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Gurgling noise on startup

H

Heuer

New member
Our 1997 993 C2 has started making a quite dramatic 'gurgling' sound when starting from cold. This continues on tick-over for a couple of minutes. Sounds like large bubbles being blown through the oil. After a few minutes the noise goes and the car runs perfectly. I took it to Zentrum and although they heard the noise they were unable to find a cause. Anyone here come across such a problem?

Thanks

David
 
Mine does similar for the first few seconds after she fires up, I suspect its the power steering.
I had similar noises on my 944 many years ago....shortly before the rack failed![:-]
 
This has been on here many times, usually caused by oil returning to the oil tank which is located under the right hand wing in front of the rear wheel. 993's are dry sumped and the oil is held is this tank, the flow is controlled to an oil cooler/engine by a thermostat on the bottom of the oil tank when it reaches working temperature.

My car hasn't made this noise yet but if you search this forum you will find many that do with no detriment, may be worth checking your oil level though as per you owners manual.

Andy B.
 
After years of mind-numbing research, OK I just listened to my car on start up for a while[;)], I have come to the conclusion that this is related to the type of oil used.

My car never had any such noises until after a service about 4 or 5 years ago at an indi that I had not used before. The indi did not put Mobil 1 in, instead using Esso Ultra. I had this drained out within a couple of days and replaced with Mobil 1 but that's when the gurgling started. The gurgling remained until the next service when the oil was replaced again with Mobil 1. This reduced the gurgling to just an occaisional occurance now and again. Next year the oil was again replaced with clean Mobil 1 and that's when the gurgling went, never to return. I can only assume that the oil in the pipe and front oil radiator that isn't drained off in a service contaminated the clean oil with Esso Ultra and this, for some reason, caused the gurgling.

The only other explanation for the noise is poor quality pattern filters but the indi used Porsche fliters all the time so it couldn't have been that.

I have no scientific evidence to back this up but it works for me [:)]

 
As Andy says this is pretty standard on the 993 and 964's and some people notice it more than others(i.e. std cars vs noise improved cars), I think Clyde's comment is interesting and leads one down the road that the viscocity of the oil adds to the noise level which also will get worse in cold weather.

The scary part was that Zentrum not being aware of this common sound problem
 
It's really puzzling isn't it - my car has always been serviced by the same indy (Northway's) from when it came off the Porsche extended warranty and has always been filled with Mobil 1 - I've had the car for around 10 years. The coffee perculator noise (when cold) lasted for just under a year and stopped last spring - it has not returned since!

Regards
Anton
 
ORIGINAL: szklarek

It's really puzzling isn't it - my car has always been serviced by the same indy (Northway's) from when it came off the Porsche extended warranty and has always been filled with Mobil 1 - I've had the car for around 10 years. The coffee perculator noise (when cold) lasted for just under a year and stopped last spring - it has not returned since!

Regards
Anton
Click to expand...

See, now you've gone and ruined years of research Anton [:mad:].

Is there any chance that it may have been filled with something other than Mobil 1? Maybe a more viscous oil? The Ultra put in mine was 10/40 which is a bit on the thick side.

 
Sorry!

Yes I guess it's possible it got filled with something else. The odd thing was that it started about half way between two services and then stopped never to reappear (until probably tomorrow morning!).

Regards
Anton
 
Bloody hell! I won't take it to them then [:D]. I thought that might come from an OPC but not from an Indie [&:]
 
Just to add more to the research data: I'm fairly sure gurgle or not relates to oil level, although I now can't remember if gurgling is high on the gauge or low!
 
Can't say that I ever noticed the oil level playing any part in the gurgle when I had it Mark.

 
Thanks for the responses. I will check with Zentrum to see what oil they use. Interestingly the car has always been serviced at the OPC until last year when I decided to go 'off piste' with a specialist (who have been superb actually) after the OPC crashed my car on the service test drive! To clarify - Zentrum said they could not find a problem, presumably because they did not wan to say "They all do that" which seemed to be the OPC mantra.
 
Yip.....oil related...mine never did it until converted to Mobil 1..... an endearing noise me thinks...
 
Mine gurgles gently after the thermostat opens. I like it, it's always done it, and it proves there's oil in it !

What with gurgles and fluff, we're having a good week so far.
 
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