When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
The mechanic (who tends to speak his mind) said that it was one of the quietest 911s he'd been in (hint hint) before handing it back over to me on Monday afternoon.
Since then I've had noises over rough roads but no constant loud resonating rattles. If it had been like this at the beginning I wouldn't have started this thread. I've been watchful for blue smoke and there hasn't been any although I've haven't been forced to apply much throttle when the engine has been cold.
I've replaced the "4" on my avatar with an "H" thanks to my superstitious forum acquaintance And here's why!
Finally... On Tuesday, taking my son to school we drove over the worst section of road round here which ALWAYS caused the car to rattle.. It didn't rattle. I turned to my son and said "Thank god for that!"... and at that exact moment the car was pelted in bird ****! It was either one massive **** that broke up like some kind of comet or no less than six different simultaneous ****s! WTF!
FWIW I have seen a wisp of smoke from my TT at start-up on one occasion, but it was nothing like the cloud of smoke my Mezger GT3 could and would belch on occasion.... always found that smoke show a bit embarrassing when trying to explain to folks "It's really quite normal, they all do this!" and seeing the sceptical looks from the uninformed.....
So you and OP are the first to report then. I havent had an event at this stage but if I do i'll will let you know. I know what you mean about mezger though. It would always drop a smoke bomb in front of a crowd of people and never in private (damn!). And all the excusing in the world was futile going by the body language of those around lol. I will say my mezger thankfully only did it very very rarely....but again usually when I didn't want it to.
Originally Posted by DragonRR
5000 miles down 3 bars but it may have been topped by the main dealer before I took the car at 1800-1900 miles.
EDIT:
Scratch that I checked it on a cold engine, will recheck later or tomorrow.
EDIT 2:
3 bars used at operating temperature too.
I can't quite remember for certain whether it was topped up before I bought the car but I think they made a point of saying it wasn't.
OP, checked my oil today, and at hot mine is showing nearly 1.5 bars down from top at 5000 kms. That said I recall when it was new and I checked it hot just out of curiosity and it was one bar down then so... Anyway all engines use oil, they have to, so I wouldn't worry that much. I'd be more concerned about all those rattles and if it smoke bombs you. 3 bars down at 8000km (or 5000miles) is not bad. I think if you were using 1 to 2 litres per 1000kms like some of the gen 2 997's with the early 9a1 atmos were reportedly using then I would be worried.
For completeness in this tale of 1st world woe I should point out that I missed out a stone flying off the top of a passing lorry which smashed my Windscreen...
On one of my many visits to Porsche Sheffield (where I have a bed) they noticed my windscreen "issue" and insisted it must be calibrated in accordance with Porsche guidelines after replacement. My insurance company agreed to replace the screen but initially refused to pay for getting the screen calibrated at the Porsche dealer. I emailed them the bulletin from Porsche that stated the calibration is necessary and said that as long as they accepted that they, not I, would be responsible for any future accident. Fortunately, after a fairly heated discussion, they caved and paid for the work to be done.. which was fortunate.
Despite assurances the Windscreen fitters turned up with the wrong screen type on the first go and it took over a week for them to source the correct screen form Germany. Following that I arrived at the dealer for calibration and waited the hour or so it was supposed to take. The job actually took about 4hrs because the fitters had trapped a wire behind the camera mount and this had sent the system so far out of line that it didn't provide any reading at all. A damn good job it was calibrated!
As some of you will be now aware I haven't had the greatest luck so far...
A few weeks ago my son noticed a plastic piece of trim was lifted in the back:
I tried to re-seat it but it was bent pretty badly out of shape (you can just about see this in the pic) and some of the plastic had gone white with stress.
I was due at Porsche anyway and ask them to fit a new one whilst I was there. As always their chief mechanic worked on my car and I checked with him that everything had been done including the piece of trim. Of course he said - "yes."
When I got home, a mere 10 miles for the dealership, I noticed the piece of trim sat proud of the carpet just as it had been before. Upon closer inspection it was identical... same white stress marks and bent out of shape. So.. they hadn't bloody well replaced it! I sent pics by email, got on the phone and told them I would be there the next morning for the job to be done properly.
Here's one of the pics I sent:
When I arrived the chief mechanic came to see me and I handed him the part. He said that he really had changed it and despite my incredulous response, stood his ground. I then watched him fit "another" brand new trim piece and we both agreed it was seated properly. It was still seated properly when I got home......
Around the same time as all this I noticed that there was, from time to time, a weird ticking noise from the rear. It only happened when the car was warm and on coarse (not bumpy) road surfaces. It was pretty quiet so I ignored it for awhile. After a week it had become a bit more persistent. I ignored it by turning the music up when it became irritating.
A couple of weeks ago I noticed there was a quiet intermittent rattle from the passenger door. Oh well... it wasn't THAT bad and the music drowned it out as effectively as it drowned out the ticking..
A week ago the music itself started making the rattling manifest itself on the door.. I couldn't turn the *****ING music down because it was drowning out the now almost constant and sometimes quite loud ticking!
I decided that the dealership was going to get the car back and got my eldest son to sit bent double in the voluminous rear of the car to see if he could locate the ticking.... He not only found the source of the ticking (probably) but he also found a bent out of shape loose piece of plastic trim with white stress marks!!!!
It would appear that that the ticking noise came from the large hinge between the two rear seat backs when they flexed.
Sigh...
I returned to the dealer yesterday and left the car with them for an unnecessary oil change (I was advised by the dealer it REALLY was unnecessary!) and a rattle and trim service.
Obviously I now believe the mechanic about the trim. He reckons the base plate under it had shifted a little. The mechanic heard both rattles. They use a CD with white noise on it to run different frequencies through the car speakers which will force many types of rattles to manifest. The door rattle was really loud at a low frequency and the mechanic found that pressing the panel in a particular place cancelled the noise.
I picked the car up yesterday afternoon. The ticking seems to be fixed but although initially I didn't hear a rattle from the door it was actually worse than ever this morning so the car is back in on Monday 22nd Dec.
Finally.. for those of you that are still awake....
I got Paintshield in the UK to put some plastic "self-healing" protection on the car front and sills. Very impressed with the work they did and their attention to detail, it's a shame I didn't do this sooner because I'd already managed to pick up quite a few nasty stone chips on the front but I was still considering handing the car back and didn't want to add more costs on. I got the stone chips touched up before the film and they are barely visible now... Well all except one big bloody chip which I'd missed on the driver's door sill which is now forever protected by a piece of film .
My car is... however... despite everything.... awesome.
My car is... however... despite everything.... awesome.
Understand completely! But. Try not to allow the emotional attachment stand in the way of the inevitable. Historically when things start off bad they generally only get worse so if you can take this one back and get another I'd do it in a heartbeat!
Once you have a new one without these ongoing issues the previous pain will become a distant memory and you will have your pure enjoyment without the frustrations. Just mho.
Understand completely! But. Try not to allow the emotional attachment stand in the way of the inevitable. Historically when things start off bad they generally only get worse so if you can take this one back and get another I'd do it in a heartbeat!
Once you have a new one without these ongoing issues the previous pain will become a distant memory and you will have your pure enjoyment without the frustrations. Just mho.
I have had quite a large slice of bad luck from the very beginning with this car and it has soured the ownership experience.
Most of the problems I can directly attribute to Porsche are with a faulty compressor and rattles and there have been a lot of rattles! The smoke which I've only seen once, imo, is a non-issue.
A couple of weeks ago the car had become pretty solid and I decided to keep the car and invest in the Paintshield protection. The problems since then, whilst irritating, are not massive and in isolation and are no worse than problems I've had with my RS6 C7 and the M5 before that... (I have zero luck with cars!). I am still not regretting the decision but obviously I sincerely hope my luck improves.
Buying a car IS an emotional experience. None of us NEED these cars or need to have ridiculously fast cars, we just desire them. I do have an emotional attachment to this car but that isn't (necessarily) a bad thing imo..