Hi Everyone,

A while ago a weird noise started coming from my 2009 Porsche 911. It sounds like 2 metals hitting each other. In the beginning the engine need to be warm and when I hit gas pedal it was starting. More I accelerate, louder it was getting. And it comes from back right hand side.

I took it to the service and they told me they couldnt see anything wrong with the differential or anything else. They said, it's most probably coming from gear box and they need to replace the PDK. But I highly doubt it that this noise comes from the gearbox.

I took my car from the service and stop driving the car as the noise got louder and now neither the engine needs to be warm for it to start nor I need to hit gas pedal.

So I would appreciate if you can share your thoughts and ideas. Also here is a link of the video I recorded.

 

Boy it sounds like something. I think the video is too short to really get a gauge on what's happening. It takes a few seconds to pick out the sound, and then it kind of comes in and the video ends.

• Can you ride with a friend and record for longer?

• Does the sound increase / decrease relative to throttle response?

I read that you said it seems to get louder when you go faster, but does the frequency of the clicking increase as well? or is the clicking fairly constant, but the volume is louder?

• When you slow down, does the sound go away?

• Does it ONLY occur when the car is in motion?

• Oil and other fluid levels all good?

• Any notable change in oil temps since this occurred?

• Does it occur within a specific RPM range?

• Does it happen at IDLE?

Have you crawled around underneath and jiggled anything around? Exhaust cans are all tight? Nothing obvious (an exhaust bolt, etc) that could be rattling somewhere, but appears to be fine when the car is at rest?

Lots of questions, I know - but in order to help, I think more info would help others to help you.

- Dan

 

Dear Dan,

Thank you for your reply. Here are my answers

• Does the sound increase / decrease relative to throttle response?
Yes, not directly relative to throttle, cause sometimes I don't know when or how, noise stops for a while.

I read that you said it seems to get louder when you go faster, but does the frequency of the clicking increase as well? or is the clicking fairly constant, but the volume is louder?
Both VOLUME & FREQUENCY increase

• When you slow down, does the sound go away?
As soon as I take my foot of the gas pedal, it stops. Also if I set the gear to N, it also stops it

• Does it ONLY occur when the car is in motion?
Yes

• Oil and other fluid levels all good?
Yes

• Any notable change in oil temps since this occurred?
No

• Does it occur within a specific RPM range?
No, it's not related to RPM

• Does it happen at IDLE?
No

Have you crawled around underneath and jiggled anything around? Exhaust cans are all tight? Nothing obvious (an exhaust bolt, etc) that could be rattling somewhere, but appears to be fine when the car is at rest?
We took it up to lift, we didn't see anything wrong, misplaced, broken or hurt


It definitely comes from right side and just noticed when I make left turn the noise goes away. I'm thinking maybe main shaft or suspension might be the problem.

 

Mainshaft feels like you may be headed in the right direction- have you seen this video? The sound is similar to my ears, but sound in your video is brief & changing, so it's hard to be certain.


There is a 2nd video online where he tears down the transmission and finds a tooth from 1st gear mainshaft shorn off and banging around in there.

Not the best news if true, but on the bright side it sure doesn't sound like your motor dropped a bag of marbles either. I wonder if when you're turning left, whatever is catching & clicking is just swinging out of the way the errant part.

Could you run the car on the lift and see if you can narrow down the sound that way? (Like in the above video)

Let us know.

- Dan

 

Well I've seen this video and the sound he gets there is very similar to the one my car has. Although we cannot hear it when the car is lifted. So that's why I'm wondering if it has anything to do with the suspension. Anyways I'll drop the car to the authorized Porsche service tomorrow, they say they cannot start investigating before 4-5 days cause they are too busy. So I hope to hear from them in about a week. On the way there I'll try to shoot another video and capture the sound for a longer duration. I'll keep this post updated for future references.

Thanks.

 

Ok I dropped the car to the local authorized service yesterday. They said they will try to do the inspection within a week
On the way to the service, I recorded another video as promised:

 

It almost sounds like something is loose and banging around like a broken muffler mount or heat shield.

Good luck and I hope it's minor.

 

On a different car, I had a weird noise like this. It seemed to come at higher speeds. It turned out to be a trim piece on the roof that was loose and would resonate with the engine or vibrate/flap with the wind at higher speeds. However, at a stand-still, you could not visually see that the piece was loose at all. Check all trim, especially trim that would be in the flow of air when moving.

 

Yes, it sounds like an external part is loose and vibrating against the chassis. Good luck and keep us posted.

 

Any update?

 

I'm at Porsche service right now. And they fixed my car. I took a 30min test drive and the issue was gone. They say that they re tighten every bolt of suspension and the noise is gone. I'll see if it will reproduce anytime soon.
The technican was so nice to me and they only charge me 200bucks.
Must be my lucky day. I hope I will not face the same problem again though.
Thank you guys for taking interest and sharing your comments/experiences.

 

Very interesting. I thought that ensuring all parts, nuts, bolts, etc. are part of the 30/60/90-scheduled maintenance. Was your car serviced by the dealer?


Did they tell you what nuts and bolts were retightened?

 

It would be nice to know which bolts were loose, so we can go and check our cars. I'm glad it wasn't a big deal!

 

Did you also happen to ask if the banging parts did not damage each other?

 

Well that's the thing. They don't know what was causing that noise. I'll get a service report for them and ask them about what exactly they have done, which bolts etc.