The past week I've noticed a knocking sound coming from my right front wheel. My car has been driving normally and I haven't noticed any adverse effects, but I've been listening carefully to it. One thing I've noticed is that is speed dependent, meaning at 10 mph its "knock.... knock... knock" and at 60mph its "knockknockknockknockknock". There is no noticeable vibration in the steering wheel, or anywhere else, just a faint knocking. A friend rode with me the other day and we established the following:

giving it gas - no knock
let off - knocking begins with the repetition dependant on how fast I am going
tap the brakes - knock stops, and then starts again shortly after.

He told me he thinks its a loose brake pad since it stops when I hit the brakes. Car stops just as good as always, and does't pull if you nail them. Yesterday I pulled the wheel of and took the brake apart like I was changing the pads. Nothing out of the ordinary, no marks to indicate metal was hitting metal, and the pad wear was normal. I torqued everything to specs (including the rotor) and check all suspension compenents for anything obvious. All clear. Put the wheel back on and went for a test drive and its still there.

Notable mods to the car are a completely gutted suspension with koni sports, hotchkis springs, and a fat sway bar. I also upgrade the brakes in the summer to a stoptech stage 2, which was new rotors,pads, and s/s lines. With all the suspension upgrades it's a rough ride, and roads here are not good. Could it be a bent wheel? I'm not sure where to look now.

Has anyone had a similar problem? A friend that was over last night said its a CV joint, and another automotive forum says wheels bearing. The CV joint has some side to side play in it, and I'm about to go outside and do some tests to see if it's the wheel bearing. I'm hoping another Mini owner had the same problem and knows the immediate fix. Any help will be appreciated.

 

Here's a link to a quick parking lot test to determine if it's a CV joint:
http://www.aa1car.com/library/cvjoint2.htm

 

My first thought would be wheel bearings.

- Matt

 

Thanks for the link to the CV joint test. I'll try to do it later today.

I tried a few things with the wheel bearing, and it has no play if i try to wobble the wheel, and no noise if I spin the tire. I also did some low speed slaloms and there was no noise. Oddly, I took a test drive and the noise has gone away

 

Maybe it was in the brakes. Taking it apart and putting it back together might have corrected the problem. Wish everything was that easy!

 

I'm glad you took the brakes apart to check them. I had a similar noise in the rear of my '03 MCS, it usually happened when I turned left, even slightly, and was wheel speed dependant. One day on the hiway drive home I heard a funny clunk and felt the car rise up slightly as if I'd run over something, the next time I used the brakes I heard metal on metal. When I got home and took the wheels off I could see what had happened, the pad material had separated from the backing, that was the knock. The clunk was the same thing on the other side as it ejected the pad material out of the brakes!

 

Still no noise and somehow I feel the car is driving better. Much smoother and firmer. I'm now thinking the wheel was not on correctly or was loose. Tread wear looks normal so I dunno, maybe becuase I jumped on it quickly. I'll keep listening carefully and see if it comes back then I'll quit worrying.

I just don't want to break down at the dragon again

 

That was actually my first thought. A few months back, my friends little brother was driving a Jeep Cherokee and was telling us about a weird noise coming from his drivers side front. We checked it out and the lugs were very loose. Tightened 'em up and it was good as new!

 

i have a clunk,clunk in my '04 mcs... i was ready to replace the front ball-joints and thrust bushings when i decided to investigate before ordering parts. i found that by putting both hands on the rain gutters above the doors and rocking the car back in forth while in the garage i could cause it to make the clunk,clunk noise every time but we could not pinpoint the source. until i opened the hood to put my hadh on the strut mounts. the strut mounts were not the source, but then i reached down through the pass. side of the engine compt. and lo and behold i found the source of the clunk... when i touched the sway bar while my son rocked the car back and forth i could feel the clunk... then holding the sway bar tightly, i tried to move it to see if a mount bushing had failed. what i found was that if i moved the sway bar left to right it made the clunking sound. i could hear and feel it. the sway bar was sliding side to side in the mounts by about 1/16 to 1/8 inch every time the suspension moved. the bentley manual mentions washers that are used to eliminate that movement, but i don't see or feel any on my sway bar and the factory bmw tis site parts catalog does not show any such washers... so... it seems that i will be replacing the sway bar bushings soon. unfortunately this requires lowering the whole subframe to gain clearance for the bolts to be removed from the brackets !