Screeching Boxster

[smeech]

Drove it to work today (four mile journey) and the noise only lasted for about two minutes and then seemed to run fine? Oh and I hadn't read this until now - my heart is racing i'm that worried now!

Do you know why the noise would just stop? A guy at work said it may have just been a moist belt slipping? Think he was guessing though. I'm going to check the water level and make sure that the pump isn't leaking and causing this slippage. Hopefully this won't be too costly - and there was I thinking of selling it!

[ARModen]

Probably a slipping belt or loose tensioner. The alternator runs on the same belt, along with the water pump, and AC compressor. If the water pump was locked up, you'd definitely lose the belt, and then get the alternator light.

At 80K, it's probably due a new belt soon anyways. That would be both cheap and easy to replace. It's sort of a pain to get to, but it might be a good idea to pop the front engine cover and check to make sure it's not more serious before you put too many miles on it.

This is about what the engine should look like if you have the cover behind the seats off.

[smeech]

Thanks for your reply. I've found a diagram and instructions on doing just that. Going to take the cover off start the engine and see what happens. I'll check the belt to see if it's too worn and probably just change it anyway - it's only £12 $17 (ish) so might as well if the cover is already off. Am I ok to turn everything by hand to ensure it still rotates ok?

Originally Posted by ARModen

Probably a slipping belt or loose tensioner. The alternator runs on the same belt, along with the water pump, and AC compressor. If the water pump was locked up, you'd definitely lose the belt, and then get the alternator light.

At 80K, it's probably due a new belt soon anyways. That would be both cheap and easy to replace. It's sort of a pain to get to, but it might be a good idea to pop the front engine cover and check to make sure it's not more serious before you put too many miles on it.

This is about what the engine should look like if you have the cover behind the seats off.

[smeech]

Turns out the noise is on the front right wing. Possibly the air con fan! Not quite as serious as I thought. Air con - off!
Presume this is easy to fix?

[gschotland]

If your water pump is original, seriously consider changing it while you're in there doing the belt. As you'll read on this forum pumps are known to fail around 70-75k miles.

I'm not especially mechanically inclined, but was able to do both the pump and belt and change the coolant without too much trouble. The pump and belt cost me a total of $240. Porsche coolant from the local stealership was $70. Paying a shop would have been close to 3x the cost.