(Video) Mechanical noises when changing from Park to Drive

[Bakerr09]

Hi,
I've got a 981 Cayman 2.7. I've owned it for around 6 months now and it's just done 20,000 miles.
Now; I don't know if the recent cold weather in UK is causing something but I've noticed to hear a fairly loud mechanical clunk when moving from Park to Drive or Reverse. Basically whenever I change the PDK into a new position.

Here's a video of it just after a cold start this morning. I actually didn't sound as bad this morning and I'm wondering if the temperature is making it sound louder etc.

I wouldn't usually worry but it's not been making this noise until now. I've owned the car from July to now, so this is the first time I've had it in cold temperatures.

The video didn't pick up the sound too well, but after the 20 second mark, I keep moving the car into park and drive and you can faintly hear it in the video. In the last 5 seconds of the video you can hear it outside the car too.

It's louder in real life and I can even feel the clunky noise a little.

Click this for Video

Thanks

[DJMC]

I have the same model.

Does it make the noise when warmed up?

I do sometimes notice a bit more of a clunk when changing gear lever position but it's never worried me over four years.

Is it due a service soon? If so, in cold weather, you could ask the OPC to keep it overnight and replicate the noise/clunk to see if they think it's normal. Or wait until the temp improves (this weekend's supposed to be warmer, park it the night before where it'll get some sunshine on Saturday to try and warm it up) and try it from cold again. I'm guessing it's not garaged.

[SV_WDC]

I've been to a technical seminar on the Cayman (987, so not the same model) but a question was asked about this & the Senior Technician they had from Porsche said this is normal & no cause for concern. Apparently they can do some sort of coding in the software which can help reduce it but normally not necessary.

I've seen other threads on here where people refer to it in their Spyders as a bolt action mechanism.

[Bakerr09]

Thanks for your replies, I took it down to my local OPC. An engineer looked over it, my car was warm by the time I got there so the noise was much less apparent, he didn't really think much of a problem and said it was just the car moving into gear.

Just to make sure, we jumped in one of their 981's for sale outside in the cold. We did the same test and the sound was also there on the car they was selling. It's just a normal thing I guess. It's not annoying or anything, I just didn't want my car to die on me haha.

Thanks anyway

[Qwerty911]

I can’t hear it on the video, but I think what you describe is normal, my 997 pdk does it and so did my last 3 BMW Ms. I also think worse when cold.