TheoJ

Hi, my car developed a strange rattle that was very loud and metallic. I feared bit trouble but after driving the car a few miles it went away, only to show up again next time the engine was cold. Must be a tappet....

Hands up for tappet and oil problems.....

Nope. Turned out the belt pulley on the power steering pump was loose. 3xM6 (10mm) bolts were pretty loose. Easy fix

Mike Frye

Theo,

Good catch. Mine did the same thing except instead of making a noise, I just lost the 'power' part of my power steering. Two of the bolts had completely walked back out and when the third one backed off enough for the pulley to come off that locator pin on the pump, it just slipped out of the belt and stopped working. I was very lucky one of the bolts didn't fly off and damage something and also that the belt didn't start whipping around in there.

If it had happened two hours earlier I would have been up in the Poconos doing about 7/10s on those mountain twisties and a lack of PS would have definitely been a pucker factor of 9 or 10.

Glad you got lucky too and looked at it before it got bad.

To everyone else, this is something you should check if you haven't already!

TheoJ

thanks Mike, and you're right. It could have turned out bad.
It made me wonder what would have happened if the pulley suddenly would spin off and hit things.
Funny was that the problem went away when the engine got hot. I was quite happy to find that what seemed like an oil problem turned out to be something so basic.
Have you ever driven the 928 without the power steering? You'll love the workout.
regards,