My car has 23K miles and did not have a rattle ( at idle nor at higher revs) until last night . Here is the story: After a 5 mile drive while parking in my garage I noticed (still sitting in the car) that an engine rattle had developed. No cells or any warnings, no engine / car shake, full oil pressure, nothing different or unusual that might have indicated a problem. From outside the car the rattle was very noticeable, also some white smoke started to come from both tail pipes ( see video). Decided to grab the video camera. Rattle seems to come from the bottom - front of the engine. I moved the camera to the passenger side behind the rear wheel, you will hear a better sound bite of the noise. I then left the camera running and gently dabbed the gas pedal and raise the revs to about 2,500 rev a few times. Rattle continues and an additional sound starts to appear just before I switch the engine off. Input / comments? Car will be flatbedded to the shop tomorrow morning.

 

Do a search for IMS noise if you are not aware. This scared mee too when i first got my car. It's standard for the turbo from what i hear.

-Ed

 

Sounds pretty normal to me- but it's hard to tell in a video.

Also, the "white smoke" is just water vapor.

 

Only thing that seems odd to me is that is just started all of sudden, according to the op. Mine has always exhibited this rattle. Perhaps the oil has sheared to a point that the noise is now more pronounced. How old is the oil? I know my sound is a quieter when I have fresh oil.

 

Sounds normal to me also. Did you send it out to be looked at?

 

The oil is 250 miles (2 months) old, I am using the standard recommended Mobil 1 oil . I did not have the rattle nor smoke until last night ie NO rattle whatsoever. The car is being flatbedded to the shop tomorrow morning. Good news per my shop is that there are no cells, no shake rattling or rolling and as you can see in the video, the car starts up immediately. No fluid leaks and no weird smells either. I am just paranoid perhaps but part of the job of a driver is to notice the "changes" (sound / smells/ feel etc) and investigate WHY they suddenly pop up.

 

Definitely IMS noise. I wouldn't even bother with the flatbed. Almost all 996tt and 997tt exhibit this noise. There is even a thread here that a guy tore apart his engine to see if anything was wrong. Everything looked fine except some normal wear on the IMS bearings. He ended up replacing all the bearing and the IMS shaft. Well guess what, the noise came back after a while.

You probably had this noise for a while and it just got to the point where you could actually hear it. The smoke is normal too. How long have you had the car and how much mileage have you put on it?

 

Sounds normal to me too. Annoying but normal.

 

Thanks, Have the car for 2 months and only done 500 miles since then , car went through PPI fine was purchased from a Porsche Dealer, it runs great but it just did not have that noise until I drove the car home last night. I even had the car re-checked by an independent Porsche shop here in town who found to car to be in good condition (after they tightened some nuts and bolts etc). So I am just making sure instead for tearing the engine up or something . Note: I have previous Porsche car ownership experience so I am somewhat familiar with the quirks etc and I have been reading the forums A LOT. I will know more in the next day or two. Still keeping fingers crossed. Luckily the flatbed only cost me 70 bucks this time ...

 

This is mine with the ims rattle. It's annoying but not a big deal.

 

I'd be curious on the outcome here since it sounds pretty normal to me too. The biggest factor you mentioned is that you hadn't noticed the rattle before. I didn't quite hear the shutdown sound clearly -- but I do get an occasional rattle when I shut the engine off that I think is coming from the cat.

Regarding the smoke, are you talking about at first startup or when the car is idling? I have had smoke come out at startup before (not often) -- I've heard that can be normal as well. Also, I've found that the exhaust can be much more visible depending on how warmed up the engine is and the environmental conditions of the day (e.g. it's a relatively high humidity cool day in the SF Bay Area today).

Good Luck!

I know what you mean about being paranoid about any changes in the senses. "What's that sound???" It drives my wife nuts. Come on guys -- how many of you have been a traffic light and heard a sound from the engine that really concerned you -- only to realize that it was the POS idling next to you?

 

Thanks Dragonman . I am feeling better already... but I still will have the car flatbedded to the shop tomorrow ... just because it happened so suddenly.. Just pucker anxiety I guess

 

Sounds pretty ok to me. That the noise came on suddenly may have just been you finally noticing it.

When started cold and possibly under other conditions the engine controller activiates the low valve lift feature of the VarioCam Plus system.

This makes the engine noisier and a bit rougher running.

The smoke upon startup appears to be oil smoke but nothing scary. It was not too bad, brief, and with no other signs of trouble...

Later I spotted water vapor coming from the exhaust pipes. Normal.

Really, the engine sounds healthy.

Oh, a bit of noise when you shut off the engine can be -- if you tell me the tranny is a manual -- some harmless clutch disc/tranny input shaft/gear rattle. If a manual transmssion next time you shut off the engine depress the clutch pedal before and see if the noise is affected.

(If a Tip equipped car the engine can rattle a bit as it slows down and the various internal rotating parts experiencing the normal uneven loads can cause the engine internals to make a bit of a racket. If a Tip then if you can turn off the engine in Drive and see if the engine noise at engine shut down is diminished.)

In fact, the clutch disc/transmission input shaft/gears can rattle about at other times too. This most often shows up with my 03 Turbo (with over 78K miles on it) when I pull in and everything's up to temp. But when I step on the clutch the rattle noise goes away.

Oh, another thing, cars and engines too get 'noisier' in cooler weather. If it has gotten colder where you are recently you might just be hearing the affects from colder temps and how these cars/engines sound when they're cold.

Absent any other signs of engine trouble I'd say the noise is normal and it really doesn't sound that bad.

If you want to see if it can help, the Porsche techs tell me using Swepco 502 oil improver:

http://www.swepcousa.com/lubesite/lubepdf/j03776.pdf

can help quiet a noisy engine some. They tell me it is most helpful for engines that are not used often and as a result are particularly noisy upon startup.

(I had some analyzed: It contains 100ppm molybdenum (the molybdenum sulfide the link above says the stuff contains).

My local Porsche dealer sells this stuff for around $10 a bottle. It takes IIRC 1 and one half bottles to treat the amount of oil these engines carry about.

Now I've tried the stuff in both my 02 Boxster and my 03 Turbo and I can't notice any difference. But I use my cars every few days -- alternating between them -- so neither one sits more than 1 or 2 days between uses unless I'm out of town then one car gets left behind and sits sometimes for a week or more.

But in your case your car sits around more so you might notice an difference and for the better. But I can't promise you anything.

Sincerely,

Macster.

 

I am feeling much better... To your question, yes it is a 6-speed manual and as you know it's gotten a bit colder here but the video was taken after a 5 miles (easy) ride back home so the engine was hot.

 

My car makes the similar rattle as well. When I start in the morning or after a long park it doesn't rattle (when the engine is cold) but when the engine warms up it starts rattling a bit. I've noticed the rattle getting a little louder when the oil gets dirtier (2k-3k miles after oil change) and gets better after the oil change. I do use the same oil as you , 0W-40, and change every 2k or 3k depending on how hard I drive. I'm no expert but I've poked around the forums and seems like the slight rattle is normal and nothing to be worried. So I started ignoring the rattle and getting much better at it. No more sleepless nights . Best of luck with the check-up tomorrow I'm sure she'll be fine.