2001 Boxster S engine tapping?
 

Please help. 2001 Boxster S, 42,000 miles, ran(and sounded) great until I recently moved from Florida to Kentucky. Had car shipped by shipping company. Went to pick it up, and it ran great for the 5 or so miles to home. Didn't start it for 6 days, and then yesterday when I did sounded as if I had a lifter tapping. Turned off, checked oil, down about 3 quarts. No oil under car, so where did it go? Tapping sound not as bad after adding oil. Not bad at idle, worse upon giving it gas. I haven't driven it for fear of compounding my problem. Temps in the 20s/30s in the AM here if that could have anything to do with it...Or maybe shipped at an extreme angle on the truck? Please help, this car is my baby...:confused:

There are two issues:
1. where did the oil leak from
2.What is causing the tapping.
A visual inspection should locate a massive leakage easily. RMS?Cam covers?Oil filter?
The tapping may be a developing death rattle or minor. Ask for a competent Indie on this Forum and flatbed it there.
You could try inspecting the sump plate and cutting open the filter. Upgrade to a full flow filter ?

My guess is the oil was consumed. What sounds like lifter seldom is, usually its a failing cylinder.

A compression check should be able to help diagnose if you have a bad cylinder that is allowing oil to blow by and be consumed.

I think that it could still be a lifter, but as already mentioned, it seldom is, especially given the oil loss and no visible leak.

Keep us posted.

Erik

Check your intake, maybe the AOS failed?
Check your coolant? Intermix?
check exhaust for signs of excessive oil consumption

Down 3qts is ALOT!

Mike

OK, so oil intermixed with coolant. Head gasket hopefully, or cracked head...Any good mechanics who would be willing to take on this project for me near morgantown ky/nashville area? I would need to take out a loan in order to pay for the repair, so any idea of approximate cost? ( I know, dependent on wether the head or just the gasket, but kind of a worse-case scenario estimate? Like I say, should be (hopefully) just the gasket, as it's been running great...And then there is the lifter-tapping sound...) But not sure it's a lifter, just sounds as if it could be...Sorry, not much of a mechanic as far as these foreign cars go...(or really at all, but if I take it off, starter, alternator, etc, I can usually replace it. I just don't have the tools/ability to work on it. Thanks for everyone's time and trying to steer me in the right direction.

If there's anything I've read on this site, it's that the head gasket never fails on these cars. Sorry bud. Best of luck with it.

Don't count on it.

So, it's not rings, its not in the valve train. A compression test will not diagnose this. You have intermix which means combustion and cooling system pressures are communicating. The simplest (for anyone with any familiarity with the M96) , and cheapest answer is the oil cooler. That's the unicorns and rainbows answer, in other words, possible but not likely. The most likely answer (to the uninitiated) is a head gasket, but those are bullet proof on the M96 so strike that one out. That leaves you with cylinder failure or a cracked head. Not uncommon in this engine. But which one? Well, pull the plugs and look for the clean one. They are all dry and dirty? It's unicorns and rainbows, a good day. One is clean and wet? That's the bad actor. Pull the head over that cylinder and check the cylinder and the head. One of them is hosed. So grey beards, how'd I do?

The car is an 01, I'll bet you 50 bucks that it has a cracked head. If it were an 02 I wouldn't make that bet.

There's 4 more just like it here now, two more inbound and we just shipped one back home to Canada and another to California. This mood of failure sends us way more cars than IMSBs these days.

My Florida truck leaves in 10 days heading this way :-)

Its probably because so few people understand the dynamics of this failure. Most every car I see has been molested by someone who thought it was the heat exchanger, or some other easy part to swap.