BlackOp

It's not a metallic sound but more of a "cha ch cha" that speeds up with acceleration. It's pretty annoying.....not a whining sound though. I thought it might have been my dust cover/rotor but wasnt. Had my TB/WP changed 10k ago and PorscheDoc re-tensioned it...about 2 1/2 years. It just started about 3 weeks ago....bad water pump? I searched and didnt find anything conclusive. Could my belt be loose and slapping the cover? It seemed to go away when my A/C was recently charged but started again when a slow leak prevented the compressor from engaging. I dont know if this is a coincidence or related.

BlackOp

Nobody has any suggestions?....that might be a first.

Anyway, I've isolated the ticking sound to the lower right side pulley. I did a search and found this...belts were changed about 3k ago.

"The wobbling pulley is probably because the crank bolt was not torqued correctly, or the spacer washer was put on backwards. Not terribly hard to correct, but does require a flywheel lock, a 24mm or 15/16th socket and a good breaker bar."

Would this cause my ticking problem?

Black51

I'd take a guess at bearing failure of your TB sprockets weren't changed. You'd better hope it's not water pump failure though!

krystar

sound is repeating right? frequency matched to RPM? how loud? comparable to belt whine loud?

kinda hard to diagnose a sound over the net heh. where in chicago?

BlackOp

This morning, I drove it down to the corner store and there was no sound. I popped the hood and nothing. I got back in and drove about another 5 minutes and it started only very faintly. I got on my knees and it is definitely coming from the the lower right pulley....a/c compressor. Drove it again and it became louder. The frequency stays consistent, just speeds up with RPMs.

I'm in Wicker Park.

Travis - sflraver

AC compressor pulleys have been known to just "fall off." What happens is the center actually stays attached to the compressor but the outside clutch pulley snaps free from the little arms that hold it.
I don't know exactly what causes this but I have seen it a few times. Inspect it closely because if it comes free you will not have a belt for the alternator until you get a new ac compressor clutch.

krystar

really....well better get a new compressor then. that's prob gonna be costly. gotta evac the refrigerant and put in new stuff. can't exactly DIY that w/o a license.

BlackOp

What do I check for? See if it is loose? Would the center be spinning independent of the pulley? I really hope this isnt my ca$e....

krystar

if the AC is on, the center and the pulley are locked together. if AC is off, center shouldn't spin.

i'd say take the belt off and see if there's any wiggle on the pulley...i dunno exactly how it fails. maybe travis can shed some more light on it.

968 GUY

When I changed my A/C belt, it would chirp when the compressor engaged until I retightened it.

BlackOp

So..I went out and turned the clutch by hand. It seemed the pulley was catching on it and this freed it up. I drove for about 30 minutes with no sounds. Right when I parked, it started (slightly) again so I popped the hood. The compressor clutch is spinning very slowly yet the a/c is off. It wasnt doing this when I started.

Could the pulley be pulling/catching the clutch? My A/C works..if this helps. Nothing was loose when I rotated the clutch...

krystar

so it sounds like the clutch isn't fully disengaging from the pulley. i'm still not sure how to fix it though...it'd prob involve removing the front portion and servicing the clutch mechanism. not sure if u can do that while it's in the car

mj951

I have a used but good AC compressor up in Madison, WI if you end up needing one. Came off an '89 turbo but I think they are all the same. Let me know if you would like to work something out.

BlackOp

Thanks for the offer...I think I will wait until I'm positive that's my issue though. Right now...it's just an annoying sound. I will probably recharge my system again as the noise stopped when the compressor could engage. The leak was pretty slow so I will give some stopleak a whirl.

krystar

charge uv dye in and find the leak.