So I got under the car today, removed a couple covers and had a little look around. Everything looks pretty damn good, all the bushings and mounts I could see looked in good condition. The driveshaft (cardan) had a vertex sticker on it dated about a year ago, front axles didn't have any play, just a bit of oil around the oil filter area, etc. Overall it looked much better than any other car I've had.

Though that should be good news, I was hoping to find something out of order that I could attribute my "clunking" to, so I'm a little disappointed.

The clunking only happens if I'm stopped or close to it and floor it, no matter what gear I start in. It'll do it about 95% of the time, but if I don't completely floor it it seems to be about 50% of the time. It happens within a split second of flooring it and doesn't seem to be related to shifting as it happens even if I start out in first and has no shifting to do. Most of the time it's one clunk, sometimes it's two, and very rarely (mostly if taking a turn, such as turning onto another road) it might do it three times.

I really want to say it's the CV joints but I'm not sure how to check them. I noticed no play when trying to shake the axles, and the boots looked great with no signs of leaks or anything. My only other guess is some kind of mount that is loose/worn and letting the torque bang things around.

So how can I check the CV joints and know for sure?

 

Take it to a good mechanic have him give you an estimate and evaluation of whats wrong. Honestly you can't come to a forum with sounds and let us guess on what the noise is. Not trying to be a D*$& but rather trying to save you time and agravation on what who when where.

It could be a number of things Tranny, Axel, wheel bearings come to mind...tie rods suspension..sway bars etc

Then after finding out what it is...decide if you want to take it on or if its worth it to let the mechanic do it.

 

Thanks for the advice, but I'm not gonna take it.

Not trying to be a dick either, but I'm not asking for anyone to "guess what the noise is". I'm posting my symptoms, what I think it may be, and asking for advice on how to check if it is what I think it may be. I try to describe the symptoms as best as I could incase it might sound familiar and point me to something else to check. I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty, and I honestly can't remember the last time I've let a mechanic to anything more than mount tires and do an alignment to any of my cars.

I don't mean any disrespect, but this forum would be a lot less active if everyone had your mentality of telling people to just take it to a mechanic. A few months ago I replaced the transmission in my prius, with no transmission or hybrid experience, but thanks to a useful post on priuschat I was able to do it my self and save over $2k. But the pest part was the feeling of accomplishment.

 

WOW man JUST WOW on that line about being less active thats a pretty uncalled for and low blow, we all get our hands dirty on here dont jump to conclusion's so fast. What I meant by taking it to a mechanic since you didnt get it the first time and might I mention your NEW here and your first posting is asking a lot of questions rather then ADDING TO THE FORUM which is what its about. Sorry a bit of a rant.... is to get some FREE ADVICE rather then filling this board with sounds of what is this what is that. I NEVER implied for the mechanic to fix it I stated that was your choice read above...I'm simply saying have him check and then you will know what it is GOT IT?? BTW nice job changing the tranny on the prius I tip my hat to you sir BUT THIS CAR IS NO PRIUS!!

But Hey do what you want man your ride your life bro

 

Thanks, bro.

But you misread that line "about being less active". Obviously people on this forum do get their hands dirty. But like I said, if everyone just "took it to the mechanic" then this forum would be less active, no?

And yes, I know I'm new here and asking lots of questions. I'm sorry I don't have anything to contribute after less than a week of ownership. My contributions usually involve me posting some symptoms I had, and eventually how I fixed it. I would also try and help others out if they asked a question and I thought my input would help.

The thing about mechanics is a lot of them just replace parts until stuff gets fixed, and they also offer no guarantee on their "diagnostics", which isn't free btw. So why pay someone who probably won't be accurate anyways? There's not that many Cayennes around here so most mechanics would know much less than this forum does.

So I'm sorry if you're somehow offended, but next time you try to learn to do something, why not hire someone else to do it for you?

And yeah, it's no prius, but I also have an M5 and an X5, and this is like a mix of both. But somehow a "hybrid" sounds more challenging.

P.s. I have nothing against you personally, I just can't stand people who say to take it to a mechanic like it's something I never knew existed. Obviously we all know we can take our cars to a mechanic.

 

think that implied me no? also hiring someone else to do it for you?? dont know what that means. ANYWHOOO goodluck with it..and feel free to post more questions thats not my rant here man...Im saying when it comes to "clunking" sounds its best to get it diagnosed If you were close I would be more then happy to help you out but we cannot diagnose from a computer screen thats what im trying to get across here. It sounds like your particular vehicle has a host of issues from what you have posted. And I understand you have many vehicles and have worked on many but this is a different vehicle then an M5 and X5. Im in NY and even I have mechanics that will listen to a sound for free and its very expensive here compared to where you are. Now if your saying there arent any experienced mechanics thats a different issue

Doesnt sound like you put the vehicle in the air from what you have described from your other post so put it in the air set some Jack stands which will give you a better chance to check bushing since the vehicle isnt on LOAD... take off the wheels and inspect the bearings and CV joints if you have tools a pry bar will come in handy at this point to check bushings.

The sound also could be an engine mount...think about it.. the sound is close to it or when you start to take off meaning the motor shifts motion at that point a bad bushing or stabilizer under the hood will cause this

hope this helps and yes ive built a few cars myself and gotten my HANDS DIRTY but sometimes you gotta weigh your options your time is worth money as well but I have experienced the satisfaction of fixing it yourself several times its fun

 

In related news, I found this post after more searching and reading:
From here: https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...ng-slowly.html

This may very well be my problem. My front tires are practically new whereas my rears have very little life left. I got my new tires in yesterday but was going to wait until the tires more a little more (to get my money's worth hah). But now I'll probably get them put on tomorrow so I can at least eliminate that if nothing else.

 

I didn't get around to getting my new tires put on today,but I did change my engine and differential oils. I also had my first encounter with the local Porsche dealership, and what I experienced today has led me to vow to never take my car there (story after the jump).

When I removed the fill plug on the front diff about 1/2 cup of oil poured out, I thought it was odd as the front was lifted higher than level and in my experience that would mean it was overfilled. But after draining all of it, I was unable to fit a whole quart in there before it started coming out of the fill hole (maybe about 1/2 cup of oil shy of a quart). So is the car supposed to be lifted at a higher angle to fill with the specified 1.1quarts or might there have been some oil left that didn't drain out?

Back to my experience at the dealership. I asked the parts guy for the engine oil drain plug for an 04 Cayenne S, he writes "04 Cay S" on a post-it and asks what size engine. I hesitated for a second thinking it was odd that he didn't know that there was only one engine option for the Cayenne S, but I didn't mention it because I probably wouldn't know every detail about every Porsche (especially one almost 10 years old) if I worked there, so I just said 4.5 and he added that to his post-it before going to the back.
At this point I'm thinking how dumb it is to not have a computer at the parts desk instead of using post-its.
After about 5 minutes he comes back with a drain plug and an "attached" washer (held on by the threads). I thought it was odd since I'd heard of people replacing just the washer and I thought I read there was two drain plugs. But since I barely know this car and assumed the dealership would know better then me, I just paid the $5.40 and went on my way.

Fast forward an hour and I start doing the oil change. I have an oil extractor and wanted to see if it could suck out all the oil like it did on my other cars. My tubing was too short as I was held up by the dipstick tube before the tube bottomed out, but I figured I would see how much that could get anyways (about 1 gallon). Went under the car, and bam, totally different looking drain plug.

I call up the dealership and tell them mine looks different, one guy talks to the parts guy that helped me and says that was the only one that showed up for my car, get off the phone and do some googling, find that it's for a v6. I call the dealership back and tell the guy, he says "oh yeah we just figured that out and you don't need the plugs just the washers", I told him I wanted to replace the plugs too and he tells they're open till 6 if I want to come get them. I tell him I have no way to get there since I already drained some oil out of the engine and I'm blocking in my other cars. He tells me he has no way to get the parts to me since it's 5 o'clock and his delivery guy already went home. I ask if they don't have any vehicles on the lot, the guy says he has his own personal vehicle (in a tone that implied he wasn't about to use it, which is fine). I ask if they don't have loaner cars that they give to customers while their cars are being serviced, he says my car isn't being serviced it's in my driveway. No ****in **** sherlock.

At that point I ask to talk to the manager and ask him if there's anything he could do. He says no and says I can just re-use my old ones. I tell him it's ridiculous that such a small mistake will make me never take my car there for service, he says he's done talking to me and hangs up.

And yes I was being polite on the phone as I know yelling etc doesn't get anything resolved. Also, I only live 2 miles from the dealership. Is Porsche really above customer service? I really don't think what I was asking for out of line, I've done it myself at my job (not only driven out to a customer's house to rectify a mistake, but also used my own vehicle on occasion, no matter how small it may be).

/rant