cds4402

When the car is in first gear, between 1-2k RPMs, I'm hearing a very faint chirping noise from the motor. It sounds like a cricket or tiny bird. It's a revolving sound - like a chirp-chirp-chirp, and it gets faster until about 2k RPMs until you can't hear it anymore. I can't really hear any grinding.

If I let the RPMs drop to 800 RPMs while still in first year, and give it some gas again, it's more pronounced.

Even when not in gear, at an idle, and i blip the throttle, I can hear it.

Is this a low RPM / "lugging the motor" kind of sound, or early symptoms of a pully or waterpump beginning to fail?

LexVan

Year? Miles? I'd say water pump or drive belt.

cds4402

2006, just crossed 50k miles this week. I'm uploading a video onto youtube, which I will post here in a minute. It's difficult to hear on the video, but if you have good speakers, you might be able to pick it up right at the beginning.

cds4402

If you turn up your volume, you can barely hear it between seconds 2-4 in the video. The loud click sound you hear is unrelated. I think that's just my flip flops smacking my heel. You can hear it again around seconds 27-28.

I don't lug the engine on purpose, it's just easier to replicate the sound when I'm doing that. I generally hear it every time I start rolling in first gear.

LexVan

Replace your serpentine belt and water pump. They are due regardless.

cds4402

Belt was replaced at 47k miles. The car is under CPO warranty, so I'm assuming that the pump is an item that they'll cover if it's starting to fail. But the dealer is 2.5 hours away, so I didn't want to go and have them tell me that there's no issue yet.

LexVan

Doesn't matter. Water pump needs to be replaced before it fails. Safe insurance. Good time to flush coolant and replace thermostat And gasket.

A432

Agree with little guy in a helmet.
It's the water pump, the bearing emits a chirpy squeal at low rpm once getting ready to fail
and the thermostats have been known to freeze open once due, have them both done.

cds4402

Yeah, I'm going to take it in to Leith Porsche on Saturday. My guess is that they will cover the water pump, but that I would have to pay for the thermostat swap, which is something i'd prefer to do on my own (have done it on BMWs several times), but if they're already in there, I can't imagine that they'll charge too much to do the swap.

LexVan

Pay extra for a coolant flush too. They will only pay for the coolant lost in the process using the CPO. Your coolant is eight years old and should be replaced. Ask to see the old water pump and inspect the plastic in impeller. Hopefully there will not be any missing pieces.

cds4402

Okay. Good advice. Thanks.

Macster

I don't hear the noise, but if the noise is present with the car stationary and the engine running the serpentine belt or an accessory drive is suspect. For accessory drive read water pump which is the most common accessory drive to make noise and require replacing.

If the noise is present only when the car is moving then it can be brake pad rubbing or possibly something amiss with one of the half shafts/CV bearings.

The belt condition can be inspected. Cracks across the v-ribs is ok. Missing sections of v-ribs is not ok. Check the belt edges for signs of rubbing. The edges will be "sharp". This is a sign an accessory drive has excess bearing/shaft play.

Check the water pump for leak sign. The car needs to be in the air and a bright flash light used.

If you remove the belt note its direction of rotation and its routing. Take pics. Or you can just replace the belt. 50K is a bit low miles but the belt (if it is original) is going on 7 years old and they can deteriorate over time too.

While the car is in the air check pad wear and rotor condition. Check the axles and the CV boot condition. Any signs of grease or a split and the boot is compromised and the shaft (both probably) should be removed, cleaned, inspected and if found ok repacked with grease and new CV boots fitted.

renncayman

+1, just what I was about to say. Better replace water pump before is too late!

cds4402

FWIW, I took the car into the dealer, and couldn't replicate the sound. There are no leaks, and no wiggle in the waterpump or any of the pulleys. The belt was replaced 3k miles ago. I don't know if this is the original pump or not, so I have to of course assume that it is. Pad and rotor wear are fine. In fact, they told me the car looks perfect.

Macster

Like I said I was unable to hear the noise.

But if the dealer was unable to reproduce the sound...

Did you drive the car? Did you ride along and provide guidance as to what you were doing how you were driving the car when you hear the noise?

All I guess you can do is keep your ears open and watch for any thing out of the ordinary in case the problem is real and the noise symptom (without or with some other symptoms) returns.

I vaguely recall a problem with some Caymans a problem with a noisy oil pressure relief valve IIRC. From what I (again vaguely) recall the noise it produced was more a click rather than a chirp.

You might do a search or two on this and see what you can find in the posts then read the threads to get more info.