Porsh-uh

Ok, I'm thinking I'm probably an over protective owner, but I can hear a distinctly audible ticking noise coming from the engine that is almost certainly the valve train. This is the first Boxster I have ever owned or had any real experience with so I am wondering if this is pretty normal or something I need to be concerned about. Disappears over 2500 rpm, but sitting at a stoplight it is very noticeable. Checked the oil and everything seems okay...

Porsh-uh

Does anyone else hear this on a regular basis? Not askng for an expert opinion here, just wondering if anyone experiences the same thing.

sbelles

Could be timing chains. They are pretty noisy.

Porsh-uh

Hmmm... that a definite possibility. Can you hear them pretty clearly with the top down through the passenger side air intake?

Porsh-uh

I am really suprised at the lack of response here. No one else can hear the timing chains clearly at a stop with the top down?

insite

my car ticks a little all the time; always has. when i run the hell out of it at the race track, it ticks a lot. used to make me nervous. i got used to it. i now have 130k miles on the odometer and it still runs great (albeit tickity tackity).

PaulStewart

If I put my ear near the passenger side vent, I can hear ticking on my 2001 986. It's been there for 67000 miles so far....

Porsh-uh

Well that makes me feel a lot better. Thanks insite. Do you track it at Road Atlanta? I really miss being in the South.

Porsh-uh

Thanks Paul. I don't have to put my ear up to my vent to hear it, but I guess some are just louder than others.

judd944

mine makes that sound too.

Macster

does is cyclic. Pistons go up and down. Fuel is injected under some pressure every other time piston comes up to the top of the cylinder. Power is generated every other time piston at top dead center (or close to it). Spark plugs fire. Valves open and close along with the pistons rising and falling. Exhaust gases are emitted at the end of every power stroke.

The engine rocks/vibrates some and it improper contact between engine or engine component and something else, a ticking noise can be generated.

And so on.

A distinct ticking noise can be a valve lifter that has somehow lost some of its ability to retain hydraulic pressure. I bought one of these and took it apart (and have pictures) and they are an amazing piece of hardware. That they work at all is cause for surprise. That they work so well for so long is simply astounding. A cam lobe can be worn. A lifter face can be worn. A fuel injector can be noisy. There can be an exhaust leak.

Even the serpentine belt can have a bad spot that as it passes over an idler roller or past the tensioner roller causes an audible 'tick'.

More years ago than I care to remember a used pickup truck I recently bought developed a distinct ticking noise. I finally got to where I could stand it no longer and ended up pulling the carb and intake manifold off the (V8) engine. I found the camshaft bearings shot, so bad that the engine had almost no oil pressure/flow to the lifters. I ended up pulling the engine and rebuilding it. Afterwards, so quiet more than once I attempted to start engine with it already running, idling.

More recently, ago a co-worker bought a car that had been turned in for noise and the noise proved to be a broken valve spring. However, even after it was fixed the original owner wanted nothing more to do with the car. My co-worker bought it with just a few hundred miles on the car.

Yet a more recent second-hand experience is a Carrera developed a tick and was taken back to dealership for diagnosis and a collapsed lifter was found to be the cause. And in this case too the owner objected to the car having 'failed' so early and refused to accept the car. I toyed with the idea of buying it but would have taken a huge bath on my current Porsche's depreciation and passed it by.

Depends upon the loudness and other characteristics. Most engines emit 'ticks' that are indistinct. One hears them -- humans like to find patterns in almost everything, to the point sometimes we think we have found a pattern wher ein fact none exists -- then one doesn't. Or they go away very quickly after an engine start. Or the come upon when engine nice and hot. (My '02 Boxster occasionally 'ticks' in a non-distinct way when good and hot from a good drive of some length/time. I found stepping on the clutch pedal then releasing it fixes this tick. It is the clutch friction disc vibrating on the input shaft.)

A tick that is loud enough to intrude to make itself known probably needs to be investigated by someone with some experience in this area. This person may be able to dismiss it as you being overly sensitive (that's a good thing in this case) and not really a tick per se, just perhaps due to your over active imagination.

Or maybe not.

Some experienced listening with perhaps a mechanic's stethescope to pinpoint the location of the noise as much as possible is required. If for instance the noise is found to be coming from underneath a camshaft cover the cover may be removed to check springs, spring keepers, lifters, camshaft lobe wear etc.

OTOH, you or whomever might find a bad injector, or a loose spark plug, or a bad spark plug coil, or anyone of a number of rather less serious reasons for the noise.

Sincerely,

Macster.

MikeBat

I beieve that it is hard to diagnose your ticks without a sound file. We are all just guessing. I know I am.

Mine guess ...it would seem that some of the ticking that folks are talking about here are brakes cooling down too. Especially those who just got off the track.

The expansion and retraction of heating and cooling metals makes distinct sounds.

If it was my car, take it to a garage that you trust, and let the mechanic give you his 2 cents. Hopefully your mechanic knows the later water cooled models, not just the air cooled.

Better safe then sorry. Good luck!