frisbee91

Drove to work this morning, and the car was running normally. When I got to work, I noticed a noise coming from the engine.

I shot this video, then shut off the engine. It was hard to ID where the noise was coming from, but sounded like the back of the engine, in the area of the belt.

Then, I went to re-start the car (briefly) and it wouldn't start. It cranked weakly, like a bad battery.

Tried again, and it (barely) started. While running, the gage showed about 14 amps.

1999 996 C2 Cab.

Help!



SEE UPDATE POST BELOW

soverystout

Alternator going bad? When you get home, pull the serp belt off and spin the alternator, water pump, ac compressor and see if anything is really hard to turn or makes a noise.

RPMulli

Sounds like the alternator to me as well, or it might be one of the idler/tensioner pulleys

frisbee91

Do you think there is a risk of damaging anything further by driving it home? I'd love to get it back to my garage. Might have to jump start it. It's a 20-minute drive.

Macster

Flat bed the car to where it needs to go. If the belt fails the water pump stops and the engine can suffer from overheating.

If the water pump is the source of the noise a failed water pump can come apart and damage the engine.

Flat bed the car.

Sincerely,

Macster.

frisbee91

UPDATE:
I borrowed an automotive stethoscope and poked around a bit. Here's what I found:

At the Alternator and the Power Steering Pump, the squeal/rattle is very loud through the stethoscope. This is also true at the idler pulley between them. At the Water Pump, all is quiet. Couldn't get very good access to the crankshaft pulley, but on the motor housing nearby, all is basically quiet.

It's actually a bit louder at the power steering pump, but they are close together and share some mounting, so it's difficult to tell.

Now I'm considering driving it home so I can replace the alternator and/or power steering pump myself.

Any thoughts?

logray

One suggestion often given is to remove the serpentine accessory belt. First mark the routing of the belt before removal (draw a diagram so you don't mess it up when you reinstall it).

With a cold engine and no serpentine belt, run the car for 15-30 seconds, just long enough to id the noise.

If the noise is gone, certainly the noise is coming from a pulley/bearing/accessory.

Rotate the various accessory pulleys by hand and check for unusual noises & play.

+1 to Macster's comment about H20 pump being much more serious a matter than the rest of the accessories, and a flat bed trip is cheap insurance if it is something more serious.

geetee

If its the PS pulley, make sure you look at a lot of diagrams before you take it apart. It has to come out through the back and...possible have some spare parts ready.

frisbee91

Took off the airbox to get a better look. What's wrong with this picture???

logray

"Houston, I think we have a problem"

frisbee91

So then, I popped off the serpentine belt, and the idler pulley fell off in my hand(see pic). The bolt holding this idler has sheared off (see pic), but the pulley remained in place, trapped by the belt and the tensioner pulley.

Looks like an easy fix, once I extract the broken bolt.

So happy to find this is an easy problem to deal with

As a side note, I continue to find these cars to be reliable and surprisingly easy to work on. Even with a broken pulley, the car continued to run. Removing the airbox is one bolt and a clamp. The tensioner pulley has a nice big nut to get a wrench on, and plenty of room to swing the wrench. Releaving tension and removing the belt takes seconds.

Still loving this car!

logray

That one is going to be tough to remove.

RESIST the temptation to buy a cheap broken bolt extractor tool. REPEAT, don't wedge a cheap bolt extractor in there! Spend some time and get some advise on how to get that stud out of there.

You might consider replacing the belt and idler pulley, and at minimum you'll need to order a new #14 bolt to replace the broken one (depending on engine serial number and model year):

http://www.autoatlanta.com/porsche-p...-05/101-10.php

cardsrule

ugghh that's not going to be fun...

speed rII

Try to turn the bolt with some small flathead screwdriver. Some times these are actually quite loose...

Stephen Tinker

Frisbee - before you congatulate yourself, be very gratetful and thank your lucky stars that its not on a Boxster where this bolt is only accessible through the rear porthole !!
Last year, the same bolt snapped on me when I was torquing it up after I installed a new pulley. There is no room to get a drill in there (even a side mount drill) so I had no way of getting an extractor / easy out in the space available. And the bolts are Loctited in the case on assembly. My only saving grace was the the bolt had sheared just proud of the casing, so after heating up the bolt with a torch to break the Loctite, I managed to get a needle nose punch and painfully tap it round untill I could get a lockable clamp wrench on the remains and unscrew it. It took me about 3 hours and lots of knuckle skin - but the alternative would have been to remove the engine to get to the bolt.
I hope you have an easier time than me seeing that your bolt has snapped well down the threaded hole.
Best of luck.....