Punto Cylinder Head Gaskets

My one(1997 1.2 75 SX) did a head gasket at 35 500 miles. I'm just a shade off 50 000 now and have parked her up so as to change it. Think she's on the verge of another one. Also I've just started to get an odd "clunking come rattle" sound and I think It's coming from the left wheel. Is this indicitive of the bearing starting to fail?

Clunking may indicate CV joint. A shot front wheel bearing is more of a grinding noise, a bit louder when turning, it gets progressively worse over about 200 miles. May not show up with no weight (jacked up) on the wheel, except to a trained ear, though there might be slight play. A disc shield if it's fatigue fractured, so it's only holding on one bolt, can also rattle, and be hard to find unless you suspect it, since it only rattles on bumps, potholes etc. Once did 150 miles, and was down to about 20 mph come the end, on a shot front bearing, but wouldn't have wanted to take it much further. Taken out it had a badly chewed track and the balls weren't much better.

Thanks for the feed back ato_zee. Interseting what you said about the disk shield as I only hear the noise if I'm going over a pothole or speed bump Might be the CV joint but I doubt it as position of the wheel makes no diffrence to the noise. Most cars with CV joint problems that I've heard turning makes the noise worse. This sound more like some thing loose. Thanks again for your help and feel free to offer an opinon.

Regards Sean

Only other instance of an intermittent clunk is where a pair of all-thread bolts had been used to attach the hub to the strut. These bolts invariably rust in solid and without an airline impact driver are knackered getting them out. Putting in an equivalent size all-thread leaves a bit of play, hence an occasional clunk when putting power on and braking. Depending on how tight the two nuts are it can be frustratingly intermittent and hard to pin down.