Hello Everyone.

Over the weekend, I backed my 2007 997S out of the garage and let it idle while I was moving stuff around. It probably idled for about 5-6 minutes. I noticed after it got over its usual noisy cold start and settled into a nice idle, I could hear a ticking. It seemed to be coming from the drivers side of the engine.

After I listened for a bit, and determined that with how compulsive I am with this car, there is no way it was not a new noise. I pulled it back into the garage and shut it down for fear something could be seriously wrong.

The next day, I took it out for a easy drive around the neighborhood and let it warm up fully. When I got home, I could barely notice any ticking. It was there, but unless I was listening for it, I doubt I would have heard it.

Am I just freaking out about a flat six making noises when cold? My 4 years with this car have been trouble free. It recently had its 60K check at the dealer even though it only has 27K miles. It passed all tests and inspections with flying colors. You could eat off every surface, including the engine.

I guess what I'm getting to is:

Should I be freaked out? Should I get it to the dealer ASAP? Is there anything else I should check that might help me home-diagnose the issue?

Thanks to all!

 

I think you need to take it to the dealer immediately for a possible acute case of panic "itis"!
You obviously seem to take care of your car well and you love it. Most probably this sound occurs on a regular basis. You yourself note "but unless I was listening for it, I doubt I would have heard it"

Enjoy your car :-)

 

Lifters?? Maybe?? Mine ticks at start up sometimes. But the goes away i believe its the lifters

 

You probably cleaned your ear right before cranking up the car and the sound from the engine was extra sensitive.

 

GREAT responses guys!

I'll keep an eye on it and see if it gets worse...if it doesn't seem to be bad, I will chalk it up to another interesting characteristic of our unique cars.

Just to help make the case that I am not insane...my wife actually noticed it also. She drives a Corolla because she couldn't care less about cars. (Certainly makes my obsession with cars hard to justify around the house.)

 

Most cars when they are cold make all sort of noises. Some cars take longer to warm up. I woudln't worry too much unless it becomes louder and the car begins to perform poorly. Enjoy!

 

A tick is minor stuff all else being equal. You should start having concerns when it begins making bang, WOOT!!!, nyuk, nyuk, nyuk sounds.

If you have an indy technician you trust, roll it by him for a listen.

 

water pump going out?

This post had some people checking out a ticking noise : https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...ise-audio.html

 

Ugh...the water pump noise is definitely NOT what mine sounds like. Mine sounds like the link with the scored cylinder.

I guess I'll take it in and have it checked out. The frustrating part is that my google research has turned up many instances of these engines developing scored cylinders...but no one seems to have a handle on exactly why or how to prevent it. I know that if I am stuck with a $10K+ engine swap with no understanding of why it happened in the first place, I may just sell the car, which would break my heart.

 

Take the internet with a grain of salt. For example, every medical search of some simple symptoms, will always produce Cancer as a result!

 

Open the engine bay and check the serpentine belt! I had a ticking sound a found it in 2 mins. Easy fix.

 

Just to share with everyone, I have a similar ticking noise that I noticed a few months ago that seemed to originate around the oil filter area of my 997.2 car.

What's different is that the engine is fully warmed up at driving temps and when the car idles the tick sound would come intermittently, having no specific frequency of recurrence.

Later I also found out that the same ticking sound can be duplicated if I lightly tapped the gas pedal moving the rpm from approx 900-1000, just in that small rpm range, this is when the tick can be heard.

Brought the car into Porsche of Fremont and they said they duplicated it in other cars and also found those had the same tick, however, "just it's that your car makes the sound more often"...quoting the foreman here.

I'm not a mechanical guy but that explanation made no sense to me and figure that since my car has another two years on the warranty the complaint is documented so if an issue happens I will call them for it.

Side note- the dealer wrote on the service write up that I have a bypass exhaust and aftermarket air filters. I think that's lame as they're trying to cover their tails from something. ( I have a Sharkwerks bypass and BMC air filters )
- my point here is I brought the car into them to point out a problem and instead of fixing it or providing a reasonable explanation, they picked on some irrelevant mod components and documented that I had those installed..

 

Talked with service mgr at dealer. He explained that it is probably normal lifter noise when the car is cold and has been sitting for a while. Until the oil has a chance to warm and flow into all the right places, it is not uncommon to hear a ticking or tapping noise.

So, I will keep an eye on it and if I start to hear it when the car is warm, I'll get it checked out. Besides, if it is scored, and it would require a new engine, I suppose I couldn't do much more harm driving it...besides being stranded somewhere.

Anyway, thanks to all for talking me off the ledge!