Secondary Air Pump?
 

OK... mine is whining, it sounds like the bearing are going. This is the pump that runs on cold start for a couple of minutes.

I seem to remember that someone had actually replaced the bearing in theirs a while back, but I can't find the post. Anyone here have any words of wisdom? Any info for the cost of a new pump? I'll do it myself, it's easy to get to.

I don't know about the pump bearing, but I recently took apart a '70 914-6 steering rack to replace a pinion bearing. I went over to NAPA. If I had asked them for a '70 914 pinion bearing they would have laffed their heads off. Instead I just hand it to the guy, he reads the # on it, looks in a cross reference book, goes in back, badda-bing - new bearing! A couple others he didn't have laying around, so he referred me to a local bearing supplier who was able to order a couple other odd balls. The #'s on those things may not mean anything to you or me, but there's a good chance they use them to get an equivalent. The hard part may be dissassembly.

Thanks for the reply. A good source of small bearings, like the ones that would be used in the air pump, is http://www.bocabearings.com .

I'll probably just live with the noise until it gets worse, or I'm in there for some other reason. Then I'll take the air pump apart to see if it can be repaired, and if not, I'll replace it.

I was just hoping someone had blazed that trail before, and could offer some insight.

When I do it I'll report back here with what I find.

I am experiencing same problem with my Boxter 2002 94K. When I do start in the morning and sometimes after a 5-6 hrs I got whining noise that last proximatelly 2 seconds and stops immidiatelly as engine rev 1000 or so. Is is seconadry air pump or starter..
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I have been wishing somebody would post a diy or something useful regarding the secondary air pump for a while now. I need to replace one of the valves and I just keep putting it off hoping somebody will tackle it before I tear into it (which won't be much longer unfortunately).

I recall reading somewhere this 2 sec whining on cold starts is normal because the cats aren't warmed up and if you don't hear it the pump may not be operating correctly.

My 2001 Boxster S (91000kms) also makes the whine at first start up of the day (& then only on subsequent starts that the car has been shutdown for a few hours) which leads me to think it has to do with cold starts & hence secondary air pump.
My car is right hand drive (live in Australia) & the sound appears to be coming from the front left side of the car? I could be wrong though.
Previous non-Porsche cars that I've had gave this whine when one of the belts were slipping (when the car was started or sometimes pulling off the lights).
Anyone come up with any ideas or could they post audio of their respective sounds? I'm going to record my sound in the next couple of days.
Thanks in advance.
Matt

The air pump runs for more like 2 minutes not 2 seconds on a cold start. If you're hearing a 2 second noise, that's not the air pump, at least not if it's functioning as intended.