, it sounded like collapsed lifters when running cold but when I took it in for the timing belt service this summer it turned out there was a cracked roller. I haven't heard it since. Maybe they installed a defective roller or something else on yours too? Just a thought.

Pat
86 944

 

the Variocam on my father's 968 is the same way. it's just a momentary chatter that annoys you, right? Well, we took it to about 3 different Porsche techs, and all of them told us the same thing: The Variocam just does that. However, in some cases such as yours and my father's, it's louder than others. So they told us either leave it and be annoyed (as it doesn't hurt anything) or replace the Variocam (Which is BIG money to do). So we replaced the chain tensioner pads and left it. it's been fine. been that way for about 4 years now.