Strange dilemma
 

The joys of winter.
My car lost garage privileges as my fathers truck has the dash out. So the car sat outside on the first two days of frost. Ran fine yesterday and also ran fine today. The clutch had zero feel today though but I'm accounting that just to the cold.

While sitting in traffic a few minutes into the drive a loud sound began and did not stop until I parked the car and stopped driving.

The sound was louder on the left of the car and sounded as if it was from the front end of the car.

It sounded like a dust buster.

The car is a 2000 S with around 90k miles. Runs fine and will drive again in a bit to see how it does.

What's really strange is that last night the house woke to a strange vacuum like sound...

It was louder near the front of the house rather then the back where the car is though so I don't think that's related.

Did you abuse a dust buster in the past? Its ghost may be coming to haunt you.

If the sound is coming from the car, my first thought was one of the cooling fans. If the bearings are going, it's possible. The colder weather will make it worse.
As for the noise in the middle of th night, it reminded me: Many years ago, the radiator cooling fan was going bad on my car. The bad bearings were causing it to drag, putting a strain on the fan relay. The relay became fused, making just enough contact for the fan to randomly come on by itself in the middle of the night. I heard the sound, but because it was echoing off of the back fence, I thought it was behind the house on another street. Battery was dead the next morning because it ran all night.
Of course that's just a wild stab but thought it was worth mentioning.

It is a strange coincidence to have happened last night, it sounds like the high speed fan but I've never had it come on in the cold and don't think it's usually that loud.

But it does sound similar to the high speed fans when the car is hot.


I had turned on the defroster and rear window heat for the first time in forever... ?

There is a radiator fan on each side of the front and an engine compartment fan on the passenger side rear. When the fans activate the fronts have two settings, a low speed and high speed. The high speed fan is loud and if you are in a dirt field parking area will actually kick up dust that ends up on your car. It does sound like a dust buster but in fact can be a dust creator. Perhaps the sound you're hearing is the fan.

What would be the reason for fans coming on in the cold? The temp was not even at 180 yet.

Okay so I started the car and the noise was not present. It however did start up right after.

With a little driving the noise died down.

Now the front left fan, which is the side that sounded loud has a kind of rattle to.

I'm assuming it's something wrong with this front left fan. I'll see if it makes the noise again.

Sound didn't return.

Left fan is blowing while right is not. Maybe a short or something.

The flat six is running just fine though so I guess I'll look more into it later.

Have you checked the fuse for the fan that isn't running?

Did you turn on the windshield defroster? If you did, that would activate the A/C and the front radiator fans on high.

Shop hard on CL and see if you can find a good outdoor car cover. You can't leave the Boxster outside unprotected. There are laws against that!

Strange dilemma
 

I keep ac on all the time.

But did turn on the front defroster for the first time since buying the car.

And don't worry! The car was under a car cover all night and will get its garage spot back tomorrow.

Ahhhhhhh..... I should have figured.

Dude,

You're in Greenville!!! I bet the leaves are still green :-) We have had 20* here in NY already.

There is a fan in the pass died vent as well for cooling the engine compartment. You may be hearing that?

Definitely was from the front of the car.

I'm guess it was just the usual fan with a cold bearing or something. It just threw me off by being cold out!

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10...0d8cae3765.jpg

Our weather is bipolar. First frost but it'll be 80 by the weekend.

Hard top on already!!!!! You drive in the nude or something!

Get the top down and wear a hat :-)

There's always the possibility that the maid left the dust buster in the Porsche and you've never heard that noise before, and now the family is haunted by the very thought of the noise of a dust buster? These things happen to the poorest of us. Maybe not you.

There is a rattle coming from the front left air vent. Once air con kicks on its rattling and even shaking the whole front bumper however the noise is now much quieter.

So that's exactly what it is.