Hey guys, glad to be joining the community here and will be sticking around for sure. Posts on here have guided me (I believe) in the correct direction and I've just purchased an 03 Boxster with a fresh engine rebuild, IMS bearing done, bores clean, no debris or sparkles in the oil after the first change. I love the thing, it's an amazing piece of machinery.
I do have a question though, it seems like the exhaust is making an absolutely stellar racket even when I'm driving around, sounds like popcorn popping south of the first set of cats. Car cleared emissions with no problems, no CEL, motor doesn't hesitate or run rough ever, exhaust heat shielding is all intact and solid, but my god does the thing ever make a boatload of noise coming out from the exhaust, both while running/driving and for about 10 minutes after I turn the motor off.
My thoughts are maybe the muffler baffles have gone through so many heat cycles that some of the material in there is starting to seperate and as it heats and cools maybe some broken welds in there are cranked against each other. The noise isn't in time with the motor, but does speed up as revs increase, which makes me think maybe theres some bits floating around in the muffler, possibly from the rearmost cats.
Is this normal for these Boxsters to make such a racket? Has anyone else experienced something similar to this?