Trunk Clunk - "Official" Porsche Response

I have a 2006 Cayman S that has experienced the trunk clunk since the beginning. After numerous visits to the dealer I asked Porsche to intervene and formally tell the dealer how to resolve the issue. I spoke personally today with a regional representative of Porsche , A Mr. Drabers (sp) who denies the existence of any problem and claims that any noises heard are a normal consequence of 19" tires and stiff suspension. I realize there is a home remedy on this site for repair but it is unacceptable to have to repair your own car after spending $60K+. I have owned several Cayenne S's, a 911 C4, a 911 C4S and now a Cayman S and the arrogance of PCNA is disheartening. I will live with the issue until I trade the vehicle, but I will certainly remember the conversation with Mr. Drabers when it comes time to select a replacement vehicle.

While I do agree that Porsche reigns king in automotive arrogance, and such a defect is unacceptable in a car costing even half the cayman , I will also point out that the "fix" for the trunk clunk takes less time to fix that it does to get your car to the dealer to complain about it. Maybe you can bring it to an independent shop if you do no want to work on the car yourself.

Guys- Am I mistaken in thinking that I saw a thread on here a couple of weeks ago showing parts that a Porsche dealer can obtain to fix the "clunk" problem?

Normal consequence? My car has 18" wheels/tires. It came with 17" wheels/tires. I have the clunk no matter which wheels/tires I am running. My dealership has tried to fix the problem two times. The second time I thought they were successful but the clunk has come back. It's not terrible but it is annoying. If there is a "fix" my dealership doesn't know what it is.

You know, I've ignored all these trunk clunk posts but now, a year into driving my 2006 CS, mine has developed it as well.....

I think prior posts referred to a recall to put "hatch buffers" as in this photo to stop rattles (and perhaps help the clunk), but not the trunk clunk fix modification.

What is trunk clunk? How often does it occur? Is there a media file where folks can hear what trunk clunk sounds like? Maybe there are a lot more folks that have trunk clunk and don't know it because they expect some noise when they go over a large road bump/hole with a small stiff sports car?

The noise is somewhere between a “clank” and a “clunk”. It happens whenever the car is jarred . . . but it doesn’t happen all the time . . . . and it doesn’t have to be a big bump. As I said above, it is not terrible but it is annoying.

More on The Klunk Visited my local dealer for first oil change at 5k-let me bring my own oil too. But anyway... I asked the Service Manager about the W615 klunk fix that has been on this site. He told me that this does not apply to my CS, an '07. I also noticed that my car came from the factory with the hatch buffers. I have to assume this fix is for earlier production cars. Take it for what it's worth.... I have screwed the rubber stops at the bottom corners of the rear hatch out as far as possible. Not a cure,but seems to help,except on really bad bumps.

FWIW, on my '06 S (18", no PASM ), I only hear it when the RIGHT side wheels hit a bump. For whatever reason, bumps that I hit with only the left side do not trigger it. My dealer has tried 3 times w/o success, although it maybe did improve slightly after #3. I have yet to raise the issue beyond the service writer, but I do plan to make a bit more of a stink about it. Brian

My 2006 CS has never made a sound like that when going over bumps or rough roads. It does have that hatch buffer shown in the picture; perhaps that is why it does not offend with the "CLUNK" noise. My CS has run pure as the driven snow so far. Picked it up February 27, 2006 and now has about 14,000 miles on it. She's a keeper!

When you do the clunk fix from the DIY article, if you take the harmonic weight and deflect it so it hits the trunk, it makes the exact clunk sound many hear. Before I did the fix, I would get the clunk over expansion joints and certain bumps.

Mine has rattles ,clunks, clanks- the whole 9 yards. I have removed the privacy divider which helped some but it is still awful. Sounds like a horse drawn wagon hauling jars of marbles over a cobblestone road. The dealer that Gfspencer mentioned- HENDRICK IN CHARLOTTE- denies the existence of any such problem in my conversations with the service advisor. The problem is that this car is so damn good and they know it. Other than the trunk clunk and the key fob issues- it's nearly perfect.Certainly better than anything else in this price range- so screw us. That's their official position. Pretty sad. This thing could be easily fixed if they wanted to. My car does not have 19" wheels either.

Good? "Good" is more than a matter of performing well when everything is working. It's also a matter of predicatbility, reliability and quality. If Porsche can't engineer a car that doesn't clunk (and can't fix it when it does clunk), and Kia/Hyundai/GM/Ford/Chrysler can, what does that say about Porsche 's ability to engineer the REST of the car that certainly is much more complex than a rear hatch?

Why the hatch in the Cayman needs the counterweight but a Chrysler hatch doesn't may be because of the light weight of the cayman hatch. And possibly the rigidity of the Cayman which doesn't give the chassis much of a chance of using flex to dampen the motions of the hatch.

I had the trunk clunk and had the dealer fix it early on. (with 18 inch wheels) It was much better after that, and only happened over big bumps. I recently had a rattle/buzz from the hatch so they replaced the whole rear panel. I also had the set the computer to bring the windows down when the hatch is opened so it does not have to be slammed so hard to close with the doors closed. :banana:

that's a piwis setting? why don't they all have this enabled from the get go?!

Trunk Clunk any noises heard are a normal consequence of 19" tires and stiff suspension. They gave me this same bull*hit response. So after six visits to the local dealer, and unfortunately there is only one here i faxed a complaint to Porsche Customer Services in Germany. I told them that in my opinion it was the damper in the hatch cover and it was totally unacceptable. Things changed after that. I met with the local Porsche Technical Specialist. We managed to replicate the noise over a set of rumble strips. He told me that if it were his car he would not accept it. They gave me a courtesy car (first time this happened) and fixed mine. They told that the rubber which suspends the damper had softened causing the damper to wobble. They firmed it up with with glue. No clunk now. If you have the rubber buffers fitted shown elsewhere on the thread then it is undoubtedly the damper making this noise.

That's a load of BS - I have a late build '07 and it has Trunk Clunk in spades.

Clunk less and less Had serious clunking until about 9000mi. Now don't get it.

Trunk klunk ? Never heard of it. I was on a trip to Pennsylvania a few weeks ago. Was in Holbert's Porsche ,Warrington,Pa. to visit some old friends. Asked the service advisor about the klunk problem. He said that he had never heard of it! Think maybe he was new. All P car service advisors should be required to read this site. The clunk or klunk must be the most common problem reported with the Cayman .

I am not making this up - I asked my service manager about the "trunk clunk". He told me that he had never heard about a trunk clunk. I told him that I had heard about it on the Internet. He told me to stop reading things on the Internet. (The last time I went in for service the "service" manager was talking to one of his "track buddies" about their latest track weekend. He ignored me until he had finished his conversation . . . about fifteen minutes. )

HENDRICK PORSCHE - in Charlotte NC- are you listening??????? The service advisor told me straight up that they had seen only one case of the trunk clunk and it turned out to be a loose thumb screw holding the rear black plastic light panel cover. I know of several people on this board who have taken their caymans to HENDRICK PORSCHE in Charlotte to address this issue. None were fixed that I am aware of. If you can't fix it.. JUST SAY SO. Don't p--- on my leg and tell me that it is raining. This tactic by Porsche to hide from the problem and to pretend that it does not exist is total BS. We need to fire off a load of registered letters to PNA or something but it has to be done in numbers or it will have no effect. Now I am afraid to let the dealer try to fix the damn thing as I do not have the time to run back and forth while they wear me down with feeble attempts at repair and BS until I get tired of screwing with it. I love my CS but this is just wrong.

Winchester, why don't you tell us how you really feel?

Sorry for the rant. I just can't believe that these people will look you in the eye and deny the existance of what is such an obvious and widespread problem. Most individuals or organizations in the business of selling goods or services to the public would consider owners of new Porsches a fairly intelligent and savy group of people. Apparently these people think that we are all idiots.This is the same group of rocket scientists who told me that they never discounted Caymans off MSRP. Sent me 200 miles away to save 9 grand on my 07 CS. City Chevrolet and Hendrick Lexus are great. The BMW and the Porsche stores have gotten too successful for their own good. I don,t get it.

Winchester21, Since they are a sponsor do you need me to speak to them for you?

I guess I'm lucky, the dealer I use for service right after I got the car I complained to them about the "clunk" and they were aware of it and took care of it. Having had the car a year now, it only happens on rare occasions and I do have the 19" tires without PASM .

Today at lunch I called 10 dealers and asked the service advisors about the trunk clunk. I could only talk to 6 people. Got voice mail at the rest. 4 of the dealers said that they had positively never heard of this problem. Leith in Raliegh said that they had worked on a number of Caymans with this problem.Believe or not, Hendrick told me that they had worked on at least 6 caymans with this problem. They described a 3rd brakelight problem, a hatch bumper problem, and the balance insulation problem addressed in the club fix. They were VERY anxious to get me in for an appointment. 2 weeks ago they absolutely denied the existance of this problem. Guess they had a big run of them the last 2 weeks-yeah right.I think the guy I talked to was Quenton of Clinton. I will give them 1 chance to fix this when I get my first oil change at 10k. I will post the results. This dealer chased me away when I bought new. They also royally screwed up a wheel deal the I tried to make with them involving a trade for my wheels against a new purchase. We will see how they do on this.

Got the clunk but it has now added a serious "loose metal cable rattle" sound to the score...not sure what this is (way back left upper area) - checked all threads and cannot say for sure what this one is but just at 11K miles and sounds like a lost wrench...crazy sounds!

Hello Clunk sufferers, I was wondering if anyone has tried to impart momentum into the damper to test for the source of the noise by means of the following: 1) Stand at the rear of the car with the rear deck lid open. 2) Firmly hold the deck lid with both hands. 3) Move the deck lid upward with your quickest motion then stop suddenly and note if there is a clunk. 4) Move the deck lid downward with your quickest motion then again, stop suddenly and note if there is a clunk. It would be interesting to read the replies from anyone that wouldn't mind performing the test and posting their results. Thank you, Joe

Hi, for those of you that fix the trunk clunk yourselves, how did you guys remove the clips from the panel?? I cant seem to figure out how to do it.

I am having this issue as well...actually started about 2 months after I bought the car. At first I thought it was the golf clubs that I usually leave in the trunk then when I took it I still get it. It's getting really annoying and I want to get rid of it. What should I do? Does anyone know if any of the dealers in Dallas will fix it? I do get lazy going into the dealerships. By the way, I also get this occasional buzzing sound that comes from the front passenger side when I drive fast on uneven roads. This doesn't happen as often. There is also a key buzzing sound which doesn't bother me cuz all I have to do is move the key a little and it gets rid of it.

I have that same problem with a buzzing sound from the passenger seat when I drive fast, but then she gets out and it goes away.....

My 08 C has been to the dealer 4 times about this issue and now I read this thread a feel a sense of serious anger. I left the service manager a message since I just picked up the car yesterday after they had it for 5 days. Sounded pretty good on the way home but it's back in full force today. So happy about this forum! Thanks everyone!