Yeah, we need to catch up one of these days. Maybe to a Turbo gathering with one of the PCA CNC events. I think there's at least a half dozen of us turbo - owning Houstonians that are active on the forums.

 

Those foam spaces just soak up some vibration. They wouldn't cause any clunks.. Mine were disintegrated and my indy said I didnt need to replace. I noticed slightly more vibration but within 5 minutes you cant tell the difference anymore.

@Brainz Have you checked your front strut mounts? Thats the usual suspect of the low speed clunks. Last week Whip350 also mentioned the rear lower control arms bushings can dry out (typically on garage queens). I just had to replace the lower control arms on my Land Rover for the same thing. Those cars are so heavy the bushing fail and lead to low speed clunks going over any bumps.

@jeebus you are hardcode doing all that on jackstands. Im get claustrophobic. Luckily @Wayne Smith 's garage is open for business...

 

@TheBruce. Thanks for the confirmation on the orange foam spacers. I agree they are so insubstantial as to make me wonder why Porsche even bothered. Good to hear others run without them.

Your suggestions for the clunk are also appreciated. It could be rear LCAs. I dont think it's front strut mounts as I'm pretty attuned to that noise.

It may also be pad knock/rattle on the front brakes. I replaced them recently (and the clunk started thereafter). Note that I did not include the anti-rattle buttons that stick to the backs of the pads. I also reused the large antirattle spring on the fronts as the replacement pieces in my kit were not correct for the turbo calipers.

As my clunk is not super loud and the noise doesn't seem to "hit" through the chassis like suspension issues, I'm beginning to suspect it may be the pads. That's easy to test just by swapping the old pads back in.

 

Time for a color change. Testing some samples today, definitely like blues the best.

 

Finally got the car out where I could get a decent picture. I reallly like the wheels and you can't beat the price. I'd like to paint the background black.

 

That's looks excellent! Really goes well with the grey.

 

I am in awe at how considered this line of thinking is. Too often we go through life like sheep (especially in this consumption based lifestyle that dominates us all). Well done Pete.

 

Still chasing down a clunk that I get when I back out of my driveway. Now I'm starting to hear it on very uneven roads and sometimes when going over railroad tracks. Next thing to get switched out were the sway bar bushings which I did today. Simple job. Tightened up some of the subframe bolts while I was under there. It's been raining forever, so I'll test it out tomorrow. Only thing left after this will be the front strut mounts and those should be coming in tomorrow or the next day. If these two things don't fix it, it might be one of the new arms/ball joints that is bad and that would p*ss me off.

 

I can't recall if you did anything about transmission mounts, but if not, it's possible the transmission is shifting under weight transfer or load and making that clunk sound. I have a right rear clunk too which is probably a Trans mount since it sometimes happens just when letting out the clutch or could be a strut top mount (as that's what fixed TheBruce 's similar sound). I bought the Street version of the trans mount inserts from Torque Solutions and am going to press out the old bushings and press in the new bushings using my hydraulic press, which saves about half the cost of buying complete new mounts. Haven't been able to do this as I've been putting a motor into my 928 and then trying to sort it out for the past few months, but should be driving it tomorrow and then can get back into doing work on the rest of the fleet.

 

Yessir, trans mount was replaced with OEM Porsche. It tightened up the the drivetrain very nicely along with the new front driveshaft flex disc but I had the clunk before and after that job. New engine mounts have yet to go in... been slacking on that. I blame the weather.

The clunk is 100% coming from the front and I can hear it and sometimes even feel it through the floor boards. It occurs reproducibly when the front wheels are at different elevation eg when transferring from street to driveway/vice versa. I double checked the tie rods and the ball joints, everything there torqued to spec. It clunks once coming out, then again whenever I hit a bump going down the street, and then generally don't hear it again until the next driveway. Now it seems to also be happening intermittently over very rough roads. It's annoying.

 

Jeebus, do you have the anti-rattle buttons on the backs of your brake pads in the front? I left them off when I did a recent brake job and seem to be getting a front clunk/rattle over harsher bumps. It sounds much like shock tower bushings (and may be), but the fact that it started after the brake job is a strongly suggestive of where I need to look.

That said, as you know, I also did a bunch of work on the front axles prior to the brake job, so its possible something on the suspension needs to be double checked. Hopefully will get around to checking in a few weeks. Too much going on right now...

 

Yeah, I kept the brake pad dampers. I cleaned them up and them popped them back into the caliper. I used a little brake pad paste on the backs of the pads and all seems to be quiet. I am going to re-do it all though, to use Hawks ceramic pads. I already have the pads... I don't have the energy to stay out in the garage very long in this heat.

How did your axle stuff turn out? Did you ever replace the axle that was causing your vibration?

Let me know when you want to meet up - would be great to compare/contrast DIY strategies and outcomes. Learning a ton about this car with each passing project...

Speaking of - I had my windshield replaced today. The old one had a big ol' rock chip in it and many, many smaller ones. It looked like crap and I wanted to replace it every since I bought the car. Wound up using a local shop rather than Safelite. They have replaced Porsche glass before and (according to them) even do installs on Porsche race cars. Ok, I took the bait. I wound up going with AGC glass on their recommendation which is a Japanese co that also is one of the OEM suppliers for Porsche. The glass is perfect with all OEM sensors/antennas. I would give the install a B+. A tiny bit of sealant where there shouldn't be but overall they did well and the price was excellent. Lifetime warranty for glass defects and labor.

Also put in a deposit to have it wrapped... planning to have it done next week. Stay tuned!

Old chipped up glass:

 

We definitely should meet up. Probably need a couple more weeks as I'm swamped with projects right now -- have a guy fixing up my garage and then moving on doing a bunch of house renovation stuff. While he's doing most of the work, the preparation/organization has been a PITA, and hence I've not had too much time to mess with the Turbo, including the axle. But it's on the list when I get my garage back.

I did take the Turbo for a drive yesterday, and my suspension clunk/rattle is either brakes pad rattle and/or my brake dust shield is loose/making contact with something. I need to buy new anti-rattle clips (not the pad buttons), as I reused the old ones when I did the Hawk Ceramic (which seem to live up to the hype for street driving, BTW). The clips got bent/sprung, and I suspect they're too loose. I also removed my brake dust shields and gave my uprights a very thorough cleaning when I did the brakes, and I cant help but wonder if I failed to torque the dust shield bolts on one side -- that's what it sounds like with the window down.

Your car is looking good. Can't wait to see it with the blue wrap!

 

Good luck with the reno stuff, Brainz!

I swapped out one of the front strut mounts. This is a real pain in the *** job because you need a special tool (gland nut wrench) to hold the top washer and keep the shaft from spinning in order to unscrew the top nut. I knew this going in, so I bought one from amazon, but unfortunately it was just a bit too big so I had to file down the ends. Even with this, it was impossible to keep the gland nut wrench on while trying to undo the top nut with a box wrench. I saw Jim Wong's video here where he used an impact with a strut socket.... which I had available... and I decided to try this (perhaps against my better judgment). See video clip here at 5:49:
Well the top nut eventually came off, but it needed a LOT of work with the impact. I don't think I could have gotten it off with a regular wrench. Unfortunately, the tip of the PASM cable snapped off so I had to repair the wiring. Luckily I had 4 old PASM struts in the attic so I sliced off a donor, crimped a couple butt connectors, and I'm happy to report the PASM function works totally fine.

The clunking noise is gone on the driver's side, where it was worst, after replacing the strut mount, bearing plate, and bump stop. It's still there a little bit on the passenger side. I'll tackle that one at another time.

I also replaced my nearly new semi-metallic pads with the Hawks Ceramics, tidied up the calipers, and cleaned the wheels. I bed the brakes in and couldn't tell a difference between the two pads in terms of initial bite and pedal travel, so I am happy so far. Hoping that the amount of dust produced is cut down.

And in far more exciting news, it's going in for the wrap tomorrow! I chose Avery gloss intense blue, which is somewhere between mexico blue and voodoo blue in the Porsche lineup.

 

Nice. Could you see any visible cracking on the strut mount? Glad you got it sorted (at least halfway). Looking forward to seeing the wrap!