Clicking from left front

I know this is a long shot, but I thought I'd ask...

Vehicle is a Plymouth Grand Voyager with about 100K miles. I recently noticed a clicking coming from the vicinity of the left front wheel starting at about 50 mph. It seems to be at the speed the wheel rotates, so my first thought was a nail in the tire, second was a CV joint.

I jacked up the front end and took a look- the boots on the CV joints are good, rotating the tire by hand I couldn't see or hear anything unusual. Lug nuts are tight. I pried a few bits of gravel out of the tread (month old tires, lotsa tread), didn't find any nails.

So I'm stumped. It's hard to troubleshoot something that only appears above 50 mph.

Any ideas?

-Paul

Reply to
carbide
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Reply to
philthy

If you have cast aluminum wheels then ignore the rest of this.

Try removing the hub cap/ wheel cover and then see if the noise is still there.

Could well be a CV joint or wheel bearing. But could also be due to some flex in the plastic wheel cover, or flex in the tire sidewall at 50 mph that is rubbing on the wheel cover.

This is what has happened on my Intrepid. Clicks like crazy with the wheel cover in place; no click when the wheel cover is removed. It only cost me a replacement half-shaft to learn that the clicking wasn't coming from the CV joints (since the sound was still there after the replacement).

Phil

snipped-for-privacy@eg> I know this is a long shot, but I thought I'd ask...

Reply to
Phil T

OK, that's easy enough to check. I'll remove the wheel cover and drive it tomorrow.

-Paul

Reply to
carbide

Thanks for the suggestions. I did check the wheel for play, and looked at the visible part of the brake disc. No play in the wheel. I don't feel anything thru the steering wheel either.

-Paul

Reply to
carbide

Now this is strange- I drove it without the plastic wheel cover and it did it one more time then stopped. It seems to be gone. I'll try replacing the wheel cover now, but I think what ever it was, it's gone. Thanks for the suggestion.

-Paul

Reply to
carbide

That's weird Paul. Keep us posted.

Phil

Reply to
Phil T

I put the wheel cover back on, and the clicking is still gone. I don't know what it was, but I'm sure glad it wasn't something serious.

-Paul

Reply to
carbide

Umm - a rock that was trapped - you removed the wheel cover - the rock hit one more time then fell out - you put the cover back on - no more noise.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Reply to
Bill Putney

There was nothing loose under the wheel cover. One of the first things I did was take it off and look it over carefully, including checking each lug nut for tightness.

I'm guessing it was something like a stick in the brake area, which is hard to see without removing the wheel. The clicking would start at 50 mph, so I'm thinking centrifugal force at that speed caused it to start hitting something once with each revolution of the wheel.

I couldn't feel anything unusual thru the steering wheel, nor did braking affect the noise. I'm just glad it went away without costing me a fortune. ;-)

-Paul

Reply to
carbide

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