Mercedesben

I left Maryland in 12degree weather to drive down to the Rolex 24. The car was groaning loudly from the engine compartment for the first hour of the trip. It sounded like the noise a power steering pump makes when low on fluid. I checked the coolant topped it off. The car is still groaning for the first 30 min even in a 70 degree cold start. Does anyone have any similar experiences I'm just about ready to take it to the dealer before I drive another 1,000 miles home. I think the water pump is going bad. My car has 40k miles and it is an 03 with basic mods. Umw flash awe exhaust etc. stock turbos.

neanicu

Take serpentine belt off and run it briefly with the engine cold. You need really basic tools to do this...
If the noise goes away,it's something belt driven like the water pump.
If the water pump is bad you might(not in all cases) see some seepage if you look from the bottom of the engine.

Mercedesben

I think I am going to bring it to sunset porsche on Monday.

Macster

I'd not have driven it an hour with it making that noise.

Best get it to a dealer ASAP and without any driving. A flat bed tow truck can save you way more than it costs.

Kevinmacd

Might be your power steering pump. There were some issues reported something to do with the check valve!

Mercedesben

Power steering pump. Fluid low slave cylinder might be on the way out.
It's fixed now no groaning.

Macster

It is not fixed. There has to be a leak. Best to find it.

BTW, You're lucky the power steering pump is ok. They do not like to be run low in fluid.

One failure mode at least with some models is a high pressure valve fails and routes too high pressure fluid to the rack. This overwhelms the seals and fluid leaks out. It is caught by the dust boots.

The pump gets low on fluid, makes noise. By the time the owner takes the car in the pump is ruined, the rack is ruined and have to be replaced as does the offending pressure relief valve and its line.

If it is the clutch slave cylinder this should just be replaced. No reason to wait for it will not get better. The fluid will leak out from the front fluid reservoir and the fluid is Pentosin and it is not nice to rubber.