I purchased my 03 Targa back in January and am loving the crap out of driving this car. On slow left hand turns, such as a U turn where you have the steering fully locked, my car sometimes makes a popping noise from the right front suspension area. The front tires are pretty wide, and on that slow fully locked turn, it seems like it is almost pushing against the sidewall making the popping noise, almost like a fully locked differential sounds in a slow locked turn when the diff unloads. It doesn't do this when making a hard right turn. Only hard left. I've had my car up on my lift and can't see anything obvious, and everything seems tight. Is this normal, or where else should I look?

Thanks in advance.

Kyle

 

2 or 4 wheel drive?

 

2 wheel.

 

Not specific to 996 experience, but I'd jack it up turn the wheel all the way to the left and look to see if there are any clearance problems. Rotate the wheel to see if it makes noise unloaded--listen for worn wheel bearing.

Make sure the car is secure and then grab the wheel and wiggle it back and forth top to bottom and then side to side to see if you hear anything.

Then remove the wheel and see if you see any places worn from scrubbing.

Then look at every bushing for wear.

My eyes aren't young anymore, so I would make sure I have the area well lit when inspecting it.

If you are running stock wheels and tire size, I doubt there's a clearance issue--probably a worn bushing.

2 wheel drive rules out a CV joint or driveshaft issue.

 

Time for a 4 wheel alignment to establish a baseline before you get too involved with any changes.

 

This is a normal characteristic of the 9x6 9x7 front suspension. Due to having a lot more toe-out-on-turns, and positive caster (8* where normal cars have 2-4*).It can do this on left or right full lock turns when going forward or usually worse going backwards in reverse. At full lock the front suspension is at max toe out on turns, this means left and right suspension are trying to pull apart going forward and trying to push together going backward in reverse. All the rubber bushings and even the sidewall of the tire are deflected to the point until they can no longer deflect, then the tire slips/hops to relieve the stress, then the deflection/slip/hop starts again...Tire pressure tire compound, surface traction all play a part in whether this " crow hop" condition happens or whether there is a smoother tire slip, but with the front tires not aimed in the exact same direction, tire slip is inevitable.... The cure, don't steer the front wheel to full lock unless unavoidable.