MattBurns

Posting this up there for anybody else who may have this issue. I had a minor yet concerning chirp at hot idle and just off of idle on my 996. Didn't matter if the clutch was in or out, or if you were in neutral or in gear. Another interesting note is when I shut the car off the noise would go chirp chirp chiiiiiirrrrrppp. I unhooked the belt and started the car up long enough to tell the noise was still there so I knew it wasn't from an accessory or the belt itself. I did a search and came up with a thread over on Renntech where somebody mentioned a loose spark plug. I had plans to update my motor mounts today anyway so while I had it in the shop I decided to pull the coils and check the plugs. Every. Single. Plug. was hand tight at best. I pulled them out and visually inspected them, they looked decent from a wear perspective so I put them back in and tightened them properly. Put the coils back in and took it for a good run and sure enough, the noise is gone. So I figured I would post this in case somebody else has an issue like this they can find it before a plug loosens up too much and blows the threads out. Oh, and the new mounts made a huge difference in how the car feels, well worth the money to upgrade those.

bplein

Fantastic news.

lowpue

yep....this happened to me 7 years ago

808Bill

Thanks for sharing!

wyovino

Good information. I never would have guessed that.

nychase

Your timing is hilarious. I have a friend with a C2 01 and he had the same chirping sound. Local Indy was convinced that it was was the clutch and flywheel fouling and recommended exploratory surgery (he's been putting off an IMS on this one due to the clutch being good). Anyway, he drives the car home not looking forward to the next weeks 6k bill and decides to change his plugs since he has purchased them anyway. Sure enough, two of the six were hand tight or less. This all was just figured out Monday. I guess that's a PSA....check your plugs if you hear an awful chirp and fear the worst.

lowpue

Mine happened after a PPI...they never tightened the plugs....needless to say, I now take my car to the shop that found what was chirping and not the one that did the PPI.