Engine Grinding/Clicking Noise -- IMSB? (VIDEO)
 

Hi all. This 98 Base 2.5L is making a grinding/clicking noise. I'm fairly sure the IMSB is going bad and needs to be replaced. Thankfully the engine has not blown and the car ran right before we started to work on it. Could this noise be from the IMSB? Or possibly some secondary problem resulting from the IMSB such as the chain tensioners?

Video
986 Boxster -- Engine Grinding - YouTube

I am not expert enough to say what might be causing this (several things come to mind but I won't speculate), but that noise is not normal. I'd shut it down and have it trailered to a shop for a professional opinion. At this point, you want to avoid a catastrophic failure that could damage a lot of engine components.

Seems risky to run it, even to provide an audio sample to us. If there is an internal part causing the noise and it hasn't fractured it may be repairable.

I would have a good indy take a look.

+1 on don't run the engine. Tow it to a shop and play the video for them before they crank it.

Just curious. How many miles on this '98?

Sounds to me very much like a timing chain slipping rather a mechanical death rattle.
With me, it still would be to much time consuming work to fix this time of the year ,so i would tow it to a garage.

Sounds like lifters/valves almost...no matter what that's a bad noise!

Could be the starter motor sticking. That would certainly be nice!

Agree,it sounds like a valve. The safest thing to do is have it flat bedded to a mechanic but if it were me, I would look at the oil filter to see if there is any metal in it. If the filter is clean, then I would check the timing with the Durametric. If the timing is good, I would get under the car while its running and use a stethoscope to try to pinpoint where the sound is coming from.