Strange knocking noise... Ideas please!

Symptoms:

Getting a 'thunk-thunk-thunk' coming from what I'm 90% sure is the n/s front wheel area.
It's always relative to the wheel speed. (i.e. sounds like there's something stuck in the tyre thread)
Most noticeable between 10-25 mph.
Seems to go over 30 mph unless I really listen for it, then is extremely faint.
Can feel the noise as much as hear it through the car.
Slightly louder on bends to the right than it is on bends to the left.
Very slight new vibration of the steering wheel at higher (motorway) speeds, (might not be related - I'm hyper-sensitive to steering wheel wobbles and vibrations)

Causes ruled out: (i.e. noise present both before and after)

Wheel bearing (changed at the weekend)
Wheel and/or tyre issues (changed for spare this evening)
Brake caliper is not loose.

We're going to systematically check everything that we can that's related to the movement of the wheel during the course of the week and over the weekend, but any suggestions or ideally an "I know what that is!" will be very helpful! k:

anything on the driveshaft.......?

What do you mean by 'on'?

dunno! just thinking of anything that spins with the wheel..... cv joint could be knocking....? its a weird one.

My latest suspect is the brake pad / disc. It is worn a bit and there is a bit of an outer edge on the disc and I'm wondering if a pad is misaligned somehow and rubbing on it.

Can't remember the condition of my 238 discs we took off? More than welcome to have one though.

Is it relative to engine speed or wheel speed? Ie if your rolling but not in gear is it still there? If it is then it would be something on or around the wheel. I had a noise not long ago which was the bracked on the brake pads had slipped out a bit and was catching on the wheels as they turned.

My pal at work has had a clunking noise for months, it appears to be a fcked gear box, he part ex the puma @ the weekend, got £750.

Hope its a simple fix...!

DradusContact said:

Is it relative to engine speed or wheel speed? Ie if your rolling but not in gear is it still there? If it is then it would be something on or around the wheel. I had a noise not long ago which was the bracked on the brake pads had slipped out a bit and was catching on the wheels as they turned.

Click to expand...

I said in my original post (you did read that didn't you?):

Cherie said:

It's always relative to the wheel speed. (i.e. sounds like there's something stuck in the tyre thread)

Click to expand...

But it's not the wheel itself as that got changed last night.

As Dal says, brake pads/discs is one of the things we're going to be checking over the weekend.

I'm thinking may be a bit of Wear in sliding part of drive shaft .

It may only show up as a Sloppy-ness at a different to normal suspension height ( ie raise or push down on car while feeling )

Though I don't know if the shafts are easy to reach !

I've got exaclty the same problem recentely also!
I can always hear it more prominant on a certain corner on my way home from work.
At higher speeds it sounds like more of a drone (or a collection of thuds).

I'm thinking it could be CV joint problems, however having my MOT only 2 months ago, I'm sure that would have been noticed??

Check the driveshaft gaiters for splits. Dirt might have got into the driveshaft 'spider' joint which will rapidly increase wear.

Ta for the suggestions. Will be crawling under it at the weekend.

Cherie said:

I said in my original post (you did read that didn't you?):

Click to expand...

I did read it yes, right before i tried my best to help you.

DradusContact said:

Cherie said:

I said in my original post (you did read that didn't you?):

Click to expand...

I did read it yes, right before i tried my best to help you.

Click to expand...

The thing is, you asked a question for which the answer was already there in my initial post. Am I wrong to get frustrated at being asked to repeat myself?

Cherie said:

The thing is, you asked a question for which the answer was already there in my initial post. Am I wrong to get frustrated at being asked to repeat myself?

Click to expand...

I was only trying to help.

Had the front of the Millie up on axle stands today, with both wheels off...

Brakes are fine, calipers are tight, no movement from the discs, no warping, pads are still looking almost new.

What we did find though, was that there's a bit of play on the n/s driveshaft. inkeye: You can grab it and move it about half an inch towards the hub. There is only a minute amount of movement on the o/s, and no movement on Dal's puma. So we're concluding that this is what's causing the noise. Obviously, without actually dismantling everything we can't tell what's causing the movement. As far as we can determine, it's either one of the CV joints on the shaft, or worse case scenario, it's where the diff joins the driveshaft. (The garage that changed the bearing did mention that it could be the diff, but didn't really give any reasons why they thought that.)

So next step I think is biting the bullet and asking a local garage to have a look at it, and keep my fingers crossed that it's not the diff gone tits up!

Booked in to get looked at tomorrow morning. Keep your fingers crossed!

+ X +

The goods news: it's definitely the driveshaft (good as opposed to being the diff that's gone) Don't know specifically what's happened to it yet, but I'll ask when I get it replaced.

The bad news: New one is £250 from Ford!!

Not so bad news: A recon one is £240 fitted.

I was considering getting one from ebay, but I've not got any comeback if it fails again. So gritting my teeth and paying the money. She's booked in for Friday. k: