Help! Loud sucking / blowing noise by font passenger tire - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

ryanpw3 · 03-29-2010, 08:38 PM

Hi All,

I hope this is normal and I just haven't noticed it, but the last few days I have noticed a rather loud blowing noise while inside my car. Upon further inspection it is coming from the passenger side behind by front bumper. It is sucking air rather forcefully into the radiator on that side, and then appears to be blowing it back out through the vents in the wheel well, back into the front passenger tire.

My questions are:
1.) I have owned the car for about 11k miles (15k miles on it now), and have never noticed this until the last few days. I doubt I have missed it until now. What is it?
2.) Is it normal?
3.) If not, what can I do to get it fixed.

Thanks so much in advance for your advice!

RW

jcb986 · 03-30-2010, 04:58 AM

It sounds like a radiator fan...it maybe going bad...

eightsandaces · 03-30-2010, 05:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jcb986

It sounds like a radiator fan...it maybe going bad...

Or if you're lucky it just needs a serious cleaning, you would be amazed what accumulates in there season over season.

ryanpw3 · 03-30-2010, 06:10 AM

Either way, in the event the fan is going bad, something like that should be covered under warranty given that I only have 15k correct?

Bobiam · 03-30-2010, 06:30 AM

You didn't state the year of the car, but I assume it's a 986. Every answer above is correct.
These things are like vacuum cleaners sucking up road debris into the radiators all the time. If you are lucky you can clean it out with a long nozzle vac tool, but most of us take the bumper skin off now and then to really get to it for a cleaning. You can seperate the AC and radiator coolant coils while it's apart and clean it further. (plenty of instruction threads available). But you may have a bad fan and that's self-doable if you have the time and patience.
BUT, keep in mind that these fans are loud. If you only notice this sound when you are standing by the front end, and not in the driver's seat, it may be normal. Right and left should sound the same.

JAAY · 03-30-2010, 06:44 AM

It's Mega Maid - She's gone from suck to blow! :dance:

Boxtaboy · 03-30-2010, 07:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JAAY

It's Mega Maid - She's gone from suck to blow! :dance:

LOL. I was gonna say, the thread title is funny.

ryanpw3 · 03-30-2010, 08:11 AM

I thought it was funny after I typed it, and decided to leave it :-)

I can hear the passenger side fan while in the drivers seat. I have an '08 987. I hear no noise from the same location on the drivers side when standing outside of the car. Am I understanding correctly that both fans should be on of off at the same time, rather than one turning on and the other side remaining off? I may call my dealer to see what hte options are.

Thanks again!

Lil bastard · 03-30-2010, 08:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ryanpw3

I thought it was funny after I typed it, and decided to leave it :-)

I can hear the passenger side fan while in the drivers seat. I have an '08 987. I hear no noise from the same location on the drivers side when standing outside of the car. Am I understanding correctly that both fans should be on of off at the same time, rather than one turning on and the other side remaining off? I may call my dealer to see what hte options are.

Thanks again!

Anytime one fan is running, both should be. If not, you either have a bad fan motor, or more likely, have blown the in-line ballast resistor. The fix for the resistor is to remove bumper/fender lining and cut the old one out of the electrical harness and splice the new one in. Very easy job except for the 45 min. spent removing/replacing the bumper and fender liner.

Cheers!

tonycarreon · 03-30-2010, 04:36 PM

this thread got me to thinking...

i have never heard my radiator fans come on, only the one behind the passenger seat. any way to test the radiator fans? i think i remember someone saying to turn on the a/c and that causes them to start up, correct?

jcb986 · 03-30-2010, 05:02 PM

I wanted to test mine...I live Florida and I haven't heard them at all. Just wonder if they are working. Must be, car hardly ever gets over 185.

SStiebers · 03-30-2010, 07:51 PM

Sorry, off topic but..........Yes, i'm glad someone else said it. Admit it, a lot of you were thinking it! Probably worse, but didn't put it on screen. It just shows what a classy bunch this is.

ryanpw3 · 03-31-2010, 06:47 AM

I called the dealership and they confirmed that the sound I hear is normal. The guy I talked to said he was not positive, but he thought that the 987 may only have one fan in the front on the passenger side and no fan on the driver side. Can anyone confirm? I have never heard a fan on the drivers side.

Boxtaboy · 03-31-2010, 07:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ryanpw3

I called the dealership and they confirmed that the sound I hear is normal. The guy I talked to said he was not positive, but he thought that the 987 may only have one fan in the front on the passenger side and no fan on the driver side. Can anyone confirm? I have never heard a fan on the drivers side.

Nope, there's a radiator on both sides in the 987 too. See parts diagram below. Each part, for example, part 1 is a radiator... there's a part 1 and part (1) in parenthesis. This means there's a left and right. When the fans come on (part 2) in the diagram, both sides should come on at the same time. You can test this easily by just turning on your a/c. When the a/c is on, both fans should be running.

http://www.pelicanparts.com/PartsLookup/HTML/987_USA_KATALOG/105-15-Frame3.htm

gerrygug · 03-31-2010, 09:02 AM

I thought the sucking sound was NAFTA