I've been having various noises coming from what I believe is the driver's side front wheel. It is not consistent in occurrence or in the type of sound.

Sometimes I will hear a clacking when turning the wheel. Only a few times, I've heard what sounds like gears grinding (not like in a transmission, but more like overly rusty gears turning) when turning the wheel while the car is stationary. Also, I will hear this clacking when slowly finishing coming to a stop, at about what would be the final rotation of the wheel before it stops turning.

Yesterday, on my street which is getting bumpier, I heard some rattling in the front end that I haven't heard before and sounded similar to what our 99 minivan with 250K sounds like driving over the same road. Driving to work in the morning, it did not make the same sounds.

Last night, I pulled the front wheels off and had a look at the drive axles and suspension. Nothing appeared to be wrong, all the boots were solid and there was nothing leaking any lubricant.

Giving a slight turn to the wheel while up in the air, I hear a clacking that comes from where the drive axle meets the transmission. I will hear this same sound when pulling away slowly in first gear just for a brief moment. This sounds like the slack being taken up when the transmission engages the drive axle.

I've been hearing the various noises for several months now, but with the intermittent nature, I've held off taking it in to get looked at because it doesn't make any noises most of the time.

Anyone have any idea what may be causing all these different noises?

Thanks.

 

U-joint or CV joint? Whatever it's called --- inside the boot. Any shop that does front end alignment can check it for you.

 

If it were the CV joint, wouldn't I hear a noise when doing slow tight circles? I had done that in our cul-de-sac and did not hear anything. Would that indicate that it is in the joint that is closer to the transmission?

Is this something that will just deteriorate over time and get more obnoxious sounding without posing a safety issue?

I bought a lifetime alignment service with a local shop, so I will bring it to them.

Thanks for the advice.

 

I was able to take it to the alignment shop and they had a look at it and test drove it. They did not experience what I had experienced, big shock there. They did throw it up on the rack and have a look underneath and found nothing. They said everything was solid. I guess I'll need to wait until the sounds become more consistent or hopefully, just don't come back.

 

Hey there David, The vague sounds a car makes are certainly difficult to describe and attribute to various systems in a car. What you describe sounds similar to something I encountered and had fixed. I describe the sounds as creaks and clacks in the front left corner of the car that were best reproduced by quick acceleration and deceleration and by driving over uneven roads.

It turned out to be caused by a loose transmission mount bolt. The fix involved jacking up the engine/transmission from below to eliminate slack and tightening up the bolt (with some blue locktite). The bolt you're looking for can be found directly under the ECU. You can see it in the gap between intake air tube, windshield squirter reservoir and ECU. Many thanks to the guys at Schomp MINI for showing me the process so I can fix it myself in the future.

 

Johnna,

Great heads up. I'll have a look at the Bentley manual and see if I can find the torque setting for that puppy. I haven't heard it recently, but I guess changing weather conditions could have an effect on it.

Thanks for posting that.