Vibration in steering only on Warm Days - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

Glass · 05-23-2010, 01:14 PM

What did you fing it to be?

I have the same problem on my 99 with 46000 miles. When I lift the car and push the tire in and out on the top is has a very slight clunk you can feel in your hand. I think its the lower control arm ball joint as I pulled the wheel and found no play in the bearing.

m208334 · 05-23-2010, 04:59 PM

The bearings checked fine. I am waiting for another warm day to diagnosis the problem. I have about 36K on the car. This is only the second set of tires I have had on the car, so it is still possible that I have a bad or flat-spott

ed tire. 5 year old tires should be replaced, but I wanted to fix the suspension problem first.

Let me know what you find.

Glass · 05-25-2010, 12:24 PM

I replaced the sway bar bushings... not it. I repleaced the sway bar end links...not it. I replaced the lower control arm...not it. Now I still have a very slight clunk when pushing the wheel on top towards the inside of the car, so the only thing left is that wheel bearing. It appears that the slight play transmitts trough the steering feeling like a clunk. I have the bearing on order and it looks like a pain to change.

RandallNeighbour · 05-25-2010, 01:09 PM

I have the bearing on order and it looks like a pain to change.

That would be an understatement. It takes specialized equipment too... the part is cheap but the labor involved is something like 3 hours per bearing.

m208334 · 05-26-2010, 01:06 AM

Glass, Does your problem only exist on warm days?

I have not looked at the bushings on the lower control arm. I am still perplexed that the car is fine on cool days, but on warm days the driver side front suspension knocks like crazy at very low speeds (5-15mph).

Glass · 05-26-2010, 08:59 AM

yes only warm days, it gets after you drive it. It does not do it for the first 10 miles or so until things get warm.

jcb986 · 05-26-2010, 03:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by m208334

Glass, Does your problem only exist on warm days?

I have not looked at the bushings on the lower control arm. I am still perplexed that the car is fine on cool days, but on warm days the driver side front suspension knocks like crazy at very low speeds (5-15mph).

What part of the US do you live in...State. Did you buy the car new and did you do anything or hit anything like a big pothole in a few months before your noise showed up.

m208334 · 05-27-2010, 06:17 PM

"What part of the US do you live in...State. Did you buy the car new and did you do anything or hit anything like a big pothole in a few months before your noise showed up."

I live in the Missouri. I bought the car new 11 years ago for my wife (and lost my corvette), but she hardly drove the car. About 2 years ago, I finally decided to drive the car and I really enjoyed the car. However, I returned to my Acura in the summer when the car became noisy. Since my son is 15 and starting to drive, I need to have the 3rd car in working order and plan to drive the boxster as long as the weather is not icy.

Update: Yesterday, the temperature was 93 when I left work. The problem started about 10 miles later so I decided to see my mechanic. The owner rode with me in the car (Autos of Europe ) and during the ride he said the noise was metal on metal. He called this evening and said he thinks he fixed the car but is not going to charge me until I drive it for a while. He said I had some lose/broken heat shields. He also told me my suspension is perfect and bushings are good everywhere. I will let you know if this fixes the problem. I am interested to hear why he thinks the outside temperature affects the heat shield.

My Site with one radio code contribution to Porsche Boxster users (after my own frustration) and a lot of my odd java programs: A2DVoices If you ever need a quick algorithm or calculation for cars, I might be willing to donate my help.