Macan ticking noise

[996C438]

What weight engine oil ?

[johnb]

Well you win some, you lose some. This time I lose. I finally got around to scoping cylinder 6:

Photo_2026-01-31 12_23_56_882.JPG (1.24 MiB) Viewed 620 times

Photo_2026-01-31 12_24_50_880.JPG (786.83 KiB) Viewed 620 times

It's tempting to try and solve it with one of those $5k ebay engines, but I can't see it making sense. I found this interesting reddit post (below) where the guy was able to pull the engine out through the front. I could do that with the space I have, but reading the small print it took him 4 weeks, and I have no reason to think I'd be any faster than that. I just can't turn this into a project car as tempting as it is.

On the other hand it runs perfectly and doesn't seem to be burning any oil. So who knows how long it could go for like this? Will it leave me stranded on a road trip?

Ultimately I have to replace it so I'm torn between just seeing how long I can get out of it, and just dumping it for whatever I can get now and get something newer with a warranty.




Some more pics of my scored cylinder:

[996C438]

Sorry to hear that . I just can't understand why Porsche continues to use these garbage cylinder coatings when Nickasil and Sumebore are available and are known to be durable . They are risking brand reputation. Maybe they just don't care . Sad really .

[Tom]

Sorry to hear that . I just can't understand why Porsche continues to use these garbage cylinder coatings when Nickasil and Sumebore are available and are known to be durable . They are risking brand reputation. Maybe they just don't care . Sad really .

They've been using Alusil blocks since at least the 944, maybe sooner. It's very similar to the Chevy Vega, which was notorious for blown engines due to galled cylinders. Porsche is better at marketing the material -- and probably better at building engines with it, but it'll never be Nikasil.

John so sorry to see this. I might be tempted to donate it now for full tax value, while its still purring like a clicky kitten... I'm sure you 'could' do the eBay motor thing, or even rebuild it yourself, but I hear you -- for a daily driver, it's probably not worth the effort or the very little (if any) money saved in the long run....

[johnb]

Sorry to hear that . I just can't understand why Porsche continues to use these garbage cylinder coatings when Nickasil and Sumebore are available and are known to be durable . They are risking brand reputation. Maybe they just don't care . Sad really .

They've been using Alusil blocks since at least the 944, maybe sooner. It's very similar to the Chevy Vega, which was notorious for blown engines due to galled cylinders. Porsche is better at marketing the material -- and probably better at building engines with it, but it'll never be Nikasil.

John so sorry to see this. I might be tempted to donate it now for full tax value, while its still purring like a clicky kitten... I'm sure you 'could' do the eBay motor thing, or even rebuild it yourself, but I hear you -- for a daily driver, it's probably not worth the effort or the very little (if any) money saved in the long run....

I didn't realize you could get a tax benefit from donating a car, interesting. I read up on it and apparently the way it works is you have to wait for them to sell it and then you can deduct the actual selling price. I suppose they will sell it via wholesale auction. My guess is they wouldn't get much for it. But it would be hassle free for me for sure and I suppose I could bank some karma

When I bought this 3 years ago I really thought I understood the economics. It has cost virtually nothing until now. I always told myself, well if it blows up or needs an engine or yet another transfer case or whatever, and I have to drop 10K all in one go, that's fair enough in the long term. What I didn't count on was that even a 10K repair won't really give me any piece of mind because the ebay engine is very likely to develop the same problem - if it hasn't already. Granted it has a warranty, but that's not much good after you pay someone the installation cost.

I couldn't resist a casual visit to the Porsche dealer the other day. They have a nice 2018 S CPO, asking 38K. Not long ago I would have seen that as a good deal. But given this issue, if you think about what it'll be worth when the warranty runs out in 2 years, that's probably a 10K/year car for whoever buys it now. They are great cars but surely you can do better for that cost.

I do love the Macan model though. So I'm thinking of getting into a slightly used base model now. I might start a whole new thread for help in talking me into it.

[Tom]

Sorry to hear that . I just can't understand why Porsche continues to use these garbage cylinder coatings when Nickasil and Sumebore are available and are known to be durable . They are risking brand reputation. Maybe they just don't care . Sad really .

They've been using Alusil blocks since at least the 944, maybe sooner. It's very similar to the Chevy Vega, which was notorious for blown engines due to galled cylinders. Porsche is better at marketing the material -- and probably better at building engines with it, but it'll never be Nikasil.

John so sorry to see this. I might be tempted to donate it now for full tax value, while its still purring like a clicky kitten... I'm sure you 'could' do the eBay motor thing, or even rebuild it yourself, but I hear you -- for a daily driver, it's probably not worth the effort or the very little (if any) money saved in the long run....

I didn't realize you could get a tax benefit from donating a car, interesting. I read up on it and apparently the way it works is you have to wait for them to sell it and then you can deduct the actual selling price. I suppose they will sell it via wholesale auction. My guess is they wouldn't get much for it. But it would be hassle free for me for sure and I suppose I could bank some karma

When I bought this 3 years ago I really thought I understood the economics. It has cost virtually nothing until now. I always told myself, well if it blows up or needs an engine or yet another transfer case or whatever, and I have to drop 10K all in one go, that's fair enough in the long term. What I didn't count on was that even a 10K repair won't really give me any piece of mind because the ebay engine is very likely to develop the same problem - if it hasn't already. Granted it has a warranty, but that's not much good after you pay someone the installation cost.

I couldn't resist a casual visit to the Porsche dealer the other day. They have a nice 2018 S CPO, asking 38K. Not long ago I would have seen that as a good deal. But given this issue, if you think about what it'll be worth when the warranty runs out in 2 years, that's probably a 10K/year car for whoever buys it now. They are great cars but surely you can do better for that cost.

I do love the Macan model though. So I'm thinking of getting into a slightly used base model now. I might start a whole new thread for help in talking me into it.

If you donate it to an org that uses/keeps the car, I think you can still take fair value on your taxes, but you need to itemize. It used to be much easier, but people would exaggerate the value -- probably why they tightened the law. Gemini says the '"15 -"18 3.6 turbo motor has the highest rate of bore score and that the later motors are much less prone. However, you still see reports of '19 macans with bore score, so I dunno. Just a bummer, sorry.

The last thing you'd want to do is park it in the worst part of town unlocked with a 12 pack of beer and the keys inside.

Part it out maybe? LS Swap?

[jas21462]

I had the same experience with my 2020 S. I bought it used with factory warranty on it, but thankfully also bought the extended warranty. Took it into the shop with the famous ticking noise. Long story short over a month in the shop for the dealer to diagnose it, I told them to scope it (duh?) which they did and it of course showed the scoring. At the end of the day I got a factory engine replaced. I think what did it was writing Porsche USA with my concerns and got them involved early with the dealer to make sure the dealer (and Porsche) did the right thing. Suprisingly, Porsche USA was great. Every now and then I hear the "tick", but I only have 40k on this engine and I think I'm hearing the direction every now and again. I plan to scope it before the warranty is up though!

[dr bob]

Curious if there are similar reports for piston/cylinder damage in the Tiguan and Q3 sibs. I just recommended a Macan to a friend, and she's shopping in the used market. She's coming from an Alfa sedan with a fuel pump issue, recalled but no replacement parts available for at least another month.

I'm still preaching about warm-up management as a key to avoiding many common cylinder issues. What appears to be "bore scoring" looks a lot more like galling. The iron coatings on the piston skirts get scrubbed when the piston grows faster than the cold block. Then it's aluminum on aluminum rubbing forever, even after things all come up to temperature. Discipline with the throttle is critical until coolant and oil come to temperature. In my amateur estimation. Keep the piston small until the block grows. Counters Porsche's guidance to drive off immediately so the cats can get up to temp quickly, but might be enough to keep internal things happy a bit longer.

On your affected cylinder 6 with the particles, can you get a sample of the particles out? Long Q-tip maybe? Wash them and try a magnet to see if it's iron from the skirt, or aluminum from the galling.

[Tom]

Curious if there are similar reports for piston/cylinder damage in the Tiguan and Q3 sibs. I just recommended a Macan to a friend, and she's shopping in the used market. She's coming from an Alfa sedan with a fuel pump issue, recalled but no replacement parts available for at least another month.

I'm still preaching about warm-up management as a key to avoiding many common cylinder issues. What appears to be "bore scoring" looks a lot more like galling. The iron coatings on the piston skirts get scrubbed when the piston grows faster than the cold block. Then it's aluminum on aluminum rubbing forever, even after things all come up to temperature. Discipline with the throttle is critical until coolant and oil come to temperature. In my amateur estimation. Keep the piston small until the block grows. Counters Porsche's guidance to drive off immediately so the cats can get up to temp quickly, but might be enough to keep internal things happy a bit longer.

On your affected cylinder 6 with the particles, can you get a sample of the particles out? Long Q-tip maybe? Wash them and try a magnet to see if it's iron from the skirt, or aluminum from the galling.

The 944 hot rod world has been dealing with this for years. Weird how the Chevy Vega got a horrible reputation from its Alusil bores, but Porsche keeps using the same iffy tech and apparently leans on the power of its brand to dance around the issue. Here's a vintage picture (from a vintage camera), circa 2005, from my original motor. Turning up the boost is a fast and easy way to make more power but without some heat management, this is the result. The pistons just get super hot and expand more/faster than the cylinders can keep up, and suddenly the piston/rings become a friction fit in the bores. The only difference is -- and I have not studied up on why this is -- but on the 944 motors, the motor keep on running without any of that death knock sound. Oil consumption goes up, compression might do down a little, but the motors still make good power and can last a long time like that. I bet a good percent of the 951s on the road today have at least some scoring.

[johnb]

Curious if there are similar reports for piston/cylinder damage in the Tiguan and Q3 sibs. I just recommended a Macan to a friend, and she's shopping in the used market. She's coming from an Alfa sedan with a fuel pump issue, recalled but no replacement parts available for at least another month.

I'm still preaching about warm-up management as a key to avoiding many common cylinder issues. What appears to be "bore scoring" looks a lot more like galling. The iron coatings on the piston skirts get scrubbed when the piston grows faster than the cold block. Then it's aluminum on aluminum rubbing forever, even after things all come up to temperature. Discipline with the throttle is critical until coolant and oil come to temperature. In my amateur estimation. Keep the piston small until the block grows. Counters Porsche's guidance to drive off immediately so the cats can get up to temp quickly, but might be enough to keep internal things happy a bit longer.

On your affected cylinder 6 with the particles, can you get a sample of the particles out? Long Q-tip maybe? Wash them and try a magnet to see if it's iron from the skirt, or aluminum from the galling.

I don't know if there's anything I can remove, it's hard to reach in there. I do see some tiny aluminum flakes in the oil filter I removed last week. I think I still have the filter, I can take another look.

One thing that has been bugging me is why it makes the noise it does. It's definitely around 4-5 ticks per second at a 500-600 rpm idle. That's 10 revs/second, so the noise I'm hearing should correspond to 1 stroke on 1 cylinder. So why only one stroke? The obvious answer would be that it happens on the power stroke, because well, power. But I tried it with the coil unplugged to test that and it makes the same noise when there's no combustion. So why would it only make a noise on one specific stroke? My best guess now is that it's the exhaust stroke. The exhaust was where the ticking was loudest with the stethoscope.

I just got off the phone with a shop that could do the swap for a used engine: 6.5-8K for installation of an engine that I supply, rough ballpark. It would take 2 weeks.