creichard

I am hearing relatively loud "banging" noises from my front suspension area on my 06 - 997S. I can also feel the banging reverberating through to the pedals. The cars seems to have lost its tightness in the front and even passengers comment on the looseness and banging coming from the front suspension / underbody area.

The noise is best produced at slow speeds, less than 20mph, when I go over a series of bumps/dips. It really simply sounds and feels like something has worked loose and is wobbling in its joint/seat. Like an A-arm is loose or the stabilizer bar or the tie rod ends, soemthing is freaking loose.

The dealer has replaced both track rods on the power steering assembly as well as the passenger side shock absorber. Still, the problem persists, and is getting worse.

Can someone point me in the right direction on this, PLEASE!!!

gota911

My guess is it could be caused by a loose bolt on either the sway bar or on the control arm. If that is the case, you could either re-torque the bolts or take it to the dealer and have them do it.

Carrera Mike

+1. there's actually a TSB for this where they have to replace the nut for the anti-sway bar with the right thickness to properly grip all the linkages threads.

TSB # 3/05 4078

uzj100

This could be more than just the aforementioned sway bar issues and it seems to be affecting '06s. I will soon be having the majority of my front end components replaced as involves shock towers etc. Will post up all pertinent details when the repairs are concluded.

Carrera Mike

They have a TSB for the shock tower noise too. I think what your shop is doing is doing those two TSBs same time.

I should take mine too in soon for this TSB/waranty

uzj100

Thanks for the tip, Mike. So let's see, I've gotten a new MAF sensor, door moldings replaced, new water pump and soon new front end components in 17K miles of driving. Dan's fried a belt, gotten new mufflers and a water pump. Another member in our PCA chapter has also gotten the new front suspension done. All are '06s. So much for Porsche QC, huh?

RonCT

The right direction is to bring it to your dealer as the car is still under warranty

uzj100

It's going next week. My point is, these things shouldn't be failing at such low mileage.

BobbyB

We would like to think that nothing will go wrong with our cars, but the parts are man made and QC knows that there will be so many bad or failing parts per 1000. Doesn't relieve the pain when its YOUR part that fails - Hopefully the numbers of reported failed parts here are the exception and not rule.

Carrera Mike

UPDATE:
As you all know I lowered the car recently with H&R springs. With that, I could positively say that the noise is now gone! I've driven it for over three weeks now and have not heard the noise particularly over spots on roads I drive where its very pronounced (i.e. over this rail road tracks while driving slowly over it).

I had this exact same noise as described by creichard. I've searched for this noise relentlessly. I removed the bumper twice to spot tie head light washer hoses which at first I thought was causing the noise since they were loose behind the bumper. I tightened several suspension parts based on some of the TSBs. I also taped and spot tied some of the vent & drain hoses behind wheel well liners. But the noise persisted!

Just want to let everyone know that changing the springs solved this problem for me. Though I dont know exactly what the culprit was

Edgy01

Shock towers were probably loose,--while doing the springs, they got retorqued.

Carrera Mike

I sure checked the torques of those 6 nuts on those shock towers and even the top hat spring washer of the struts. they were all tight. Thanks though

997_rich

Bringing this thread back alive. I have a similar noise light clunking coming from the front strut area. The noise only manifests when going slow (~25 mph) over rough road. I have rough road(light potholes) on the entrance to my nieghborhood so I hear it every day. The noise sounds similar to the plastic handle of a screwdriver lightly tapped on shock tower or something. It seems to happen when the car moves violently from side to side.

I checked the 6 nuts that hold the struts in place at the top. I also checked the sway bar links at all four corners by yanking on them with force and no clicking. I also checked the sway bar link nuts- well torqued. I also checked all of the other suspension linkage nuts and bolts- all torqued well.

What I did find is that I can rotate the spring in the strut relatively easily (when the wheels are off the ground of course). I've attached a photos of the spring rotated into 2 positions. I was somewhat surprised by this. I've never dealt with a strut that didn't have some light preload on the spring even in the full extended position. I was also surprised to see that the lower part of the spring doesn't have a rubber pad (like I've seen in most struts). The lower part of the spring rests directly on the metal tray. When I rotate the spring I can hear grinding from some of the small rocks that land in the bottom of the spring tray.

I took a look at the nut at the top of the strut that holds the strut together thinking that it wasn't fully tightened but I ran out of time.

I'm 95% convinced that this is where the noise is coming from. When the wheel travels down it takes all of the force off of the strut and for a split second a gap is created under the spring. When the weigh of the car comes back down it closes that gap and "clunk/click".

I have a 2005 but it looks like my car was produced after those recalls for the front struts/swawy bar links. I might be taking the car in soon to the dealer to address this but I wanted to feel confident about the root cause before I ask anyway to trade out my springs etc.

Can anyone help with a few questions:

1. Can anyone rotate thier springs in the strut when the car is jacked up?

2. Does anyone have a rubber liner/pad on the bottom of thier spring inside the spring tray?

3. It looks like there's some kind of lock nut(s) at the top of the strut that i'm unfamiliar with. I ran out of time before I could look too closely. Can anyone shed some light on those?

4. also has anyone diagnosed/addressed a similar problem?

orcfromthesouth

Will check.

I have a 2008 Carrera and I get a clakety clack noise similar to what worn U joints make on front wheel drives as you turn a slow and sharp corner. But if I try to emulate it by zig zagging, nada. It seems to happen when going up a slight ramp either going forward or backwards (like exiting my driveway).
Did a quick hand check of the suspention components and nothing seemed loose. The car has 10M miles, and I am the recent second owner.

997_rich

Really, the big question in my mind is if anyone can hand-rotate the spring inside the strut while the car is jacked. Knowing that answer would help greatly.

Thanks