Winter's here - and so is that crunching sound!

This happened with previous Boxsters - driving the car in very cold temps (20 degrees in Atlanta).... the car makes a crunch sound within about 10 seconds of backing out/pulling forward. If it hadn't happened before, I'd be concerned, but it seems to be a consistent issue. Any other year-round drivers know what I'm talking about?

Outside of that, great/fun car to drive in any weather! I say if it was made in Germany, it should be good to drive any day of the year!

Quote
Meredith in Atlanta
This happened with previous Boxsters - driving the car in very cold temps (20 degrees in Atlanta).... the car makes a crunch sound within about 10 seconds of backing out/pulling forward. If it hadn't happened before, I'd be concerned, but it seems to be a consistent issue. Any other year-round drivers know what I'm talking about?

Outside of that, great/fun car to drive in any weather! I say if it was made in Germany, it should be good to drive any day of the year!

I'm guessing that you've got your front wheels turned tight when backing out of a driveway/parking spot. You've probably never noticed it when driving straight ahead. That seems to be normal. It used to happen occasionally with my 06 with 18" wheels when backing out of the driveway in cool (30 - 45 F) weather. It seems a little more pronounced with my 981. I've wondered if it's because of the 20" wheels.

FYI, your Boxster was most likely assembled in Uusikaupunki, Finland. You can check on your VIN. If the 11th character is a "U", it was built in Uusikaupunki. If it's an "S", it was built in Stuttgart.

Hope it warms up for you soon so you can get that top down again. (It's going down to -10 here tonight.)

It might also be a little rust that forms rather quickly on the brake rotors when they get wet (or snowy) and sit for awhile, like overnight.

Be careful on the streets; these summer tires have a lot less grip when the temps go as low as they are.

... move to Florida!
It's cold here today too!
It's 59F.
Happy Boxstering,
Pedro

Pedro Bonilla
1998 Boxster 986 - 311,000+ miles: [www.PedrosGarage.com]
PCA National Club Racing Scrutineer - PCA National HPDE Instructor - PCA Technical Committee (Boxster/Cayman)

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"If you wait, all that happens is that you get older"... Mario Andretti

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in Weston, which is 8 miles west of me, since I had 49F showing on the thermometer this morning. Burrrr....

Maybe I should put the 991 into hibernation, like G-man, for the winter.

"A mile of highway will take you one mile. A mile of runway will take you anywhere."

Winter? At 49 degrees, I thought you were having a cool summer.

Could be frozen/stiff rubber bits and parts? But, thought the crunching sound coupld be a sign that the bushings (or where they boots?) are shot or need to be repacted, which I had go on my last Boxster. Pretty sure it was the bushings, but it's been a while. I mainly noticed it on our traffic-calming speed humbs (lower, fatter than bumps), and it was in the summer months, not in winter. Here in DC, it was 10 in my detached garage this morning.. The outside temp gauge ranged from 5 to 8, depending on whether I was driving (5 degrees) or how long I was stopped at a light (6 to 8 degrees). Odd, I've never noticed a fluctuation like that before, but we are talking 20-year lows and pushing on historic at that. My tires felt a bit squirrely, which I've never noticed with my previous P-cars, and had some squeaks and such, which I don' get during 40+ temps. That's why wondering if it's just cold, but if it's happened in the past, was it over bumps at low speed? That's when I noticed it in my Boxster, not at speed.

Sounds like my knees and back, as of late, when the temp dips.