Regular tapping noise on car

Stone or nail in tyre tread? Worn CV joint?

Has some part of the wheel arch become disturbed after the work on the bumper?

something fallen off inside the hub cap or wheel trim

Conor wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.karoo.co.uk:

^^^^^^^ Wot he said^^^^^^^^ , the first bit. Look out for a flat tyre in the morning :-)

As far as I can make out, there is nothing stuck in the tread anywhere. I`ve just taken it out for a spi, after removing the hub cap, and the noise seems to have gone. The roads are wet today and where dry last night, but the noise would certainly have been noticible. I was driving with all the windows down, so am now freezing but certain the noise did NOT appear on this short drive.

Nope, it was a top guess but not right :-) All 4 wheels are still happily inflated at the correct pressure, nor do any of them have anything stuck in or on them. Any other cunning plans? :-)

Just taken the hub cap off for a short drive, and the noise wasn`t present. nothing fell out when I took it off, nor was anything the car after i`d moved it. Bloody cars -I don`t mind if they break and you can get them fixed, but a weird random noise that vanishes is something I don`t like in a car - what caused it, and why did it go?

Anyone got any other suggestions?

Everything seems firmly attached to everything else, and there is nothing that gets anywhere near any of the wheels - no pipes, nothing. It all looks as it did before the work was done, when the noise wasn`t present.

My Hyundai Accent seems to do something similar at low speeds, but it's done it for years (from new from what I remember - it's now ~8 years old)

I never did figure it out !

"Colin Wilson" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@news.individual.net...

The Passat was doing it at any speed above ~15mph. Up to 45mph (obviously wasn`t going to go any faster until I figured out what the noise was, I was trying to figure it out). As you sped up it increased in frequency, at roughly the same rate i`d expect a wheel to be revolving. Weird cars!

Last time that happened to me, it was on an old car that had chrome hub caps and my mates thought it'd be a laugh to put a 10 pence coin in it.,

Look at how the driveshaft nut is held onto the car (you haven't told us which car you have)

On my Pug 307 the nut has a metal lock washer over the top that is held in place with an R clip and both were loose. I pulled the clip off, rotated the lock washer a couple of flats and put the clip back on. Eventually I found a position where it was held tight and the metallic clatter I had dissapeared.

I've given up trying to track down the hollow sounding clonk noise I get occasionally from the engine bay!

Chris

It`s bugging me now :-) I`ve had it jacked up and had a bloody good look underneath, nothing there at all. Nothing fell out when I took the hub cap off, and I can`t see any of my friends being sober enough to have turned up and removed the object making the noise between when I got in early this morning, and when I got up and had a look :-)

I think I`ll have to wait and see if it happens again - was hoping to have a definitive resolution before Tuesday, as I`m going to be doing quite a few miles in it then. Oh well, that`s what the RAC is for :-)

It`s a 52 plate VW Passat. If it starts again i`ll take a look at that, might help :-) I think i`ll be taking a small toolkit with me in the car now, so I can at least try and fix the problem without having to get it home or to a garage :-)