New 987.2 owner with Q's (intermittent clatter, alignment, rear hatch alignment)
 

I purchased the car last weekend with 36K miles on it.

So far it seems to run well but a couple things...


1. I'm 90% certain the car has an aftermarket exhaust and/or intake. Can anyone point me towards pics of the stock units installed so I can compare?

2. Is there a tuner/OBDII/whatever for sale that will allow an owner to get into the ECM etc to look at the tune and all of the fun stuff? (Hoping for a BT dongle with a windows app like my motorcycles?)

3. There is an intermittent clatter/tick that changes frequency with RPM. I've only had it a couple days but it "might" only be happening when I have the AC off. I can get it to stop/start with minor adjustments of the throttle. I can ALSO hear the valves/valvetrain and while it may be a valve it's certainly one that sounds different from the rest and again... it's intermittent. It did not do this the first two days. In that time I put about 150 or so miles on it. (No guesses here... Plenty of hopes )

4. The alignment is a bit off. I'd say the steering wheel points about 3 or so degrees right. Dealer says they put a new tire on it. Wheel does not look new. No damage on any wheels. The tire they put on the car is the same size as the other but not the same brand/compound/speed rating etc... "Looks" like a lower quality tire. TPM says there are a few pounds difference in the pressure at the front. (bent Sway Bar link and/or tie-rod?)

5. The Alignment of the rear cabin lid is also slightly off. The bottom/rear right corner touches the body panel next to it. I plan on re-aligning that. What is the best way to slightly loosen the hinges to get that done? Does this indicate a significant chassis issue or do some of the Caymans just kinda settle that way?

1. https://www.panjo.com/buy/stock-exhaust-2012-porsche-cayman-s-987-2-75369
2. PIWIS but it is kinda pricy.
3. Unknown. Lifter noise, valve train...
4. Best way to check is on an alignment rack. Bent sway is unlikely.
5. Rear hatch should be true with even gaps all around. I never had to adjust mine but it is probably reasonably simple, just like a hood adjustment.

Thanks for the answers. I really appreciate it. This is an amazing car and I'd love to get it all straightened out :).

3. If it's a lifter what's the best course of action? Also... It's intermittent. It just plain comes and goes. I can certainly hear the valvetrain at very small throttle settings. This sound is in addition to that. I feel like if it was a lifter it would be consistent or wouldn't be changeable with the throttle. I may have to go take a ride but I'm pretty sure that if I open the throttle a touch when it's happening I can make it silent. Maybe something with the variable valve timing setup?


4. Maybe it was for the older 98x chassis but I read somewhere that the swaybar end links (not the swaybar itself) are a little thin and can bend, and cause alignment issues. Basically when they bend it would cause a pre-load/cross-weight at the ASB.

Valve clatter might indicate a worn cam chain guide but that would be rare with only 36K miles on the engine.

As Topless suggested, it could be a lifter. A collapsed lifter can be replaced with the engine in the car but the cams need to locked via a special tool (that you can fab yourself) and then the cam cover needs to be removed. It's not a fun job due to the tight spaces, but it can be done.

If its intermittent, I wouldn't do anything invasive until you know for sure exactly what the problem is. Seems like additional trouble shooting is needed to isolate the source of the ticking sound.


The sway bar ends should be really easy to check. Just take a look and see if they are bent or damaged. If so, the stock sway bar ends are easy to replace. My guess is that its not the sway bar ends.

Does the car drift right or left when driving straight? Any other symptom of mis-alignment other than the steering wheel being off?

If the only symptom is the steering wheel is off, then the front tie rods need adjustment to bring the steering wheel back to center when the front wheels are straight. There is also the chance that the front tie rod(s) is damaged/bent/worn and that is why the previous owner couldn't get the steering wheel aligned straight. Any alignment shop should be able to check this and adjust it correctly (if that is all that is needed).

I have no idea why someone would put a new tire on to try and correct this problem (unless I have completely misunderstood the problem).

Thank you for the answers and time :).

3. I'm headed down to the dealership on Saturday to have them align the car and listen to the tick along with a couple very minor other things. I'll report back on it :).

4. Nah it pulls to the right and the wheel is aligned to the right. It's not much. It's not like I'm fighting it so it doesn't kill me or something but it does want to go right. A firm grip with the left hand is all that's needed. It pulls a little harder over bumps.

My guess is that it's been doing this for a while, it ate one of the front tires, and instead of doing an alignment the dealership just slapped a new tire on it.

OR...

They looked into doing an alignment, realized some serious stuff was bent and slapped a tire on it and crossed their fingers. They wrote they would do an alignment "as needed" on a sheet of paper indicating what they would do after the sale for me. I'm hoping that takes care of it.

ticking can be a number of things:

- noisy injector - get them serviced at rce or similar. easy.
- stuck lifter - there's a cleaning product you can run through the engine, otherwise an invasive fix.
- piston slap - bad news. will also present as excessive oil consumption (as oil weeps past scoring on cyl walls).

i've not tried it, but apparently some listening with a stethescope can isolate where the noise is coming from and help determine the cause.

futher, this is 'internet common knowledge' for the m96/m97; nut sure if you have an m97 or direct injection?

Thanks for the response Radium King.

It's an M97 I believe... the car is a base model.

Also...

Last night on the way home I paid a bit more attention to the noise and there doesn't seem to be a lot of rhyme or reason as to when it ticks and it seems to NOT be changing with engine RPM sometimes, but sometimes does. It's kinda hard to pick that detail out as it generally goes silent with a couple percent throttle opening. After hearing it a bit more it sounds maybe more like something plastic. A bit less sharp of a sound than two metal bits clattering against each other. Again... totally intermittent and does not sound the same as the valvetrain "sewing machine" sound. Obviously that puts it in an entirely different class of possibilities if it's plastic :).

Either way... A service tech will take a look on Saturday. I'll report the findings for anyone that's as curious as I am :).

An 09 has the IMS-less 9A1 engine.

Understood :). That's partly why I bought it. Not for me.. but for the possible next owner.

I also understand that the IMS isn't a "huge issue" really... but it's scary for some.

given that previous owner may have been at your car hard, you might have a lightweight flywheel in there; they'll ping and rattle. does noise change with clutch in vs out?

and yeah, 09 boxster kept the m97, but the 09 cayman got dfi is how i think it went. apparently the dfi engines had some teething issues, but i'm not versed in that at all.

Negative. The 2009 Boxster and Cayman 987.2 both got the completely redesigned 9A1 engine with excellent internals. The 2009 Base models retained the throttle body FI while the S models moved to DFI. In 2010 all 9A1 engines moved to DFI and gained a few ponies in the process, at least on paper.

I actually think the 2009 with 9A1 internals and throttle body FI is a great combination.

Could be. I'm new at this but I thought the S (3.4) got DFI and the base (2.9) did not. I'll look into it and get back to you :).


It does not change with clutch.

The only way I've been able to affect it is with small application of throttle. But it doesn't always stop then.

Again I'm new to the car but it doesn't seem to rev super quick on downshifts. I'm probably just used to motorcycles though.

I'll have the tech listen to it... and I'll have until Saturday at the least to keep listening to it :). I'm sure I'll figure it out. I'm hoping that they put it on a lift and let me step under it for a few seconds...



Also...

1. It does indeed have aftermarket pipes at least from the header back. I couldn't fit my head under there far enough to see the header. I don't know what type... but it's basically just a pipe that goes almost straight back to the center/rear of the car with a small "cherry bomb"/"Glass Pack" style "muffler" on each side. It sounds good to my ear above about 3500... but below that it has a pretty significant deep drone at least with a slight incline. That said... My ear likes over square engines with proper race pipes so... there's that :).