TMc993

2014 base Cayman, 32,200 miles, PDK/PASM car with no modifications from stock.

I apologize in advance for the vague nature of my description of the symptoms of this problem. It's very difficult to describe.

Basically, I'm getting a worsening "thump" or "creak" which appears to be emanating from the right front corner and can be felt through the steering wheel.

Started about six months ago with a almost imperceptible little "bump" as I turned left out of my garage on the first start of each day. More obvious on colder days, only present on the first pull-off.

Here lately, another noise has been added, this one on vertical movements of the front axle. The noise occurs inconsistently when going over speed tables and similar elevation changes in the road at slow speeds. When it happens, it sounds a lot like the noise you hear when a spring jumps out of its perch in older cars, just not as loud. It's more a creak or clank, only occurs on low speed vertical movement of the front axle, and never on flat surfaces like parking lots.

To be clear, it I is NOT the bumping noise one gets due to camber on low speed full-lock turns.

Any ideas before I head to the shop?

TIA

Terry

conceptDawg

I can think of a couple of things to check off the top of my head:
1. The LCA bushing could be slightly loose where it meets the chassis.
2. One of your drop links could be bad/broken.

You can check either by jacking the car up on that side only, taking the front wheel off and grab the brake rotor at the 9 and 3 positions then turn the wheel hard to make the steering work. If there's play in the suspension you'll see/feel it there and should be able to narrow it down. If your drop link is actually broken you would be able to just see that immediately. It's the thin vertical bar running right behind the rotor and connects to the sway bar at the bottom.

And as a disclaimer, I'm completely new to this working on cars thing. Just since buying my Cayman a little over a year ago. But I love doing it, so I'm learning quickly and soaking up knowledge from others here.

Soul Performance

If it only occurs in vertical movement I would start from the outside of the control arm and work your way in/up (with the car in the air) i.e ball joint, control arm bushings, shock mounts, sway bar bushings.

My best guess would be that it is your sway bar mounting bushings or end links, or a combination of both that is causing this noise. I had something very similar to what you described and it took me quite a while to find out that the sway bar was moving around just enough in the bushings to cause a clunk.

Evan

TMc993

Thanks guys. I'll take a closer look at it.

TMc993

Two months passed after this post and the noise/bump/snap got worse. It was particularly bad when turning onto an elevation change where the road dropped away from the car and the suspension unloaded then loaded back up.

I finally called my dealership (Hennessey Porsche in Alpharetta, GA) and set a time for them to look at the car. Arrived and was met by a service advisor (Kyle) who, after listening carefully to my description of the problem, asked me to take a ride with the shop foreman (Chris). I drove while Chris listened and used his phone to record the noise and once I had managed to elicit the noise a few times, they put me in a loaner car and sent me on my way.

A day later Kyle called and said they had isolated the noise to an upper strut bracket. Initially, they simply torqued the bracket down, which eliminated the snapping noise, but apparently, they weren't satisfied with the fix, ordered a new bracket and installed it. I've driven approximately 300 miles since and no noises.

My car is a CPO car, thus there was no cost to me for the repair.

I must say that despite all of my doubts about "stealerships," Hennessey did a great job and got me back in my car quickly.