litteng

new owner used 2006 car with 16000km;

yeah so its been 3 months since i had to park it because of the winter and snow, fired it up and it make a ticking noise like a hydraulic lifter... quite loud and on the passenger side.

i was thinking maybe hydraulic lifter but want comments, how long before this should go away... ran it for over 5 min and still there...

Macster

a bled down zero-lash lifter. If that is what is causing the noise. Is oil level good?

It can be a noisy fuel injector, a cracked coil, a mis-firing (or loose) spark plug to list a few other possibilities.

It can even be a piece of combustion chamber deposit that has come loose and is in the chamber. Well not intact, but some of the debris has gotten caught in probably one of the exhaust valves and it preventing the valve from sealing. At idle there may not be enough violence to remove this debris and have the valve once again obtain a gas tight seal.

I'm assuming the noise is in sync with engine speed? It not quite it may even be a bad spot on the serpentine belt.

Did you check car over thoroughly for any signs of rodent presence? If present the damage they do can account for odd engine noises, behavior.

Really impossible to know what it is and whether continued engine runining a good idea.

Sincerely,

Macster.

SKM

As I recall, Peter Egan's (Road & Track Magazine) 986 Boxster S started with a tapping lifter episode and ended at the dealer with a new engine. It could be many causes, however if it does not go away after warming up, perhaps the offending lifter needs replacing.

litteng

i really haven't bonded with this car yet so i don't know what is normal hence the concern, when i parked it it was not ticking, and its still under warranty,

but the closest dealer is 550km away.

00r101

Mine has had tappety type noises since new. Dealer seems unfazed. Car uns great but it would be nice if it sounded better at idle. I have heard that going to something heavier than 0w40 can stop this kind of thing.

Macster

engines and various things happen in regular and periodic fashion.

Pistons go up and down. Valves open and close. Injectors open and close. Spark plugs spark. And so on. These engines are noisy.

A distinct tick is not a normal noise though. A tick that stands out from the background of noises a running engine makes.

The tick may be due to a lifter than through lack of use has bled down. These generally pump right up but if the lifter's body is positioned less than ideally for purging of any air that has collected in it or if the check valve/seat doesn't seal properly they can be a bit noisy for a while.

However, something can be wrong. I encountered a new 996 at dealer that had been returned by its owner due to a noisy lifter and service torn into engine and found defective lifter and replaced it.

In other cases a cam lobe can round off or a valve spring can break and so on.

First you need to determine if the noise is extraordinary or whether it falls in to the range of what is normal for these engines.

And some engines are just naturally a bit noiser than others. If the noise has always been present that's one thing. If noise new that's usually some cause for concrern.

Oil with some miles and contamination can result in a noisy engine so if oil has some miles on it an oil change might be warranted. You want to be sure to use the proper type and grade of oil, one Porsche has spec'd for the car and its engine given the climate and usage you subject the car to.

Can you enlist the ears of someone in your area that has some experience with gas engines to listen the car and pass some judgement?

You could even have the car put on lift and have mechanic listen with mechanic's stethescope to pinpoint the source of the loudest the troublesome ticking noise. Knowing from what area/region of the engine the noise coming from would help diagnose the noise.

Then this person could offer the opinion the noise is normal or abnormal and then you could decide to take car to dealer for further investigation.

Or make a vide/audio recording and post? Get down low and record from all around engine. Try to maintain equal distance from the car at all times. If you move closer or further away this can attentuate the noise and made any chance of a diagnosis slimmer.

I'm torn.

On one hand I'd hate to advise you to "just drive" the noise out cause if a symptom of something wrong more driving could be harmful and render a relatively small correctable problem a severe problem.

OTOH, I would not want to advise you go to the trouble/expense of having car flat bedded to dealer to have the dealer tell you and more importantly show you by letting you listen to other cars and their engines that they "all do that" and in fact they do, in this case.

Sincerely,

Macster.

Macster

and having car checked out. Granted hauling the car 550km is not a trival endeavour but that's the reality of the situation.

I'd still try to enlist the help of someone in your area that can give you a more professionable opinion on the noise though.

Sincerely,

Macster.

litteng

finally got it out for the first run this year... all is good, just a lifter ticking away took a couple of minutes and tis now smooth an quiet.

SGeorgiadis

I have a 2008 987 with 2,500 kms on it - 3 weeks of ownership. In Australia the driving position is on the opposite side so I can hear the ticking quite clearly (as if it is just behind the firewall beyond the driver's seat). It seems worse when the car is first started from cold. Oil levels are all OK. Once the engine has warmed up after a few minutes it virtuallly disappears.

I am not too fussed about it but will monitor this for any change over time - I expect all mechanicals are still bedding in. Probably a lifter - as may others have suggested. Not ticked off!

Macster

engine is noisier than my '02 Boxster's engine, even though the Boxster's engine has just over 217K miles on it.

The Cayman engine noise is not harsh or real clickity and tickity or tappity and above an idle it gets pretty quiet so I'm not worrying about it.

Oh, I did change oil/filter at 750 miles and based on the amount of (fine) metal particles I found/saw in oil I'd advise you to change the oil/filter early too. In fact I've advised this since before I've owned Porsches and have done it for all my cars bought new.

(If you want to see what I'm talking about, drain oil from sump into drain pan. When all drained install plug with new proper washer and torque to proper setting. Then with *clean* oil pan remove filter housing and very carefully pour out oil into clean pan. Tell me what you see. I have pictures of what I found. Clean housing out and install new filter element and new o-ring and fill housing up with clean oil until almost full. Be sure to put some oil on threads and o-ring. Install housing correctly and torque to proper setting. Add oil to engine short 1 quart. For instance Cayman S engine takes just over 8 quarts. Add 7 quartts including the portion of a quart of oil remaining from filling up the housing. Let oil drain and take oil level reading. Add oil to bring level up to no more than midway to max oil level. Tech tells me too many Porsches he sees are running oil level too high and this just overwhelms air/oil separator's ability to remove oil from engine fumes and these fumes routed to intake manifold where some of the remaining oil collects on intake walls.
This can cause smoking upon startup -- sometimes attributed to the engine's layout and partially true but if so why not smoke every startup? -- and an accelerated build up of engine deposits.)

Anyhow, I would hate to think what affect running that original oil for however many miles the oil change computer would have deemed ok would have had on engine's longevity.

In fact, now that I think about it the oil change computer had flagged the oil to be changed. When I picked up car the dash displayed change oil in 4 days.

Salesman told me this based on time -- car was about 1 year old (but still new with IIRC just under 80 miles on it) -- and offered to have tech clear the message, reset the oil change computer.

Sincerely,

Macster.